Brooks’ life story deserves to be respected and retold

By Jim Dunn Bureau County Historical Society Board

C. Wayland Brooks was a United States senator, public servant, orator, politician and war hero who was born in 1897 in Bureau County and died in 1957 in Chicago. Until about half a year ago, I had never heard of him.

“What’s wrong with me?” I thought, as curiosity drove my research into his remarkable but nearly forgotten career.

The more I found out about Brooks, the more I wanted to share those findings with the public. That led to me to write a 6,600-word lecture on Brooks, a Bureau Township native who as a grade schooler lived on a farm near Neponset, and deliver it May 6 at the Princeton Public Library during National Military Appreciation Month.

Let me share a condensed version in a slightly different order.

What impressed me first about Brooks was how serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War I brought out his finest qualities – courage, intelligence and athleticism.

He was 20 years old, finishing his freshman year at the University of Illinois when Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917.

Brooks wasted no time. He finished his freshman year and then announced to his family that his next stop would be a Marine Corps recruiting station.

His older brother, Russell, told him to wait until he could join him in Champaign so they could enlist together, and they did.

Brooks was gifted athletically and academically. He’d won the 440yard dash in the DuPage County track meet as a high school senior. He’d also won the county oratorical contest. His summer job was to carry loads of bricks to a brick layer, which required strength and stamina.

The Marines were getting quite a specimen, and they put him to work in France during the crucial Battle of Belleau Wood in June 1918 as the Marines stepped in front of a relentless German advance on Paris. Brooks was ordered to maintain communications between commanders in the rear and four Marine Corps companies in the front. His athleticism and smarts were on full display on the timberfilled battlefield.

As the Chicago Tribune later reported:

“Brooks’ job (he was then a corporal) was to hold the liaison, to keep four companies in contact with each other, to see that none got ahead of the others, to carry orders to company commanders, whose names he had to know, and to pick up a gun from a dead Marine now and then and pick off a Hun for himself.”

Brooks helped the Marines stop the German advance, which was deemed a turning point in the war. What an accomplishment for a son of Bureau County!

The Marines’ next battle, Soissons, would be Brooks’ last. On July 19, he was wounded seven times in less than an hour by shrapnel and machine gun fire, including a severe injury to his foot.

While a patient at Base Hospital No. 13 at Limoges, France, Brooks learned of the death from influenza of his brother, Russell.

Brooks’ work for the war effort did not end after the armistice. After recovering from surgery at a naval base near Chicago, Brooks volunteered to give speeches to promote the war effort. Using his oratorical skills, he gave more than 50 speeches that encouraged donations to the Red Cross, YMCA and Victory Loan bonds between December 1918 and August 1919.

As he spoke in towns across Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, Brooks made sure he told his audiences of the bravery of America’s fighting men in France. He urged continued support for the troops, and he called on the public to never forget those who died.

“Remember them, and let that memory urge you on to be better Americans,” he said.

Brooks, remember, was only 21 and 22 years old while on his successful speaking tour. I remain in awe of that effort.

After the war, Brooks married, fathered a son, earned a law degree, worked as assistant state’s

BROOKS, continued on page 6