Biography of 	Bruns, Henry Dickson M.D. Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller March 1998

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Bruns, Henry Dickson, M. D., was born at Charleston, S. C., June 15, 1859.
He was the son of Dr. J. Dickson Bruns and Sara (Dickson) Bruns, both of
Charleston, S. C.  His mother was the daughter of Samuel Henry Dickson, of
Charleston, professor of medicine in the Charleston Medical college, also
of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and Jefferson Medical
college, Philadelphia.  He was author of Dickson's "Practice of Medicine,"
a poet, public man, splendid orator, and was deeply interested in politics.
 Dr. J. Dickson Bruns, father of the this sketch, was a graduate of
Jefferson Medical college and practiced for a short time at Charleston.  He
enlisted in the service of the Confederacy, was present at the fall of Fort
Sumter, became a surgeon in the Southern army, and served until the end of
the war in 1865.  Following that he studied in London and Paris and came to
New Orleans to take the chair of physiology in the Charity Hospital Medical
college, from which place he passed to the chair of practice of medicine.
He was an intimate friend of Drs. Samuel Choppin, J. C. Beard and Warren
Brickell, with whom he founded the New Orleans infirmary.  All 4 men were
identified with the movement against black and tan government in Louisiana.
 Drs. Bruns and Beard were among the speakers at the mass meeting at Clay
statue, in Sept., 1874, and took part in the fight of Sept. 14, that year,
which resulted in the downfall of the radical administration of Louisiana.
Dr. Bruns was acting adjutant general on the staff of Gen. P. N. Ogden.  At
his death he willed his gold watch to Gen. Ogden.  When the general died,
the watch was returned to Dr. H. D. Bruns, who treasures it more highly
than any of his other possessions.  Two children were born of Dr. J.
Dickson Bruns' first marriage:  Henry Dickson Bruns, M. D., and the late
Mrs. (Margaret Steward) Lawrason, of Shreveport.  In 1870 Dr. Bruns' father
married Miss Mary Peirce.  Two sons were born, and they are residents of
Baltimore with their mother, who is a daughter of Levi Peirce, relative of
the former president of the United States.  Henry Dickson Bruns was
educated in private schools of New Orleans until 1876, when he entered the
University of Virginia, for 2 years.  Returning to New Orleans in the fall
of 1878, he began the study of medicine in the University of Louisiana, now
Tulane.  In April, 1879, by competitive examination, he was admitted as
resident student at the Charity hospital.  In the fall of 1880 he attended
Jefferson Medical college, where he graduated in 1881.  He next studied
ophthalmology in schools of New York and Philadelphia and came back to New
Orleans in 1880 to practice ophthalmology, becoming connected with the
Charity hospital as specialist and in 1889-92 as pathologist.  In 1892 he
was appointed surgeon in charge of the eye department of the Eye, Ear, Nose
and Throat hospital and he still fills that position, besides acting as
surgeon-in-chief.  In 1888 Dr. Bruns aided in establishing the New Orleans
polyclinic, now the postgraduate medical department of Tulane university.
He was in 1890 managing editor of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical
Journal.  About 1910 he became emeritus professor of diseases of the eye.
He is professor for the term 1913-14 in the Tulane postgraduate medical
department.  In 1895 Dr. Bruns was president of the State Medical society;
in 1901, member of the American Ophthalmological society.  He has
contributed many articles to various medical journals and in 1886 he
translated from the French brochure by Francisque Sarcey, "Mind Your Eyes."
 He is a member of the Parish, State and National Medical associations.
Dr. Bruns took an active part in the political campaign against the
Louisiana state lottery, and was chairman of the parish coinmittee of the
anti-lottery wing of the Democratic party.  He was one of the original
members, and on the executive committee of the Good Government league in
1911, and was chairman of the registration committee which caused the
striking off the registration lists of 15,000 names.  He was chairman in
1888 of the executive committee, Young Men's Democratic association.
During that campaign there was waged the first successful fight against the
city ring.  Dr. Bruns had personal charge of the campaign and was at the
head of 3,000 armed men at the polls for over 3 days until the last
ballot-box was brought in.  During the Citizens' league campaign, in 1896,
he was member of the executive committee.  Oct. 17, 1888, Dr. Bruns married
Miss Kate Logan, daughter of Gen. T. M. Logan, of Charleston, S. C., and
New York, who was the youngest general in the Confederate army, serving
under Gen. Wade Hampton most of the time and was with Gen. Johnston at
Atlanta.  He surrendered to Gen. Sherman.  Dr. Bruns and wife, Kate (Logan)
Bruns, have 4 sons: T. M. L. Bruns, law student at Tulane university, and
B. A. graduate of the University of Virginia; John Dickson Bruns, educated
at the University of Virginia and now a business man; James Henry Bruns,
law student at Tulane university; Thomas Nelson Carter Bruns, in the public
schools. Dr. Bruns is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, which he
joined while at the University of Virginia, and in which he still takes an
active interest. He is a member of the National Municipal league, of the
American Free Trade league, and a large number of societies.

Source:  Louisiana:  Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events,
Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp.
74-75.  Edited by Alcee Fortier, Lit.D.  Published in 1914, by Century
Historical Association.