Flavius
L. Brooke, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan, was born in
Woodhouse Township, Norfolk County, 9th November, 1859.
He attended school
at Port Dover and afterwards came to Simcoe high school. Leaving
that institution he taught at Ade's and Wilsonville respectively a year
each. He then came back to Simcoe for another year's study to secure his
university matriculation.
He
attended university lectures first at Belleville and afterwards in
Toronto, and concurrently read law, being called to the bar in 1884. He removed almost
immediately to Detroit, where he became a member of the legal firm of
Carpenter, Brooke, Spalding & Hayne.
He was soon
prominent in the legal circles of Detroit, and in 1900 secured election
as a circuit judge in Wayne County. In this post he won a state
reputation, and in 1906 he was elected a member of the Supreme Court.
In April last he
carried Michigan by over 100,000 for Chief Justice. It is generally
conceded that the people will re-elect him as often as he will permit.
Mrs. Harriet J.
Bint of Woodhouse is a sister, and the only member of his immediate
family still living in Norfolk. The late Col. Thompson, a former C.O. of
the 39th Regt., who died recently in California, was an uncle.
