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 BROOKS 32T connected the present Fnlton street, Brooklyn, with what is now Peck slip, New York ; these points were for more than a century the prin- cipal ferry landings. The first steam ferry hoat was the Nassau, which began running in 1814. Brooklyn was incorporated as a village in 1810, and became a chartered city in 1834. On Sept. 9, 1848, occurred the largest fire in its history, consuming seven blocks in Fulton and adjoin- ing streets, between Poplar and Concord streets. On Jan. 1, 1855, it was consolidated with the city of Williamsburgh and the town of Bush- wick (including the village of Greenpoint) under the common name of Brooklyn ; what had for- merly been called Brooklyn being designated as the Western District, and the other portion as the Eastern District. Williarasburgh was founded by Richard W. Woodhull, who at the beginning of this century settled near Bush wick street (now North Second). It was incorpo- rated as a village in 1827, and as a city in 1851. In 1855 its population was 48,367. The streets of Brooklyn were first lighted by gas in 1848, and water was introduced in 1855. There was a volunteer fire department from 1786 to 1869, when the paid department was organized. A commission is now (September, 1873) engaged in arranging the terms of annexation of the rest of Kings co. to Brooklyn. (See KINGS.) BROOKS, a S. county of Georgia, on the Flor- ida border, bounded S. E. by the Withlacoo- chee river, and watered by its tributaries and the Ocilla river ; area, 550 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 8,342, of whom 4,231 were colored. The Atlan- tic and Gulf railroad passes through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 171,190 bushels of Indian corn, 45,716 of oats, 24,574 of peas and beans, 32,445 of sweet potatoes, and 3,466 bales of cotton. There were 491 horses, 2,618 milch cows, 5,578 other cattle, 4,924 sheep, and 11,087 swine. Capital, Quitman. BROOKS, Charles Shirley, an English author, born at Brill, Oxfordshire, about 1815. He stud- ied law, but devoted himself to literature. Two of his plays, " Our New Governor " and " The Creole," were quite successful. He became a parliamentary reporter on the " Morning Chron- icle," and was sent to Turkey, Egypt, and south- ern Russia to investigate the condition of the laboring classes. His letters from Russia have been issued in book form. In 1855 he publish- ed "Aspen Court," which has been followed by the other successful novels, "The Gordian Knot," "The Silver Cord," and "Sooner or Later." He is a keen satirist in prose and verse, and on the death of Mark Lemon, in 1870, he became editor of "Punch," to which he had been an early and frequent contributor, as well as to the "Illustrated London News." BROOKS, Charles Timothy, an American au- thor, born in Salem, Mass., June 20, 1813. He graduated at Harvard college in 1832, and in 1837 was settled as a Unitarian clergyman in Newport, R. I., where he has ever since re- sided. He published there in 1851 a pamphlet entitled " The Controversy touching the Old Stone Mill." He is an accomplished scholar, and especially devoted to German literature. He has published a translation of Schiller's " William Tell;" a volume of miscellaneous po- oma from the German, in the series of "Speci- mens of Foreign Standard Literature;" a trans- lation of Schiller's " Homage to the Arts," &c. ; "German Lyrics;" "Songs of the Field and Flood;" a translation of Goethe's "Faust;" I translations of Richter's "Titan" and "Hespe- j rus;" and translations from Schefer, Kortum, and Busch. BROOKS. I. James, an American journalist and politician, born in Portland, Me., Nov. 10, 1810, died in Washington, D. C., April 30, 1873. At the age of 11, having lost his father, he was placed in a store, at 16 became a school teacher, and in 1831 graduated at Waterville college, at the head of his class. He was next principal of the Latin school in Portland, then travelled through the southern states and among the Creek and Cherokee Indians, wrote letters to various journals, became the correspondent at Washington of several papers, and was the originator of the system of regular Washington correspondence. Becoming in 1835 a member of the legislature of Maine, he introduced the first proposition for a survey for a railroad from Portland to Montreal and Quebec. The same year he visited Europe, travelling on foot over a great part of the continent and the British islands, and gave an account of his adventures in a series of letters to the " Portland Adver- tiser." On his return in 1836 he established the New York " Express," of which for many years both a morning and evening edition were published, but which is now exclusively an evening journal. In 1847 he was elected as a, whig to the assembly of the state of New York, and in the following year chosen a member of congress from New York city, in which post he was continued by reelection till 1853. In congress he took part in favor of the passage of the compromise of 1850, and there and in his newspaper advocated the principles of the American party. Soon after the outbreak of the civil war he joined the democratic party, by whom in 1864 he was again returned to congress from the city of New York, and re- mained a member till his death, having received four successive reelections. In 1871 he made a rapid tour of the globe, of which he gave an account in a volume entitled " A Seven Months' Run up and down and around the World" (New York, 1872). II. Erastns, an American journalist, brother of the preceding, born in Portland, Me., Jan. 31, 1815. He was sent to Boston at the age of eight, where he was em- ployed in a grocery store, and obtained the ru- diments of learning at an evening school. He subsequently became a printer, and published a newspaper called " The Yankee " at Wiscasset, Me. Afterward, having graduated at Brown university, he became the principal of a gram- mar school at Haverhill, Mass., and editor of the "Haverhill Gazette." In 1836 he was en-