The farming interests of this county are conducted by an intelligent set of men, who have a full understanding of their business, employ the most approved methods of carrying it on, and are excellent financiers. George W. Bruner is one of these. FIe is engaged in general farming on section 13, South Dixon Township, where he owns a very good farm of seventy acres, that is finely improved, and he also has eighty acres of land on section 23, of the same township which is likewise under admirable cultivation and improvement.

Mr. Bruner was born in the township of Jefferson, Somerset County, April 23, 1849, the sixth of a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters, five of whom are living, all married but one, and four of them residents of Illinois. His parents were Joseph and Mary A. (Mull) Bruner, who were natives of the same county as himself. His father was a son of John Bruner, who was born in Pennsylvania, and passed the most of his life in Somerset County, where he died at the age of sixty-six. He was of Gernan antecedents. He married a lady of German extraction, who lived and died in Somerset County. The maternal grandfather of our subject was George Mull who was of Pennsylvania birth and German descent, and died in Somerset County at the advanced age of ninety-eight years. His wife, who was also a Pennsylvanian, lived to be very old too. Joseph Bruner and wife came to Illinois with their family in 1865. They began their new life on the prairies of Illinois on a farm at Franklin Grove, China Township, but after some years removed to another farm of one hundred twenty acres that lay around the village of Eldena. Mr. Bruner died April 14, 1887, when nearly seventy years old. His wife had preceded him in death, dying May 23, 1885, at the age of nearly sixty- five years. Both were nearly all their lives members of the Lutheran Church, and were consistent Christians. Mr. Bruner was a life long Demoerat.

The subject of this biography was sixteeen years old when he accompanied the family in March, 1865 in their exodus from the State which had been the home of themselves and their ancestors for many years. He afforded them valuable assistance in establishing the new home at Franklin Grove, and he remained with them until twenty~fi ye, becoming their stay and support in their declining years. He acquired skill as a farmer, and in 1876 purchased his homestead farm in South Dixon Township. which he has made a fine piece of property, and he has since invested in another choice tract of land, as before mentioned. Besides attending to the management of his farm, he has for several years been engaged profitably as a thresher of wheat, etc. He has manifested considerable enterprise in the conducting of his business, and is deservedly prospering. He is a man of true piety, who carries his religion into his every-day life, and is strictly honorable and upright in his conduct. He has a strong mind, and his decided opinions are shown in his political sentiments, he being a straightforward Democrat. He is one of the leading Lutherans of this section, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Lutheran Assembly at Dixon.

Our subject was married in the city of Dixon to Miss Clara E. Mosely. Their marriage is an example of a true wedded life, and has been blessed to them by two children. Their daughter Hazel E. died at the age of two and one half years. Their daughter Maude M., eleven years old, is the sunshine of their home. Mrs. Bruner was born at Utica, N. Y., October 3, 1855, to William and Jane (Dunlap) Mosely, natives respectively of Leicester England and New York. Mr. Mosely came from his native isle to America when a young man, and in the State of New York he found his wife, who was of Scotch extraction. They lived in her native State some years, Mr. Mosely following his trade as a miller. In 1858 they migrated with their family to Illinois, and located at Binghampton, in this county, where Mr. Mosely was head miller for Bagger Bros. for some years. His health failing, he went to farming near that village, and is living there still, at the age of nearly three-score and ten. He is very well known in the southern part of the county where he has spent so many years and to know him is but to respect hijm. His wife died in Binghampton in 1876, at the age of forty-six years. She was a sincere Christian and amember of the Advent Church. Mrs. Bruner was only six months when brought to this county, and here she was reared to a true womanhood, and is a valued member of the same church to which her husband belongs.

1892 Portrait and Biographical Record Lee Co Pg 331

Illinois - "Our Way"