Brewer man’s natural curiosity reveals layers of geologic interest

Ed. note: This story ran in the Bangor Daily News in March 1956.

BREWER – If there are any young people around who are disillusioned, we suggest a visit to Harrison N. Brooks of 172 Wilson St., Brewer. His enthusiasm and interest in life at the age of 89 years will be a sure cure for their unhappiness.

“I’ve kept living pretty lively because I always ask why about things I don’t understand,” Brooks said in an interview at his comfortable home. “And there have been so many things I didn’t understand that everything has worked out fine.”

Brooks asked us to step into another room of his home which he refers to as “the biggest small house in Brewer” and showed us a collection of fossils which he acquired during his successful 40-year career as a brick maker.

In this collection, Brooks has arranged the bones of the right hind flipper of a walrus on a piece of board about 4 feet long by 2 feet wide. He came across the bones while digging in Orrington, took them home, dusted them off and had them mounted on the board which now hangs over a fireplace. Research done by Brooks has led him to believe the bones are at least 5,000 years old.

“Sit down, young man,” Brooks directed, and pulled up two chairs to his favorite fireplace. “For some time now I’ve been interested in geological work. I’ve never had the opportunity to study it formally, but I have ‘absorbed’ a lot which would not appear in an average geological course.”

Brooks then proceeded to give a liberal education in geology to the reporter who felt at the conclusion of it that he knew more about it than he had at the completion of some two-year college courses.

The wiry-built, quick-minded Brooks discussed the ice age, clay deposits and stressed that this area of Maine was one of considerable interest to geologists. “I remember as a young man seeing two 12-foot long ribs and the joint of a whale’s backbone being dug out in front of a business house on lower Broad Street, about opposite the end of the Washington Street bridge. In front of the schoolhouse in Ellsworth Falls there are well defined scratches on the exposed rock which are the result of the ice flowing during the latter part of the last Glacial Epoch.”

It was amazing to listen to the sprightly gentleman as he traced the geological history of this area all the way from the days when there was no vegetation to the present time. He kept the conversation garnished with anecdotes and witticisms.

Although the subject of the talk was Brooks’ study of geology, he certainly covered with ease many other topics. “You know, when a fellow gets old,” he said, and jumped up to get the reporter and ash tray, “he finds it difficult to stay on one thought. Someone should chastise me for my digressions. How about another cigar?”

If Brooks is going to be chastised for getting away from the point then someone else is going to have to do it because while discussing geology he gave many enlightening references about the history of brick making, the changes in the ocean currents along the coast of Maine and his theories on time.

He invited the reporter to his den to show him some clay formations. “You must understand that this clay is thousands of years old and that the impressions of leaves and shells on the formations are the same date,” Brooks said. Then, he laughed heartily. “Believe me, there was a lot of fun when we were digging for clay out of which to make brick. I was always looking for items for my research besides clay.”

He showed us then several lumps of clay from 2 to 6 inches in diameter. They were all marked with various types of leaf impressions. Also in his collection, Brooks had several small pieces of wood which he had dug up in the clay and those also were thousands of years old.

Before he entered in the field of brick making, Brooks had been a potter as his father and grandfather had been before him. His people originally came from England in 1776. He worked with his father as a potter in Orrington where he was born before coming to Brewer. In the course of his active life he also had gone to sea. “That’s another story I’ll have to tell you about sometime,” he said, smiling.

The talk about geology led to uranium and Brooks admitted he didn’t know too much about the subject yet, but that he intended to. “Yes, I must get going on some research about uranium,” he said enthusiastically. Knowing Brooks, we are sure he will.

The vivacity of the 89-year-old researcher is encouraging. The next time you start to feel low just think of any situation or problem and ask yourself, ‘why?’ about it. If you get the correct reaction you might be just as congenial, informative and as wonderful a person as Harrison N. Brooks.