BIO: Peter BRUA, Dauphin County, PA

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http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/runk/runk-bios.htm
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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, pages 199-200. 
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  BRUA, PETER, the son of John Peter Brua, was a native of Berks 
county, Pa., where he was born in 1771.  He learned the trade of a 
carpenter, and came to Harrisburg about 1792.  He served as director of 
the poor from 1818 to 1821; was a member of the borough council in 
1824, 1826 and 1829; commissioned county treasurer January 7, 1824, and 
was one of the county commissioners from 1827 to 1829.  While in the 
latter office he was a prime mover in establishing the Lancasterian 
system of education, which preceded that of the common schools.  Mr. 
Brua was a gentleman of sound practical sense, honest and upright, and 
highly honored in the community.  He died at Harrisburg on the 1st of 
January, 1842,  in his seventy-first year.  He married Catharine 
Rupley, of Cumberland county, Pa., who died on the 19th of January, 
1833, aged sixty years.  They had six children:  Margaret, married Hon. 
Simon Cameron; Lucetta, married Jacob Hoyer; Mary, married Isaac 
McCord; Catharine, married Andrew Keefer; Jacob, who went as a private 
in the Cameron Guards to Mexico, and died at Tampico, a few hours after 
receiving his commission as a lieutenant in the United States army; and 
John Peter, who was a paymaster during the late Civil war and now on 
the retired list of the United States army.