Brooks Wilson

**Daniel Philip "Brooks" Wilson** is the former leader of the Brooklyn Newsies and King of Brooklyn.

## Early Life

Brooks Wilson was born Daniel Philip Wilson in Queens, New York City on March 10, 1876. This makes him the oldest Newsie character mentioned or otherwise in the story. He was born to 3rd Generation Irish immigrants. He is also one of the only Newsies who didn't live in the Brooklyn Lodging House.

## Newsie Days (1879-1895)

Brooks became a Newsie in 1879 at just three years old. He became one when one of the Brooklyn newsies brought him along to sell the papers.

He did for fun for a while, but then when he saw that it made a lot of money, he started doing it to bring in some income to his struggling family after his father died in 1883.

When the leader before him started asking for tribute from the Brooklyn Newsies, he staged a coup and eventually became the leader of all the Brooklyn Newsies in 1886.

As a leader, Brooks was very paranoid about losing his position so he asserted his power by soaking those who defied him. One of the people he was particularly scared of losing his position to was Speedy Del Toro of Manhattan's Newsies.

He knew that Speedy would actually have a lot of people behind her, had she wanted to go back to Brooklyn so he asserted his dominance over her for being a woman and a threat. There was also the fact that he saw Spot as his best friend and she threatened that as well for him.

## Name

* **Daniel:** From the Hebrew name דָּנִיֵּאל (Daniyyel) meaning "God is my judge", from the roots דִּין (din) meaning "to judge" and אֵל ('el) meaning "God". Daniel was a Hebrew prophet whose story is told in the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. He lived during the Jewish captivity in Babylon, where he served in the court of the king, rising to prominence by interpreting the king's dreams. The book also presents Daniel's four visions of the end of the world.
* **Philip:** From the Greek name Φιλιππος (Philippos) meaning "friend of horses", composed of the elements φιλος (philos) meaning "friend, lover" and ‘ιππος (hippos) meaning "horse".
* **Wilson:** Wilson is an English and Scottish surname, common in the English-speaking world. The name is derived from a patronymic form of Will, a popular medieval name. The medieval Will is derived from any of several names containing the first Germanic element wil, meaning "desire".[1] Possibly the most common of these names was William, derived from elements wil and helm, meaning "desire" and "helmet", "protection".[

## Notes

* Brooks was the leader of the Brooklyn Newsies before Spot Conlon.
* As a leader he was very rough and brash. Him and his cronies would soak any Newsie regardless of age or gender.
* Spot, knowing he was in misery, killed him quickly to end his pain, but not before Brooks named him as his successor.
* He knew that Spot’s soft spot for Speedy wasn’t just that but actual feelings and mocked him for it. He believed feelings like that got in the way of things like running the Brooklyn Newsies.
* He is responsible for the vacancy of a leader for the girl Newsies.
* After he staged the coup and became King of Brooklyn, he started going by Brooks.