Brunner, C. H. 1823-1905

BRUNNER

Posted By: Barbara Hug (email)
Date: 11/27/2004 at 18:12:29

Last evening at 6 o’clock, at the home of his son, John G. Brunner, on South Spring Street, C. H. Brunner passed away after a lingering illness covering a period of about seven years.

The funeral will be held tomorrow afternoon at 4 o’clock at the house. Rector C. S. Morrison will conduct the services.

C. H. Brunner was born in Hobenzollern, Segmeringen, Prussia, on Oct. 18, 1823. His parents were land owners and after acquiring what was then considered a good education he, like all other males, entered the army where he was soon at the command of a company of about 700 men. He was a man small in stature, nervous, quick, active and fond of adventure. He was an intimate acquaintance of Franz Sigel and Carl Schurz, and with them was prominent in 1848, when a movement started to overthrow the government. The movement, however, was unsuccessful and to avoid imprisonment they got out of the country. Schurz came to this country where he has been more or less prominent. Mr. Brunner and Sigel swam the Rhine with their men to Switzerland where they all scattered. Sigel come to this country and identified himself with the army and was a general during the War of the Rebellion.

Mr. Brunner had a wife and little son, J. H. Brunner, who now lives in Marshalltown. His fondness for adventure and travel led the father all over Europe and down through Palestine until 1852, with his wife and son he came to New York City, where John G. Brunner was born. The two boys were the only children. In 1854 the family went to Chicago, and in 1864 came to Newton, where the mother died in 1889. Mr. Brunner’s early life in the German Army was a time when there was something doing. It was before the consolidation of the German State into the German Empire and there was a constant strife and plenty of activity for the armies. It was a condition which fostered the natural desire of an adventurous man. After his arrival in Newton, Mr. Brunner went back to the Pacific coast in 1873 on horseback. On his return, while in Arizona alone, he was brushed from his horse by a huge cactus, and dragged with his foot in the stirrup for some distance. The horse got away and Mr. Brunner was found by Mexicans, who cared for him a while. Later he was with the Indians and finally came home. In 1893 he went to Chicago, where he remained until 1899, when he was brought home by his son John G.

Mr. Brunner was in many respects a great character. The story of his life especially during the early days would make a most interesting book. His identification with the revolutionary movement in Germany would in itself be an interesting story. He was however very reticent and it was only occasionally that even member of his own family could get him to talk of his experiences.

The friends who he knew in an early day are almost all gone and with them passes a race of sturdy, staunch men who have made history. The last few years of his life were full of suffering but there was never a complaint. Such men are made of the stuff that knows no fear and bears pain in stolidity. Thus ends the life of a man not well know to the present generation and yet he was a man with a history. ~ The Newton Daily News, Saturday, July 22, 1905, Page 1, Column 2