DUANE
Duane's take
The marker tells it this way, and I'll do my best to honor every word of it. Now, there are counties in Texas named for battles, for rivers, for men who barely passed through. And then there's Brooks County — named for a man who earned it the hard way.
His name was James Abijah Brooks, born November 20th, 1855, in Kentucky. He came to Texas in 1876, and Texas, as it tends to do, put him straight to work. He took up ranching and trail driving, which is about as demanding an education as a young man could ask for.
But the chapter that would define him hadn't started yet. In 1882, James Abijah Brooks joined the Texas Rangers, and he would serve in that outfit for twenty-four years — all the way to 1906. That kind of tenure doesn't happen by accident.
It happens because a man is exactly where he belongs. He helped solve and halt South Texas cattle thefts, which sounds tidy when you say it quick, but cattle theft in South Texas at that time was not a tidy problem. Then there was 1896.
By order of the governor — the governor himself — Brooks was sent to El Paso to help prevent the Fitzsimmons-Maher world title prizefight from taking place. A world championship bout, and Brooks was part of the reason it didn't happen there. You don't get that assignment unless people trust you completely.
After hanging up the Ranger life in 1906, Brooks didn't slow down one bit. He served in the Texas Legislature from 1909 to 1911, and then became County Judge of Brooks County, a post he held from 1911 all the way to 1939. The county bearing his name, and he was sitting right there in it, running it.
He had married Virginia Wilborn, and he lived a long, full life — born November 20th, 1855, and passing on January 15th, 1944. James Abijah Brooks: Kentucky-born, Texas-made, and the kind of man a county is proud to carry forward in its name.
What the marker says
(Nov. 20, 1855 - Jan. 15, 1944) Illustrious Texas Ranger for whom this county is named. Born in Kentucky; came to Texas 1876; became rancher-trail driver. Served in Texas Rangers 1882-1906. By order of the governor, aided in preventing Fitzsimmons-Maher world title prizefFight, El Paso, 1896. Helped solve and halt South Texas cattle thefts. Served in Texas Legislature, 1909-1911; was County Judge of Brooks County, 1911-1939. Married Virginia Wilborn. Recorded - 1969