Brooks, Lewis
manufacturer, philanthropist, was born in 1793, in New Milford, Conn. He was a manufacturer of woolen cloth, and later in the mercantile business. In 1837 he retired, and devoted his time chiefly to investing his money and looking after his real estate.
He made various charitable bequests, among which was $10,000 to the Rochester City hospital, a like sum to St. Mary's hospital, and $5,000 each to the industrial school and the Female Charitable society.
He also bequeathed $120,000 to the university of Virginia, $31,000 alone being expended on the work of collecting a cabinet. He died Aug. 9, 1877, in Rochester, N. Y.
BROOKS, MRS. MARIA GOWEN, author, was born in 1795, in Massachusetts. She is a poet whose fate it has been to be utterly neglected after being once extravagantly praised. Zophiel, or The Bride of Seven, her chief work, is a poem whose incidents are taken from the story of Sara in the apocryphal book of Tobit. It is a work of considerable power but extravagant sentiment. Idomen, or the Vale of Yumuri, is to some extent autobiographic. She died Nov. 11, 1845, in Cuba.