He continued in that business until 1867, when he returned to Middletown, retaining his interest in the salt works until 1876. In politics Mr. Brink is a republican and is a man of strong temperance sentiment. He was married to Miss Mary Horton in 1857, daughter of Hiram Horton, of Wallkill township.
T. HUNT BROCK, proprietor of the Hotel Erie at Port Jervis, was born at Scranton, Pa., in 1870, at which place he obtained his education. He first became identified with the hotel business in 1881 at the Hotel Windsor at Scranton, Pa., where he remained for a period of ten years. He removed to Port Jervis, N. Y., in 1901 and purchased the Erie Hotel, which he still conducts.
Mr. Brock is a member of the following social and fraternal organizations: F. and A. M. No. 291, of Scranton, Pa.; Neversink Chapter, Delaware Commandery, and Mecca Temple, Mystic Shrine of N. Y.; B. P. O. E. No. 645, of Port Jervis, and the Sons of Veterans, Camp No. 8.
CHAUNCY BROOKS, contractor and builder, of the village of Montgomery, N. Y., was born in 1842 at Eagle Valley in what was then the town of Monroe. His father traded Monroe Village, depot and all, for four hundred acres of land at what is now called Tuxedo. He still has a brother, Malcom Brooks, there, who is ex-supervisor of Tuxedo. As a young man he taught school for a while in his home district, and then learned to be an architect and builder. In 1867 he came to Montgomery, where he has achieved much prominence both as a contractor and in the affairs of the village. He was president of the board of water commissioners for six years during the time of its construction, and a member of the school board for nine years. In 1869 Mr. Brooks married Martha, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Mould) Wait, and three children have been born to them. Charles W., a civil engineer and graduate of Brown's University and also of Philadelphia University, resides at Washington and is in the employ of the government in the War and Navy Department. Alida W. is a graduate of the Emerson College of Boston and of the College of Albany, and is still attending the University of New York City and teaching at Bayonne, N. J. She is a teacher of elocution and physical culture. His youngest daughter, Minnie M., is a graduate of Montgomery High School, also of the Metropolitan College of Music. She resides at Montgomery, where she is giving instruction in music. Mr. Brooks has erected most of the substantial buildings in Montgomery and vicinity and gives employment regularly to a large force of men.
F. B. BROOKS, bookkeeper for C. T. Knight and assistant postmaster at Monroe, N. Y., was born in this village in 1872. He has been associated with Mr. Knight for the past eleven years and is actively identified with public affairs of his native place. He is president of the board of education and director and treasurer of the Fire Company. He is also director of the local building and loan association. Socially he is a member of the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Brooks deals extensively in real estate and has effected the sales of many valuable farms and choice country seats in Orange County.
GEORGE H. BROOKS was born at Mountainville, and his education was in the district school. From his youth until nineteen years of age he assisted his father on the farm. In 1875 he went to Turners, N. Y., and worked at blacksmithing four years, came to Chester in 1879, and was with Joseph Gavin two years; then went to Sugar Loaf, Orange County, and opened a shop there, which he conducted ten years. In 1891 he came to Chester and purchased of S. Hadden the establishment in which he had been manufacturing buggies for thirty-five years. He enlarged it, added new and improved machinery, making of it one of the best appointed manufactories in the county. He is a Methodist in religion and a republican in politics. In September, 1885, he was married to Eliza Litchult. Their seven children's names are Dora L., Lena C, Elsie, Helen, Merry, Clarence and Phoebe J. Mr. Brooks' father is still living at the age of ninety at Little Britain in the town of New Windsor.
DAVID BROWN, who is engaged in the express business in New York City, maintains a country place in the town of Newburgh, situated on the State road, known as the Cochecton turnpike. Mr. Brown purchased this farm, which comprises forty acres, in 1903. Commencing in a small way, Mr. Brown by industry, enterprise and the wise counsel of his wife has built up a very prosperous business in the metropolis. He married Miss Mary J. Baxter and they have one daughter, Genevieve.
EBER L. BROWN, owner of a seven-hundred-acre farm in the town of Minisink, and much valuable real estate in the village of Unionville and the cities of Middletown and New York, was born in Sussex County, N. J., in 1828. As a boy he clerked for a number of years and subsequently became a member of the wholesale grocery firm of Stillwell, Brown & Co., of New York City, for five years. In 1848 he went to California and engaged in mining with much success. On his return East he was connected with a wholesale dry goods house in New York and a wholesale grocery house.
Business cares affected his health and he came to Unionville and settled on the farm where his father was born. There he made his home and supervised the farm for twenty years. He then opened a wholesale and retail feed store in Unionville, and here organized a silk manufacturing establishment, giving employment to fifty hands. The plant was destroyed by fire in 1894. Mr. Brown now devotes his time principally to his real estate holdings in Unionville and Middletown. He is one of the directors of the Sussex Bank and has served as supervisor of the town.
Mr. Brown was twice married, his first wife being Miss Sarah E. Lewis. His second wife was Miss Caroline M. Lain, and they became the parents of twelve children, of whom five are living.