Charles Frederick Brooker was born on March 4, 1847 in Litchfield, Connecticut, the son of Martin Cook and Sarah Maria (Seymour) Brooker. He was descended in the sixth generation from John Brooker, shipwright, who settled in Guilford, Connecticut, about 1695.
One of six children, and the only living son, his early years were divided between work on his father's farm and attendance at the Litchfield and Torrington district schools.
Brooker's business career commenced at the early age of twelve as clerk in the general store at Torrington and was followed by similar work in Waterbury. His manufacturing career started in 1864 when at the age of seventeen he was employed by Lyman W. Coe, who the year before had acquired the Wolcottville Brass Company of Wolcottville (later Torrington).
Under the guiding hand of Coe, a mid-century leader in the Connecticut brass industry, Brooker's capacity as a salesman and executive developed rapidly; he eventually became secretary of the Coe Brass Manufacturing Company and upon the death of Lyman W. Coe in 1893 succeeded the latter as president. Brooker was identified with the development of the brass industry of Connecticut for sixtytwo years and during most of that period in a prominent capacity.
As business organizer, his most important work was the formation of the American Brass Company in 1899, a holding company into which were originally amalgamated four of the leading brass manufacturing units of the Naugatuck Valley. Thirteen years later under his supervision the subsidiary companies were dissolved and the American Brass Company became an operating company.
In 1921 the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, the largest producer of copper and zinc in the world, desiring to ally itself more closely with what was then the greatest fabricating interest in the business, approached Brooker with a plan for consolidation. His approval and the ratification by the stockholders resulted in the purchase of the stock of the American Brass Company by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Brooker as president of the American Brass Company (1900 - 20) and later as chairman of the board of directors was the chief figure in these reorganizations.
After the consolidation Brooker became a director of the Anaconda Company and of its most important subsidiaries. His business interests, however, extended beyond the metal industries. He was at one time president of the Ansonia National Bank and a director of banks in Torrington, New Haven, Boston, Chicago, and New York. He was also for many years a director of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company and of several of its subsidiaries.
It was at that time that Brooker's influence was exerted to secure the double-tracking and other transportation improvements necessary for the industrial future of the Naugatuck Valley.
He represented Connecticut as a delegate at large at the Republican National Conventions of 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920.
Active in business until within a few months of the end, he died at Daytona, Florida, where he had spent his last winter in search of health.
Charles Frederick Brooker's achievement was in founding of the Maria Seymour Brooker Memorial at Torrington and the "Julia" day nursery at Ansonia, the former in memory of his mother and the latter of his wife. He was especially interested in the Gaylord Farm Sanitorium, maintained by the New Haven County Anti-tuberculosis Association, of which he was president. His will contained bequests of over $500, 000 to various educational and philanthropic enterprises.
Brooker's interest in politics was life-long, and his influence in Connecticut politics was important. He was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1875 and to the Senate in 1893 on the Republican ticket, but he preferred to act in an advisory capacity rather than through elective office. He was for many years a member of the Republican state central committee, a member of the Republican national committee (1900 - 16) and of the executive committee of the latter organization (1904 - 08).
Tactful in his dealings, and of an approachable disposition, Brooker was a man with a wide circle of friends and numerous club memberships.
Comparatively late in life (1894) he married Julia E. Clarke Farrel of Ansonia, who died in 1917.
1851–1917
shipwright
Despite being a personal friend of Roosevelt, he maintained in 1912 his allegiance to the conservative wing of the party.
