Alden Finney Brooks was born April 3, 1840, in Williamsfield, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, of Charles and Isabel [Thompson] Brooks. He received an academic education in J L. Pickard's institution at Platteville, Wis., from 1857 to 1859.

Being in poor health he made the journey to Eureka, Cal., on foot in 1859. In 1861 he returned home and enlisted early in 1862 and served to the close of the war. For the last nine months of service he was on the staff of General George H. Thomas, as topographical engineer, with rank of First Lieutenant.

In 1867 he went to New York City and studied a year in the National Academy of Design, having early evinced a taste for painting, and having already done some work in that line, for which, indeed, he inherited an aptitude. He also took lessons from Edwin White, the distinguished historical painter, for a year. In 1870 he came to Chicago, and opened his first studio, and was burnt out in the great fire.

He soon re-opened, and has been here ever since, with the exception of the season of 1881-82, which he spent in Paris, as a pupil of Carolus Duran, where he exhibited in the Salon his painting, "Les Favorites." While home on furlough in 1864, he was married to Miss Ellen T. Woodworth. of Wayne, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, by whom he has had four children -- Bessie, December 22, 1866; Fannie, November 22, 1869; Carrie, January 15, 1871, and Merle Thompson, May 9, 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks are members of the Congregational Church of Hyde Park, where they have resided since 1875.