Bruce, Moses T. (1823-1909)

BRUCE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 12/5/2016 at 18:56:00

The Advocate-Tribune Newspaper, Indianola, Iowa, Thursday, Jan 18, 1906, front page
History of Warren County, by Geo. A. Epps

MOSES T. BRUCE
M. T. Bruce was born near Rock Fork in Highland county, Ohio, on the eighth day of April, 1823. When he was two years old his parents moved two miles east of where he was born. At an early age, a mere child, he worked with his father in the timber piling brush, rolling logs and burning brush and logs, the timber had to be removed before the land could be brought under cultivation. When older he and his brother split rails for which they received twenty five cents per hundred. They sawed shingle blocks; their father with a froe and wooden mallet would make the shingles, when the large timber was removed with the mattock and grabbing hoe. The wheat was cut with a hand sickle and the tool was succeeded by the grain cradle. He says that when they went to town or church they walked; when they took their girls to church whether the distance be one mile or five they would walk. Our clothes were home made of Linsey Woolsey goods, linen chain and wool filling, tow shirts and linsey breeches and wamus hat and shoes completed our Sunday suits. When he was seventeen years old he united with the M. E. church, about 100 young men united with the church at this time. Shortly after Mr. Bruce was twenty years old his father gave him his freedom; he went to a little town called Boston, about seven miles from his father’s home, and apprenticed himself to a shoemaker to learn the trade; he finished his apprenticeship at the town of Petersburg, he then worked for a short time with his brother at the carpenter trade for five dollars a month. On the 16th day of August 1846, he was united in marriage with Miss Julia A. Tener, the Rev. Henry Turner, of Hillsburrough, officiated; he borrowed the seventy-five cents to pay for the license, the preachers services were free. Two weeks after he was married he moved into a frame house near the town of New Market, where he lived until the following spring when he bought one acre of land and built thereon a gum pole cabin which was covered with clapboards, the chimney was built of sticks and daubed with mud. Mr. Bruce says that while he lived at this place a man by the name of David Gaddis lived about two miles from him; this man had an old sow with five little pigs, this sow with her family would come to town every day teaching them how to loaf he supposed. One day Mr. Gaddis told Mr. Bruce that if he would catch the smallest of the five pigs he could have it, and Mr. Bruce caught the pig and while he drove shoe pegs his wife took care of the little loafer. When it was sold it helped to pay for a mare, so that the proceeds from the little runt of a pig and the driving of shoe pegs has caused Mr. Bruce to become one of the heavy tax payers of Warren county. And now my readers, what lesson have we learned from the life of our little shoe maker so far; first he was industrious always at work; no time for loafing around the bar-rooms or saloons; he kept pegging away from early morn till late at night. Industry is the first plank in the platform of every successful man. And then you will notice that at the age of seventeen he united with the church and he is still there; this shows in addition to industry he has stick to-it tiveness, and then there are no better people in the world to associate with than church people. Some of our greatest captains of industry have been regular attendees and liberal contributors to the church, and then we notice that he borrowed the money to pay for his marriage license; it pays to borrow money if it is properly invested, I would not advise a young man to borrow money to buy a buggy; money borrowed and invested in a good wife is money well invested. And then our little shoemaker was economical, it was the rule of his life to save each year a part of his earning. When he had been married seven years he had supported his family, paid to the support of the church and saved $1000. In the year 1853 he moved his family to Princeville, Illinois; in August of the year 1856 he landed with his family in Palmyra with $2000 in his pocket; there he engaged in shoe making for five years when he purchased the 187 acres of land lying immediately southeast of the town of Palmyra where he still lives. He laid aside his apron, his shoe-making tools and took up the ax, the hoe and the plow and carried on the business of farming and stock raising and stock feeding and made a success in this line, and when he laid aside his active duties of farm life a few years ago he did not move to town as many farmers do, but he is still in the harness and does each day what work he feels able to do and he tells me that he expects to work as long as he lives; he believes that work is conducive to good health and long life. Mr. Bruce has an active mind, trained to think, he has solved the problems of how to produce wealth and he has solved that other problem of still more importance, the conservation of wealth with an active mind and not a lazy muscle in his body; he has no sympathy for the lazy man or the plunger. The writer has been acquainted with Mr. Bruce for thirty-seven years and in that time we have often seen him come into the stores of Palmyra and transact business with the merchants, stand and talk a few minutes with an acquaintance, but we never saw him sit down in the store, he never loafs. He has been a citizen of Palmrya township for more than forty nine years. Shortly after his arrival in Palmyra he was selected as class leader and he has filled that position for forty years out of the forty-nine that he had lived here; he says that he never felt that he was fit for the place but has always tried to do his best. He has always taken a deep interest in the welfare of the church and when the church needs cleaning or repairing, you always find M. T. Bruce on hand with his hands to work and his purse to furnish needed material. The old church is a place sacred and dear to him and it pains him to see it neglected or anything untidy about the church; he says that he thanks God that he has been blessed with something to give for the support of the church, and while he does not know how much he has given in the past, his giving amounts to thousands of dollars. After giving his children a good start in life he has an abundance for his own support and something more for the cause of the church of Christ. But his eighty three years of toil began to leave their imprint upon him and he prays that the Lord will send other workers to this vineyard. To him and his first wife were born eight children, three of them are now living; J. W. Bruce, who lives two miles southeast of Palmyra; P. R. Bruce, who lives east of and adjoining the town plat of Palmrya, and Mrs. D. L. Onstat, of Beaconsfield, IA. He had the privilege of walking with his good, Christian wife, who for nearly fifty years assisted him in the battle of life until November 1895, when she was called to her reward. In October 1896 he was married to Miss Lusetta McNeil, of Indianola, and he has found in her a very congenial companion. She is a devoted Christian lady, a zealous worker for the up building of the church, and Mr. Bruce has certainly fallen into good hands as he waits for the coming sunset of his life. We all have what remains of life before us; once only can we live it. Mr. Bruce has lived more than the four-score years allotted to him; eighty years of toil is a long time to work, but to a man who loves work the time seems short. Love is said to be the greatest word in the world, and the next greatest is faith; faith is the word which connects the soul of man with God, and Mr. Bruce has an unbounded faith that his life of toil on this earth will be rewarded by a life of labor and love in the life to come. As Mr. Bruce has been an active member of the M. E. church for more than sixty-five years and for nearly fifty years of that time he has worshipped with the church at Palmrya, we deem it proper to follow this sketch of his life with a short sketch of the organization of the Methodist Episcopal church of Palmrya, which will be published next week.