Victor Lee Brooks was born in Rutledge, Alabama, in 1870. He practiced law then taught at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, 1895-1896. From 1898 to 1903 he was an Austin city attorney, and he and Mayor Emmett White were credited with saving the city from bankruptcy after the Austin Dam broke in 1900. Brooks was appointed judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District in 1903. His best-known case was an antitrust suit brought against the Waters-Pierce Oil Company, famous because of the company’s connection with United States Senator Joseph Weldon Bailey. Brooks resigned as judge in 1907 to resume private practice. In 1925 he served as special council to the UT Board of Regents in leasing university lands for oil, but died later that year. Brooks was married to Grace S. Harrison, and the couple had three sons, including Henry Brooks.
Source : Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. Brooks, Victor Lee, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbr75.html (accessed May 24, 2010).
From the guide to the Brooks, Victor Lee Papers, 1908-1927, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
