Victor Lee Brooks was born in Rutledge, Alabama, in 1870. He practiced law then taught at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, 1895-1896. From 1898 to 1903 he was an Austin city attorney, and he and Mayor Emmett White were credited with saving the city from bankruptcy after the Austin Dam broke in 1900. Brooks was appointed judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District in 1903. His best-known case was an antitrust suit brought against the Waters-Pierce Oil Company, famous because of the company’s connection with United States Senator Joseph Weldon Bailey. Brooks resigned as judge in 1907 to resume private practice. In 1925 he served as special council to the UT Board of Regents in leasing university lands for oil, but died later that year. Brooks was married to Grace S. Harrison, and the couple had three sons, including Henry Brooks.
The Victor Lee Brooks Papers, 1908-1927, include correspondence, legal briefs and notes, letter presses, receipts, eulogy, postcards, court cases, and summons, and concern the career of Brooks. The papers relate to his years in private practice, including Brooks's original judgment in the anti-trust suit brought against the Waters-Pierce Oil Company. Papers of Henry Brooks and the partnership of Brooks, Hart and Woodward are also included.
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Unrestricted use.
Victor Lee Brooks Papers, 1908-1927, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
See also the
See also the Martin McNulty Crane Papers, 1834-1973.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s