Maricopa-Unknown County AZ Archives Biographies.....Bruce, C. M. unknown - living in 1896
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 1, 2005, 7:10 pm

Author: McFarland & Poole

p. 440-441

  HON. C. M. BRUCE. Secretary of the Territory under the present administration,
brings to the discharge of the duties of his office a varied experience, good
business qualifications, and all the advantage that high character and ability,
united with education and extensive travel, give. Mr. Bruce is, by birth, as
well as by ancestry, a Virginian. Staunton Hill, where the days of his boyhood
were passed, is on historical ground, being situated midst the last scenes in
the lives of Patrick Henry and John Randolph of Roanoke, and is one of the most
beautiful homes in the Old Dominion. The estate, which is yet owned by his
parents, is a large one and has been in the possession of the family since the
first settlement of Virginia. His father, Hon. Charles Bruce, was at one time a
prominent member of the Senate of Virginia: and his mother, formerly a Miss
Seddon, was a sister of Hon. James A. Seddon, secretary of war of the
Confederate States. His family has always occupied, both socially and
politically, a prominent position. In more recent years members of it have
achieved considerable distinction in the literary world. Philip A. Bruce,
brother of the secretary, now corresponding secretary of the Virginia Historical
Society, is the author of "The Plantation Negro as a Freeman," a work which is
regarded as one of the most important contributions made with regard to the
negro problem, and has also recently published a book on the Economic History of
Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. Another brother, James Douglas Bruce, is
professor of Anglo-Saxon in the Bryn Mawr University, at Philadelphia. Some
recent discoveries made by Professor Bruce, at the British Museum, in London, in
connection with the origin of the Psalms of David, have attracted wide attention
among the scholars of Europe. William Cabell Bruce, another brother, is
president of the Maryland Senate. To readers of current periodical literature it
is unnecessary to say anything of the place which his cousin, Amelie Rives, now
Princess Troubestzkoy, and his brother-in-law, Thomas Nelson Page, have attained
among the new writers of the South.

  Leaving the scenes of plantation life at an early age, Mr. Bruce first passed
through the schools of his native State, and then completed his education abroad
at the University of Berlin. On his return to Virginia he commenced life by a
thorough business training as the representative, for the time being, of the
interests of his father and brother in two large mercantile establishments of
the State. It was while he was thus employed that he accepted an invitation of
some New York and Virginia capitalists to visit Arizona during the mining
excitement of 1880, and so well pleased was he with the Territory that he
decided upon making it his future home. Accepting the position of financial
agent of the Washington Silver Mining Company, composed for the most part 6f
Eastern capital, he continued occupying this responsible position for two years,
then resigned to become interested, on a large scale, with California friends,
in the cattle business.

  For several years Mr. Bruce was president of the Live Stock Association of the
Territory and chairman of the Live Stock Sanitary Commission. In 1887 he was
sent, by the governor of the Territory, on a special mission to Washington to
secure from the Federal Government quarantine regulations to govern the
importation of cattle into Arizona from Mexico; and although strongly opposed by
the Mexican minister at Washington, Mr. Bruce accomplished the object of his
mission in an eminently successful manner. While he has never taken a very
active part in politics, Mr. Bruce has always displayed a deep interest in the
public affairs of the Territory. The Democratic County Convention of 1892
nominated him, without a dissenting voice, for the Territorial Council in the
face of his protest that his business arrangements were such that it would be
impossible for him to make the canvass, but notwithstanding this serious
drawback he was only defeated by a narrow majority. His popularity is shown by
the character and position of those by whom his application for his present
position was endorsed. These include the leading citizens of Arizona, together
with such men as Leland Stanford, N. T. Smith, the treasurer of the Southern
Pacific Railroad Company; Lloyd Tevis, ex-president of the Wells-Fargo Company;
the governor of Virginia, ex-Senator Norwood, of Georgia; Senator Daniel, of
Virginia; the distinguished author, Thomas Nelson Page, and others. April I,
1896, Mr. Bruce succeeded Governor Hughes as acting governor of the Territory,
and, for a period, performed the duties of the executive office. His selection
as secretary of the Territory was highly creditable to the Democratic
administration, both Federal and Territorial. Among the people of Arizona who
have known him for the past sixteen years, and who have universally approved of
his appointment, he stands deservedly high as a man of ability and the most
exalted character.



Additional Comments:
From:

A Historical and Biographical Record of the Territory of Arizona
Published by
McFarland & Poole, Chicago, 1896

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