George Brunton

BRUNTON

Posted By: County Coordinator (email)
Date: 5/4/2010 at 09:34:37

The name of Brunton has long been a synonym for business activity and for individual honor in Boone. George Brunton was born in this city, August 7 1882, a son of Robert D and Mary (Marshall) Brunton, of whom mention is made on another page of this volume. Spending his youthful days under the parental roof, the son attended the public and high schools and in 1899 made his initial step in the business world in connection with journalism. He secured a position as reporter on the Daily News, which paper afterward purchased the Evening Republican. The two were consolidated under the name of the News Republican, which has been most liberally patronized. Entering the office in a humble capacity, George Brunton has steadily worked his way upward until he is now manager of the paper and handles practically all of the business connected with its management and publication as well as its advertising. In fact, he looks after the many divisions and details of the work and in its control displays sound judgment and enterprise. When first he entered the newspaper business he was the one especially recommended by the superintendent of schools as ready to occupy a business position, and he has proven worthy of the good words which were then spoken of him. He keeps in touch with the advancement that characterizes modern journalism, and during the state Grand Army encampment he alone reported the entire affair, his account thereof being creditable to himself as a journalist and highly pleasing to the blue clad veterans.
Mr Brunton is well known socially ad fraternally. E is a life member of the Elks Lodge, a member of the Knights of Pythias, No 324, and the Pocahontas Lodge, I O R M. His name is also on the membership roll of the Country Club, and he is serving as one of its directors. He is likewise a member of the board of directors of the Boone Commercial Association and is chairman of its publicity committee. Mr Brunton is also a director of the Boone Chautauqua Association. His political allegiance is give to the republican party, and his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. He is also a member of the Methodist Brotherhood. His interest in moral progress is deep and his labors along that line effective. He has always been fond of clean sport and is interested in the Young Men’s Christian Association. He is known throughout Boone as the school boy’s friend, always standing up for the unfortunate erring boys and assisting them to obtain an education and gain a start in the world. He believes that many youthful misdemeanors are due to environment or thoughtlessness and that every boy should be give his chance to prove the character that is within him and that may be developed. The general opinion of Mr Brunton can best be expressed in the words of a prominent business man of Boone, who said: “Whatever George says he will do he does and does exceedingly well.” He is a expert with the Kodak and has a most attractive collection of pictures taken on his travels. Not to know George Brunton in Boone is to argue oneself unknown. He is entirely free from ostentation or display, but it is not the distinctive and specific office of biography to give notice to a man’s modest estimate of himself and his accomplishments but rather to leave the perpetual record establishing his p position by the consensus of public opinion and judged in this way, George Brunton may well be termed one of the foremost men of Boone and there are, indeed, few if any who are better liked by colleagues and contemporaries.

1914 Boone County History Book