HON. CHARLES P. BROOKS. This well-known official is very favorably regarded all over Cleburne County, and fills the office of circuit clerk in an able and very acceptable manner. He was born in Murphy, Cherokee County, N. C., July 12, 1848, to Jesse B. and Nancy F. (Porter) Brooks, the former of whom was born in South Carolina and the latter in Tennessee. They were married in Claiborne County, of the last named State, and after residing there for a time moved to North Carolina. In 1868 the family located in Blount County, East Tennessee, and resided in that section for five years, then located at Ducktown Mines in Polk County, Tennessee, and afterward in Calhoun County, Ga. Prior to the war the father was engaged in the saddle, harness and mercantile business, but lost his property during the great struggle between the North and South, after which he turned his attention to farming and later opened a saddle and harness shop. During the war he served as commissary of the Thirty-ninth North Carolina Confederate Infantry for two years. He is now in his eighty-fourth year, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has for years been connected with the Masonic fraternity. Six children were born to himself and wife, two of whom are living, of whom the subject of this sketch is the younger. After the death of his first wife, Jesse B. Brooks took for his second wife Miss Frankie Billings, and by her had six children, all of whom are living.
The subject of this sketch received his education in Mt. Pleasant Academy at Murphy, N. C., and afterward finished his education in Holston College, Blount, County, Tennessee Since he attained his eighteenth year he has made his own way in the world, and his education was paid for by teaching school in his native State, Texas and Arkansas, this occupation receiving his attention until 1881. In November, 1875, he took up his residence in Arkansas and has ever since been a resident of Cleburne County, where he has made many friends. In 1886 he was elected to the position of tax assessor, an office he held three terms and was then elected to his present position of circuit clerk. In 1878 he was united in marriage with Miss Lulu Hamby, of this county, daughter of Rev. J. T. Hamby, and to their union a family of four sons and three daughters have been given them. Mr. Brooks is an exponent of the People’s party, and is a public-spirited and useful citizen and is deservedly popular with all classes. At the expiration of his present term of office he will have been in office eight consecutive years, having never suffered defeat either at the primaries or in the general elections.