DeBruin, Age 1825-1902

DEBRUIN, STANDSTRA

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - Volunteer (email)
Date: 8/14/2012 at 09:37:12

From the Alton Democrat of August 30, 1902
(Noted by submitter - Age De Bruin was born Sep 30, 1825 in the municipality of Wonseradeel Friesland Netherlands, his parents were Ages DeBruin and Idske Everts Standstra. He married briefly while in WI before 1870 but never remarried or had any children)

A shocking tragedy was enacted at Alton Monday between one and two O’c1ock in the afternoon when one of her citizens was struck by a train and by a train and hurled into eternity; The victim was A. (Age) De Bruin the aged coal dealer and the scene of the accident was just east of the. big iron bridge east of town on the Northwestern. The train from the east was an hour late and was coining into town on the double quick. Engineer S. P. Wood was looking from the Cab window when he rounded the curve out by John Pfeffer's and saw De Bruin on the bridge. He blew the whistle and rang the bell when still forty rods away and De Bruin stepped off the bridge and walked up the track about ten feet. He hesitated a moment looking at the train and then stepped off the track to his left and stood on the end of a tie. H e was facing the train but was looking at the ground as if in a deep study. He had plenty of time to get off but never moved.

Even at ordinary speed the engineer could not have stopped in time to save him. All he could do was to blow his whistle and clang the bell and hope till the last moment that De Bruin would take one, more, step and be safe. But he never took the step. The end of the heavy cross beam on the pilot struck him on the right hip. His frail old body was doubled up and hurled through the air as if shot from a catapult. It
struck twenty feet ahead and just outside the ends of the ties on the bridge. It hit the massive iron bridge girder with a fearful shock. It is probable that the last vestige of life was knocked from his body when it struck. The body bounded from the girder to the river bank thirty feet below a battered lump of clay . The engineer stopped his train as soon as possible and backed. The crew and several passengers clambered down the stone abutment and gathered around the remains. The old man's body was bruised and bleeding. His left arm was broken in several places. There was a hole in the skull over the right eye. His cap lay twelve feet away. He had worn a loose fitting pair of old rubbers boots with the tops cut off. They were both off—the jolt having literally lifted him from them.

The remains were placed on the train and brought to the depot. , The train crew went on to Hawarden and came back in the evening. At five-thirty in the absence of the coroner Mayor Meyer empaneled a jury consisting of S. A. Lincoln,: Nic Schroeder and Joe Hyink and held an inquest. The only verdict possible was rendered. The deceased came to his death by being struck by a train. After the inquest the remains were taken to Kurtenacker & Pin's undertaking establishment and prepared for burial which took place Tuesday afternoon from the Reformed church.

Age De Bruin was born in the town of Zurich, state of Friesland Holland September 30 1825 and was therefore close to seventy-seven years old. He came to America about 1860 and settled on a farm in Wisconsin where , he was married over thirty years ago. His wife died in less than a year and he sold his farm and came to Alton,

With the proceeds he bought a forty acre farm near here and also went into the coal business. His only blood relatives in this country area niece and nephew in Wisconsin and a nephew in Chicago. The latter Jurien DeBruin is well known in Alton, being the stepson of Uncle William Kolthof. Mrs. Kolthof was formerly the wife of a brother of deased and Jurien was the Son of that union. For a time after his arrival in Alton DeBruin prospered in the fuel business and was once worth several thousands of dollars. Speculation in Dakota lands swept it away and the old man lost heart and took to drink. 'He was scrupulously honest but his meager surplus went for liquor. His business ran down hill until it was merely a shadow of -what it had been. Only a few days ago he borrowed a hundred dollars of William Kolthof to pay frieght on a car of coal to peddle out this winter.

When found he had forty-two dollars of this- money in his pocket. For years DeBruin had lived and done business and raised chickens in a jumble of shanties near the Henkels elevator. His abode was reeking with filth. To piece out his meager income the old man farmed various scraps of land along the tracks. It was while on his way to one of his truck patches with a sack for potatoes that he met his death. Since the decline of his fortunes De Bruin had been heard to speak often of suicide. To the engineer it looked as if he courted death. The engineer's theory has numerous supporters. It is the belief of the writer that he did not seek death but was dazed and lost his power to move. Mayor Meyer and Mr. Kolthof have taken charge of the old man's, effects pending the necessary legal arrangements. Aside from the forty-two dollars and the car of coal — which must be sold to be [realized on—-the only property the old man left was his shanties and scales and a-horse and a few chickens and some book accounts.

The following story, and picture (see in the newspaper issue)
taken from a Chicago coal dealer's journal and published in the. DEMOCRAT in March is again of interest. It was written by a man named Dering who knew De Bruin well:

If one were to seek for an instance typifying old world methods as opposed to the "hustling" progress of the new it could scarcely be better found than in the illustration here given, The picture shows Mr. A.
De Bruin an aged Hollander, his coal office and "residence." De Bruin, who was considerably past the allotted "three score and ten" came to northwestern Iowa from the old country about forty years ago entering the coal business at Alton when the C.St.P. M. & O. railway was built through there along in the early "70's." For many years he enjoyed a very good trade but as he advanced in age and the field was entered by the more aggressive commercial element the poor old chap—still clinging to his primitive methods, was relegated to the rear. The little shanty was, as far back as Mr. Dering's memory carries him, not only the office but the living place of this peculiar yet sterling character. In this "den'' scarcely ten feet square was the scale room and the desk on which he transacted business. The desk answered also for the table from which his meals, cooked on a rickety old stove standing in the center of the room, were partaken. Coal orders, cheese sandwiches and sauer kraut were oftentimes perplexingly mingled. One might fancy the knitted brows of the coal analyst over certain "component parts" of the samples of fuel displayed there! But far be it from anyone to chaff at the expense of this worthy gentleman. In a wooden bunk of rough boards nailed to the back of the" wall he slept."

What an odd type to be sure is this aged seller of coal. Transplanted from the "fatherland" so long ago in wide America where the star of progress ever hath full sway he still in his quaint simplicity and wooden
shoes pursues the even tenor of his calling according to his own "best knowledge and belief." And how dear perhaps are the memories and ways of his early environment! His plodding, preserving nature comes naturally to him no doubt. 'Can one not see in that pathetic "yet determined face the qualities of the indomitable race from which he sprung - the patient dyke builders of old Holland who for centuries have defied and .held back the hungry waters of the Skagger Rack and the Zuyder Zee and hostile hordes of foreign invaders as well? De Bruin, should perhaps have been a soldier. Surely in the years of his early manhood he must, have possessed the bearing militant and looked every inch a warrior. It might be safely affirmed that latent within the breast still lives the fire of true Dutch courage.

Always honest and kindly, faithful to his friends, simple in all things, through these many years he has lived the life that ought in his declining days to have brought him resources sufficient to keep him in comfort. But sad though the telling be it seems that fate—as if to evidence that not always to the plodding tortoise is vouchsafed the victor’s need – has willed otherwise in the case of Mr. De Bruin, One of the prides of his life seemed to be his horses. He possessed four or five large fine animals that he was wont to fondly refer to as "his children." Always affectionately looked after, they never had a harness on and at last died, apparently from over feeding. “Unto the least of these” may or nay not have been the precept which in a measure actuated this goodly person-age in the care and consideration of his animals, but it is certainly to be hoped that in these his declining days he himself may not miss the kindly and sustaining hand of friendship and that those whose paths run more nearly along his lonely way may not be unmindful of him.