Brush, Samuel Earl

BRUSH, POLLEY-WRAY, TRACY, SPEESE, WILKINSON

Posted By: Gary Norris (email)
Date: 12/1/2012 at 08:57:29

The attractiveness of Iowa as a place of residence is indicated by the fact that many of her native sons have remained within her borders, believing that her advantages and opportunities are equip if not superior to those to be secured in other parts of the country. Samuel Earl Brush was born in Madison township, Poweshiek county, on the 31st of August, 1869, a son of Thomas P. and Sarah (Polley-Wray) Brush, both natives of New York. The father came to Iowa with his parents during his early childhood, the family home being located on a farm in the northeast part of Iowa, and there he resided until 1867, when he came to Poweshiek county. During his active life he engaged in agricultural pursuits as a vocation, but in 1904 retired from the work of the farm and now makes his home in Brooklyn. His wife passed away in that city in 1908.
Samuel Earl Brush is indebted to the common school system of Madison township for the educational advantages which he enjoyed during the period of his boyhood, and he received a thorough practical training under the direction of his father, who early assigned to him tasks about the home farm which increased in importance and numbers with the growing years and strength of the lad. He remained under the parental roof, giving his father the benefit of his assistance, until twenty-two years of age, when he was married and started out as an independent farmer, wisely choosing as a life work the occupation to which he had been reared. For about three years he rented the old homestead, consisting of three hundred and twenty acres in Madison township, and then purchased his present home, a track of one hundred and twenty acres in section 15, Bear Creek township, just west of Brooklyn.
He at once took up his abode thereon and has since continued to make it the scene of his activities. It is one of the well improved and valuable properties of the township, equipped with all modern conveniences for facilitating farm progressiveness and thrift on the part of Mr. Brush. Aside from tilling the soil he also engages to some extent in stock-raising, making a specialty of breeding good horses. He is now the owner of a fine Shire stallion named Richard Trumper, and also has a pair of fine imported Shire mares, one of which won first prize at the Chicago Horse Show in 1908 as a two-year old. The excellence of his stock is recognized throughout Poweshiek county and he is numbered among the most prominent and substantial business men of his section.
On the 28th of September, 1892, Mr. Brush was united in marriage to Miss Florence Tracy, a daughter of Wallace and Malinda (Speese) Tracy. The maternal grandparents of Mrs. Brush, Samuel and Lydia (Rank) Speese, were both born in Union county, Pennsylvania, and were of German descent. The latter, an undertaker by trade, later took up the occupation of farming and coming west in 1866, located at White Pigeon, Michigan, where he purchased a tract of land. There he and his wife remained until their death, the former passing away in 1904 and the latter in 1901. Wallace Tracy, the father of Mrs. Brush, was born in New York, and was a car repairer by trade. He was residing in Tama, Tama county, Iowa, when he met death about twenty-nine ago, being accidentally killed while repairing an engine. After his demise his widow remained at Tama for a time and then, on the 11th of May, 1885, was again married, her second union being with Joseph Wilkinson, a well known farmer of Madison township, where both are now residing, making their home on a farm on section 3, where Mr. Wilkinson has lived continuously since 1865.
Mr. and Mrs. Brush are the parents of three children, namely: Bernice, who resides at home and attends the Brooklyn high school; Charles, aged eleven years; and Marian eight years of age, the two latter attending the Brooklyn public school. Mrs. Brush and her eldest daughter are members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Brooklyn, and she also holds membership in the Rebekah lodge of Brooklyn.
Mr. Brush's fraternal relations are with the Brooklyn Lodge, No. 112, I.O.O.F., while in politics he votes for the men and measures of the republican party. He has never had time nor inclination to seek for public office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his private interests, and he is a very careful, prudent business man whose honorable and upright methods and well directed efforts are meeting with merited success. He is known throughout the district in which he lives as a breeder of fine horses and is recognized as one whose labors have been effective forces in upholding the high standard of stock in this county.

History of Poweshiek County Iowa
- A Record of Settlement, Organizations, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II
written by Prof. L. F. Parker.
Published by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., in 1911
Pages 447-448