Madison County IA Archives Biographies.....Bruce, Richard Pickle 1818 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 25, 2007, 12:28 am

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896)

RICHARD PICKLE BRUCE, a venerable and wealthy farmer residing in Douglas
township, Madison county, Iowa, is one of the pioneers of this county and is
here entitled to biographical mention as such. Mr. Bruce was born in Garrard
county, Kentucky, May 15, 1818, and has in his veins a mixture of Scotch and
Welsh blood. His father, R. P. Bruce, who died at an advanced age in Washington,
Kentucky, was of Scotch descent, while his mother, nee Elizabeth Henley, a
native of Virginia, was of Welsh origin. The mother also lived to an advanced
age, she being between seventy and eighty years old at the time of her death. In
their family were seven children, of whom Richard P. was the fourth born.

   Mr. Bruce lived in Lexington, Kentucky, until he was about fourteen years
old. Then, in 1832, he accompanied his mother to Jacksonville, Illinois, and
after a sojourn of one month at that place they moved to Schuyler (now Brown)
county, Illinois, where he remained until 1851. That year he came to Iowa and
took up his abode in Madison county. In 1853, after farming rented land two
seasons, he came to his present location, and here he has since resided. At the
time of his settlement here there were only about twelve families living in the
county. As the years passed by Mr. Bruce did his full share toward advancing the
agricultural interests of this part of the country and bringing about the
present development, and to-day he is recognized as one of the leading farmers
and stock-raisers of Madison county. His home farm comprises 401 acres, he has
eighty acres east of Winterset, and owns forty acres of timberland, making in
all 521 acres of as good land as there is in the State of Iowa; and all this
property he has accumulated through his own honest and earnest toil and good
management. The buildings, fences and other improvements upon his land have all
been placed there by him.

   While in Brown county, Illinois, Mr. Bruce was united in marriage, in 1847,
to Judith A. Keith, a native of Kentucky and a daughter Virginia parents, with
whom she removed when a young lady to Illinois. She came with Mr. Bruce to Iowa
in 1851, shared with him the frontier life above referred to and proved herself
in every respect a worthy helpmeet, and June 16, 1876, passed to her reward. She
was the mother of eleven children, of whom nine are living, namely; John R.;
Francis M.; Georgeanna, wife of William Underwood; Mary Jane, wife of Timothy
Con-nard, deceased; Susan V., wife of John Herron; Belle, wife of Thomas Stark;
Caroline M., wife of Lewis Fields; Robert S., of California; and Carrie M., at
home. In 1884 Mr. Bruce married for his second wife Miss Elizabeth McClary.

   Mr. Bruce is a man of many sterling characteristics and his whole life has
been so conducted that it has won and maintained for him the confidence and
esteem of all with whom he has in any way been associated. He has cast his vote
with the Republican party ever since the party was organized. For many years he
served as Township Trustee, has also served on the Board of Supervisors, and at
various y times filled other minor offices, always performing with the strictest
fidelity the duty entrusted to him. He has for years been an earnest advocate of
temperance. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order and has his
membershp in Evening Star Lodge, No. 43, at Winterset, Iowa.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."'—MACAULAY.

"Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant,
of all things."—CARLYLE

"History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896


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