HELEN LAWRENCE (APPLETON) WASHBURN BROOKS, 1846-1938

HLB was born Helen Lawrence Appleton in 1846 in Roxbury, Mass., the youngest of three daughters of Catherine (Lawrence) Appleton and Charles Appleton. Her mother died shortly after her birth; HLB also had four half-sisters, the daughters of CA and his second wife, Mary Grace Parks. In 1873, HLB married Francis T. Washburn (1843-1873), a Unitarian minister; they had one daughter, Frances Washburn. FTW died three days before their first anniversary, and the child died in 1880. That same year, HLB married John Graham Brooks (1846-1938), also a Unitarian minister and later first president of the National Consumers' League. In 1882-1885 and again in 1891-1893, HLB lived and traveled in Europe, where JGB was studying. In 1895, the Brookses moved into their house at 8 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, where they lived until their deaths. The family traveled to Europe again in 1898 and in 1908, and took several U.S. trips as well. They vacationed in South Orleans, Mass. and in Jackson, N.H. HLB had three sons from her second marriage. Lawrence Brooks (1881-1981) graduated from Harvard in 1902 and earned his law degree there in 1905. He married Susan Morris Hallowell, Radcliffe '05, in 1912. HLB's other sons both died early: Charles Brooks as a baby in 1889, and Guy at the age of 13 in 1900. HLB was active in a number of voluntary activities, notably the Mothers' Club of Cambridge, with which she helped found vacation schools and school playgrounds, both of which were eventually taken over by the City of Cambridge. She also assisted JGB with his writings.

From the guide to the Papers, 1822-1985, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)