John Graham Brooks, 1846-1938

John Graham Brooks was born in Acworth, New Hampshire, on July 19, 1846; he attended Oberlin College from 1869 to 1871 and graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1875. While ordained and serving as a Unitarian minister in Roxbury, he took an interest in economic affairs, organizing classes for workingmen, later lecturing at Harvard on socialism, and for many years acting as investigator of strikes for the U.S. Department of Labor. In 1880 he married Mrs. Helen Washburn and from 1882 to 1885 travelled and studied in Europe, mainly in Germany. He was the first president of the National Consumers' League, president of the American Social Science Association in 1904, and a lecturer for the League for Political Education for many years. He died on February 8, 1938.