Brooks, Sheldon, 1811-1883

Sheldon Brooks was born in Redfield, New York on May 20, 1811. As a young man he farmed and practiced medicine in Redfield. He married Jeanette Ranney (1811-1894) on March 5, 1844. They had four children: George Sheldon (1845-1861), Lester Ranney (1847-1902), Dwight Frederick (1849-1930), and Anson Strong (1852-1937).

The family moved to Minnesota Territory in 1856, where Brooks helped to plat Beaver, a hamlet in the Whitewater River Valley in northern Winona County, where he settled and farmed and practiced medicine. Brooks served as a county commissioner, and later in the Minnesota House of Representatives (1859-1860). In 1862 he built a grain warehouse at nearby Minneiska, Minnesota, and ran a grain business there until retiring in May 1874, when he turned the business over to his sons who operated as Brooks Brothers. The firm prospered and later expanded into the lumber trade. Brooks Brothers left the grain business in 1900 and subsequently organized the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company with Joe Scanlon. The village of Beaver eventually disappeared after repeated flooding and soil erosion, caused by poor farming practices in the hills above, forced the inhabitants to move away.

Sheldon Brooks died at Winona on May 19, 1883, after several years of failing health. Jeanette Brooks died at St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 15, 1894.

From the guide to the Sheldon Brooks and family papers., 1836-1883., (Minnesota Historical Society)