Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Bruce, Eben S 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 11:07 am

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County

EBEN S. BRUCE. The business of which Mr. Bruce is the head is one of the 
largest of its kind in Joliet. He started it upon a very small scale, using 
only four cars the first year, but it increased so rapidly that he was soon 
obliged to devote his entire attention to its supervision. For a time the firm 
name was Bruce Brothers, but on the 20th of February, 1899, the Bruce Ice 
Company was incorporated, with L. B. Bruce as president and E. S. Bruce 
secretary and treasurer. The office of the company is at No. 1510 Collins 
street, Joliet, and their ice-houses are in this city and at Lake Zurich, on 
the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad, fifty-two miles north of Joliet, in Lake 
County. At the latter place they have forty acres, supplied by natural springs 
that secure the finest quality of ice. The plant is in every respect modern, 
and is provided with the modern equipments, including the latest steam 
elevators. The ice-house has a capacity of twenty-one thousand tons. To such 
an extent has the business grown that the supply of cars will soon reach two 
thousand per annum. The gentleman to whose energy and good judgment the growth 
of this enterprise is due was born at the old Bruce homestead, two and one-
half miles north of Joliet, November 19, 1869. His father, James, was born in 
Aberdour, Scotland, a son of George Bruce, the owner of a mill in Scotland, 
but during his last years a resident of the United States. When twenty-one 
years of age James Bruce came to America, in 1844, settling in Joliet. After 
working for a short time as foreman in the building of the Rush street bridge, 
Chicago, and as superintendent of the building of the locks on the Illinois 
and Michigan canal, he bought a tract of raw prairie land near Joliet and 
turned his attention to the improvement of a farm. In 1870 he bought the old 
Taylor property and opened a stone quarry, which he operated until his death, 
being the principal member of the firm of James Bruce & Co. He laid out the 
Bruce, Hopkins and Bacon subdivisions of Joliet. His death occurred in this 
city December 13, 1898. The lady whom he married, Jane Stephens, was also of 
Scotch birth. She was a daughter of E. Stevens, who came to America and 
settled on a farm near Millburn, Ill. She is still living at the old homestead 
and is now fifty-eight years of age. Of his eight children, six are living, 
viz.: William J., superintendent of the Bruce Stone Co.; E. S.; James, Jr., 
member of the firm of Bruce & Jameson, at Marseilles and Seneca, Ill.; Robert, 
a student in the University of Illinois; Belle, wife of George Stephens; and 
Margaret, Mrs. John Jameson. The education of our subject was obtained in 
public schools and the Chicago Commercial College. For three years he was 
shipping clerk for the Barrett Hardware Company, after which he traveled, in 
Texas, in the interests of Lambert & Bishop. One year later he entered the 
office of James Bruce & Co., of which he was placed in charge, and he still 
owns a one-third interest in the company, but of recent years his time has 
been given exclusively to the ice business. In politics his sympathies are 
with the Republican party and he votes the straight party ticket at local and 
general elections. Socially he is a member of the Union Club. His marriage, in 
Chicago, Ill., united him with Miss Luella Burdick, a former classmate, who 
was born in Lockport, Ill., daughter of A. S. Burdick, an old settler of this 
county. Mr. and Mrs. Bruce have one son, Harold A. Bruce. 

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

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