living children: Joseph Edward, John Cade, Sumpter Mills, Jerry Wade, and Mrs. Emma West Clark, wife of Pat B. Clark. One particular characteristic of Major Edward West while acting as sheriff of Red River County was that he refused to carry arms, contending that the law directed him to execute legal papers and not to take the life of a fellowman.

[The Brooks Family]

Mr. Ben F. Brooks was representative of Red River County in the Forty-First and Forty-Second Legislatures of Texas from January, 1929, to January, 1933. Ben Brooks is the grandson of Mr. Aaron S. Brooks, who came to Red River County in 1878, settling at what is now Detroit (then known as Bennett), Red River County.

Jerry and James F. Brooks were the oldest and youngest sons of Aaron Brooks. These sons formed a copartnership in the mercantile and brick business and were in business for a number of years. It was from their manufacture of bricks that the first brick house was constructed in Detroit. Very probably this brick building was constructed for their own use.

After Mr. James F. Brooks ceased to do business in Bennett or Detroit, he went down to Bowie County and was the builder of the town of Oak Grove. He lived there several years. He has been a lifelong prohibitionist and it was a noted fact that in the building of the town of Oak Grove he put a rigid ban on the sale of liquors in any form. It was notorious that not until after the departure of James F. Brooks from