Mount Union borough

Dr. Charles S. Brooks of Mount Union

In the Howard University catalogue for 1908 to 1909, Charles Sumner Brooks appears among the juniors in the School of Medicine, with Falls Church, Virginia, set beside his name. The catalogue shows he already held an A.B. from Howard.

The American Medical Directory of 1912 lists Chas. S. Brooks at Frederick, Maryland. It gives his birth year as 1875, his graduation from Howard's medical school as 1910, and his Maryland license as 1910 as well, so he was about 35 when he finished. After his name the 1912 directory prints "(col.)," which the key in the 1929 edition explains as "Indicates colored."

He is still in Frederick in the 1914, 1921 and 1929 editions. His address moves from East Fifth Street to All Saints Street by 1921. Those three editions print the same office hours for him: 10 to 12, 2 to 4, and 7 to 9.

The 1950 census finds him in Mount Union. On a sheet started April 19, the census taker wrote down Charles S. Brooks, 75, and his wife, 66, who was born in Maryland, and marked both as Negro. His occupation is written as doctor, working in his own business. The column for hours worked the week before shows 60.

The Pennsylvania death index for 1952 gives his death at Mt. Union on May 17, 1952.

Checked against the record. We read the page images of the Howard catalogue, four editions of the American Medical Directory, the 1950 census sheet and the 1952 state death index. No single record ties them together. We treat them as one man because the name, the Howard class, the 1875 birth year, the age of 75 in 1950 and the work all agree. We did not see Howard's own list of 1910 graduates, so the graduation year comes from the directory. For the death we have the state index entry, not the death certificate or an obituary, and we have not found where he is buried. The census writes his birthplace as Virginia, with a letter before the word that may be a W, for West Virginia. What stays open is how he got from Frederick to Mount Union. We could not open directory editions after 1929 or the 1940 census, so we have no record of when he left Frederick or reached Mount Union, and this story gives no year. A 2015 newspaper article about his family may answer some of this; we have not been able to read it. We make no claim about other doctors in the borough, since we have no list of them for those years.

Sources

Checked 2026-11-01 · Primary sources and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive

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