My Genealogy Hound

JUDGE HORATIO W. BRUCE was born in Lewis County, Ky., February 22, 1830, and is a son of Alexander and Amanda (Bragg) Bruce, and a grandson of John Bruce, a Revolutionary soldier and a native of Virginia. He was reared in Lewis County, and educated in the common-schools of that region, and in 1850, began reading law in Vanceburg. After thorough preparation he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Flemingsburg. He was elected representative from Fleming County to the House of Representatives of 1855-56, and in 1856 was elected Commonwealth attorney, the duties of which he filled with distinguished ability, but resigned in 1859, and settled in Louisville, where he soon won a large practice. At the outbreak of the civil war he cast his fortunes with the Confederacy and went South. He was elected to the Confederate Congress and served in that field until the war was over and the cause lost. He then returned to Louisville and resumed the practice of law. In 1868 he was elected Circuit Judge of the Ninth Judicial District, serving in that position until January, 1873, when he resigned to accept the chancellorship of the Louisville Chancery Court. This position he held until March, 1880. For several years prior to the date of his resignation (1880), he taught the history and science of law, real property, contracts, and commercial law in the law department of the University of Louisville; for a long period, also he was President of the Board of Trustees of the Louisville Medical College. Since 1880 he has been attorney for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Judge Bruce ranks among the able lawyers of the Louisville bar and is a jurist of distinguished ability. He was married in June, 1856, to Miss Lizzie B. Helm, daughter of Gov. John L. Helm. They have five children living.