DeBruyn, William C.

DEBRUYN, VANVARK, AKERMAN, DEPENNING

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/22/2009 at 12:42:07

DeBruyn, William C.

One of the leading citizens and representative farmers and stockmen of Elk Creek Township, Jasper County, is William C. DeBruyn. His has been an active and useful life, but the limited space at the disposal of the biographer forbids more than a casual mention of the leading events of his career, which will suffice to show what earnest endeavor and honesty of purpose rightly applied and persistently followed will lead to ultimate success. He is looked upon as a man thoroughly in sympathy with any movement looking to the betterment or advancement in any way of the community in which he resides, never shrinking his duty when questions involving the general good are at stake, for he believes it the duty of every citizen, while laboring for his own advancement, to look to the progress of his locality and the happiness of his neighbors as well. He has always been regarded as a man of sterling honesty and worthy of the utmost confidence and respect, which his fellow citizens have been free to accord owing to his genial disposition, his public spirit and his uniformly upright and industrious life.

Mr. DeBruyn was born in Marion County, Iowa, on August 25, 1868. He is the son of Kryn and Mattie (VanVark) DeBruyn, both natives of Holland, the father born on November 7, 1838, and the mother on April 29, 1849. The father spent his early boyhood in his native country immigrating to the United States when fifteen years of age, in 1853, and was thrown on his own resources when but a boy, having lost his father when five months old and his mother when twelve years of age. He was given a home by his brother-in-law, Von Steinburg, and he accompanied them to Marion County, Iowa, and they settled in Lake Prairie Township. The mother of the subject was brought to Marion County, Iowa, just a few days after she was born, her parents, William and Mary VanVark, establishing their home there. In Marion County the parents of the subject of this sketch grew to maturity and received their education in the common schools and there they married. The father worked on the farm until the breaking out of the War Between the States when he enlisted in Company G, Thirty-third Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in which he served faithfully for a period of three years, during which time he spent ten months in the Confederate prison at Tyler, Texas, having contracted the scurvy there, the scars from which he still carries. He returned to Iowa after the war and resumed farming in Marion County. He came to Jasper County some time afterwards and farmed here on rented land until his death, on January 9, 1904. His family consisted of five sons and eight daughters, twelve of whom survive, William C., of this review, being the second in order of birth.

William C. DeBruyn grew up on the farm and he attended the public schools in Pleasant Grove district, Marion County. When twenty-one years of age he began life for himself, having assisted his father with the general work on the land he had under cultivation until then. He worked one year by the month and then buying a team and harness and plow the following fall, he rented ground, forty acres of corn land, of Pat Moran. The following spring he was married, and after renting one year he purchased eighty acres in Elk Creek Township, which he later sold and bought two hundred and forty acres, having met with encouraging success in this favored locality, for he was always a hard worker and managed his affairs in a masterly manner. This land was in Des Moines Township, southwestern part of Jasper County, but that being a bad year and fortune going against him he gave up this land and rented for another year. In the fall of 1897 he bought one hundred and eighty-five acres immediately east of the town of Galesburg and moved thereto the following spring. Here he met with encouraging success and had added sixty acres in two more years, and he is now the owner of one of the choice farms of the Township, which consists of three hundred and five and a half acres, including town property on which he is successfully engaged in general farming and stock raising. He has placed this land under a high state of improvement and cultivation and he is regarded as one of the best farmers of his community. In 1912 he purchased thirteen acres in the town of Galesburg and also bought a fine house and barn there and this was his place of abode for a period of nine years. Turning his attention to merchandising, he conducted a general store in 1909 and 1910 in Galesburg. This he later disposed of and, being lured by the freedom of outdoor life, returned to the farm on February 1, 1911, and he is at this writing living at his beautiful home just east of Galesburg where he is well fixed to enjoy life and make a good living. In connection with general agricultural pursuits, he handles some excellent live stock of which he is fond and a splendid judge, making a specialty of Percheron horses, which, owing to their superior quality, are much admired by all fanciers.

Politically, Mr. DeBruyn is a Republican and he takes a good citizen's interest in the affairs of his community, which he has served most acceptably as justice of the peace, his decisions having always been characterized by fairness and they have seldom met with a reversal at the hands of a higher tribunal. Religiously, he is a member and liberal supporter of the Christian Church of Galesburg.

On March 3, 1892, occurred the ceremony, which united the lives of William C. DeBruyn and Anna DePenning. The latter was born in Summit Township, Marion County, Iowa, on February 2, 1873. She there grew to womanhood and received her education in the common schools. She is the daughter of Jacob and Mary (Akerman) DePenning, the father having been a pioneer of Marion County, locating there in 1851. The mother was born in Mahaska County, Iowa.

To Mr. and Mrs. DeBruyn eight children have been born, named in order of birth as follows: Frank, born November 27, 1892, Mary Gladys, born April 23, 1895, Jennie, born September 13, 1897, died October 7th, of the same year; Jacob W., born January 8, 1899, died September 6, 1910; Maudie Beatrice, born August 30, 1912, Bernice Leona, born March 22, 1904, Clara Wilma, born March 13, 1906; Luella Fern, born August 17, 1908.

Mr. DeBruyn is a good businessman and does not hesitate to back his better judgment by taking a chance. He has been very successful during the latter part of his life and has laid by a competency for his old age. He is well preserved physically, a man of splendid physique, and very pleasant indisposition, a kind father and husband and a good neighbor and citizen, a plain unassuming man whom it is a delight to meet. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1072.