Background
John Brooks was born in 1752 and was the son of Caleb Brooks, farmer, and Ruth (Albree) was born in a part of Medford, Massachussets, now within the boundaries of Winchester, and baptized May 4, 1752.
John Brooks was born in 1752 and was the son of Caleb Brooks, farmer, and Ruth (Albree) was born in a part of Medford, Massachussets, now within the boundaries of Winchester, and baptized May 4, 1752.
Dr. Simon Tufts, the local physician, took a liking to the boy, and received John Brooks as a medical apprentice in his family in 1766. He also graduated from Dr. Tufts' college in 1773.
Harvard College adopted him as a Master of Arts in 1787, made him honorary M. D. in 1810, Overseer in 1815, and LL. D. in 1817.
Interested from boyhood in drilling, he joined the Minute Men, and as captain of the Reading company hastened to Concord on April 19, 1775, joined the fight at Meriam's Corner, and pursued the British in their retreat. Shortly after, he received a majority from the state, and played an important part in the battle of Bunker Hill.
He was appointed, on Janury 1, 1776, to the same rank in the Continental Army and served with constant zeal and energy throughout the war. After taking part in the battles of Long Island and White Plains, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel in the 8th Massachusetts line regiment, which he commanded and gallantly led in the taking of Breyman's fort on Bemis's Heights, October 7, 1777.
On March 24, 1778, Washington offered him a position on the inspector-general's staff, which he filled with great satisfaction to Baron Steuben, although at times detached for active service with the army in the field. When stationed at Newburgh, in the winter of 1782-83, he was appointed by the discontented officers one of a committee of three to present their claims to Congress.
He had already gone on a similar mission to the Massachusetts legislature, for the officers of the state. He brought back to camp the committee's account of their discouraging reception; but his exact relation to the "Newburgh Addresses" remains obscure, on account of the later efforts of every one involved to clear himself and blame others.
Brooks was accused of being a member of a conspiracy, and of afterward informing upon it to Washington; on the other hand he is represented as having stood by Washington from the first. One may infer from his long letter of 1823 in the Pickering Manuscripts that he was not in the secret, and thought the enterprise both reprehensible and desperate.
After receiving his honorable discharge (June 12, 1783), Brooks took over the medical practise of Dr. Tufts at Medford, and became a highly successful physician, "the grace and ornament of the profession. "
He had already twice (1785 - 86) been elected to the House, and in 1791 was chosen a state senator for Middlesex County whose Jeffersonian Republicanism lost him further opportunities of the same sort.
As adjutant-general of the Commonwealth and of the Council (1812 - 16) he greatly improved the efficiency of the state militia, the right to control which he considered "one of the most essential attributes of state sovereignty. " This quotation, and other matters in his correspondence with Timothy Pickering, with whom he served on a special commission for the defense of the seacoast in 1814, show that he approved the Hartford Convention, and other measures of his state in 1814, taking the same view of the situation as H. G. Otis.
In 1816, when Governor Strong declined to stand again for governor.
Brooks's administrations were known as the "Indian Summer of Federalism" in Massachusetts, and his cordial reception to President Monroe in 1817 inaugurated the "Era of Good Feeling".
In 1823, when he refused to stand again, the Republican candidate was elected; and the Federalist party, after dominating Massachusetts for a generation, ceased to exist.
Brooks died at his home in Medford, March 1, 1825.
John Brooks was a competent governor in a period which his popularity and good manners helped to make a placid one. He sympathized with the maritime rather than the manufacturing interests of Massachusetts, and regretted, while he did not attempt to oppose, the separation of Maine. He was president of numerous organizations such as the Cincinnati, the Massachusetts Medical Society and Bible Society, and the Bunker Hill Monument Association. Governor Bowdoin in 1786 appointed him major-general over the militia of Middlesex, with which he marched to Worcester during the Shays rebellion. President Washington made him federal marshal for the Massachusetts district in 1791, and brigadier-general, U. S. A. , in 1792 (resigned 1796). President Adams nominated him to a major-generalcy in the provisional army during the difficulties with France. The Maine towns of Brooks, established in 1816, and Brooksville, founded in 1817, were named for him.
Dignified though democratic, interested in people and helpful in their troubles, a useful townsman and faithful member of the First Church (changing with it from Calvinism to Unitarianism), Brooks appeared the ideal republican soldier and citizen, the sort of man every one loved, and delighted to honor.
From 1788, when Brooks became a silent but active member of the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, Brooks was a staunch Federalist, but never belonged to the inner circle of leaders.
Brooks was nominated by the Federalists, and elected, although opposed by General Henry Dearborn, who had served at the front. He was six times reelected, 1817-22, by substantial majorities over Republican candidates.
Like the rest of his party, he strongly disapproved the War of 1812; and said so publicly, when declining a nomination to Congress.
He was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and Bible Society, and the Bunker Hill Monument Association.
In 1783 Brooks became an Original Member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati and served as its first secretary from 1783 to 1786.
He was the first member elected to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company when it was revived after the Revolution in 1786.
He was also involved in the Washington Monument Association and the Bunker Hill Monument Association.
In 1774 Brooks married Lucy Smith, with whom he had five children; two of them died young. His two sons were both active in the United States military.
One of his sons, Marine Corps First Lieutenant John Brooks, Jr. , was killed in action at the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. His other son, Alexander Scammel Brooks, was a lieutenant colonel in the Army and was killed in a steamboat explosion in Florida in 1836.
