My Genealogy Hound

HORATIO G. BROOKS, deceased, late head of the Brooks’ Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, New York, was a man of somewhat unusual career and one of the most prominent in the province of manufacturing in the State of New York. Forty years ago the possibilities of both the man and the town were as yet untried and undeveloped. As the town grew in numbers and importance, the man kept pace with it and has impressed upon it an individuality of rare energy, business qualities and executive ability. Rising rapidly from engineer through the grades of shop foreman to master mechanic, and thence to division superintendent and superintendent of motive power on the Erie Railroad, he, while in the latter position, was confronted in October, 1869, with an order from the president of the road to permanently close up the shops at Dunkirk. Scarcely an hour’s thought was necessary to conceive a plan to avert this stunning blow to the interests of Dunkirk, and the proposition was at once made by Mr. Brooks for the lease of the shops. This was accordingly granted, a new company was formed, of which he assumed the presidency and superintendency and work was at once commenced. The capacity of the enterprise in its infancy was but one locomotive per month, but under the wise direction of its founder, it had increased to six per month in 1872. The financial crisis of 1873 caused a great depression in business and it was a half dozen years before the reaction fully set in. When business revived Mr. Brooks arranged to increase the output and in 1882 over two hundred locomotives were completed and each succeeding year additions have been made in tools, machinery and buildings, with every needed device to simplify and lessen the cost of production in order to compete with older companies.

In 1883 the works were purchased from the Erie Railroad Company and operated as an independent enterprise. The grounds have an area of twenty acres, and with constant additions and improvements in buildings and machinery, it has now attained a capacity of two hundred and fifty engines per year. The superb office buildings were erected about five years ago, have handsome and elaborately fitted apartments for the principal officers on the ground floor and a large fire-proof vault and convenient desks for about fifteen clerks and book-keepers. The second floor is used for draughting rooms, where several mechanical engineers are employed; and the third story is fully furnished with seats, library etc., as a school-room for apprentices.

Several years ago Mr. Brooks organized a technical school for apprentices, where a thorough knowledge of theories can be obtained to fully prepare them for practical application in the shops. The room will accommodate sixty or more students, has every needful appliance for the successful teaching of the mechanic arts and is in charge of a corps of competent instructors.

The Brooks Works have, in addition to their acres of ponderous machinery, a one hundred and fifty incandescent and sixty arc electric light plant with their intricate connections and subtle agencies to be looked after. The number of men employed is about one thousand; the pay-roll foots up a sum of twelve thousand dollars per week, and the annual output of the plant is valued at about two millions, five hundred thousand dollars. The excellency of workmanship and the general character of the engines as pieces of modern, well-constructed mechanism is unsurpassed by any similar works in the United States.