Harold Brooks
In 1912, Harold C. Brooks took over his father’s business, Brooks Rupture Appliance Company. The company manufactured appliances (ie. special cushions) for people, mainly men, suffering from hernias. These cushions held the ruptured muscle or tissue in place to alleviate hernia pain in the era before hernia surgery was developed.
Mr. Brooks invested much of the money he made in the business back into the town, purchasing and then donating many historic buildings and land to the city and saving much of his hometown for future generations to enjoy.
For the centennial celebration in 1930, he paid for the renovation of many key structures and gave Brooks Memorial Fountain to the city.