My Genealogy Hound

ALEXANDER BRUKER is an early settler of Buffalo county, Nebr., and one of the most prosperous farmers in Divide township. He was born June 17, 1812, in Alsace, France, and came to America in 1854, when but twelve years of age. He located at Burlington, Iowa, and secured employment at one of the hotels, where he labored for nearly two years. He next procured a position in a job-printing office, which he held for two years. Having been economical in his habits, he saved quite a little sum of money and leased land near Burlington for nine years and engaged in raising fruit and making wine. He followed this industry until the war broke out, when, true to the country which he had adopted, he enlisted, in September, 1861, in the First United States lancers. The troops camped near Burlington for two months and then disbanded. He next enlisted, November 11, 1861, in Company H, Eleventh Illinois cavalry, which was made up at Peoria, Ill. Under this enlistment, he participated in the battle of Pittsburg Landing and the first siege of Corinth, after which, for some time, he was on duty as a scout. On account of weak lungs and liver trouble, he was discharged from further service, July 6, 1862. He grew better of his ailments and in September of the same year, enlisted in Company E, Twenty-fifth Iowa regiment. He was able to continue with his regiment but two weeks, when his health failed him and he was obliged to abandon entirely the expedition. He returned to Burlington, Iowa, where he followed farming until he emigrated west and located in Buffalo county in October, 1875, filing claims on 160 acres in section 6, township 10, range 16, on which he still resides. The country immediately surrounding him was, at that time, new and very sparsely settled, his nearest neighbor living some three miles distant. The following year he broke a portion of his land and put it into corn. His crop flourished for a time and gave promise of an abundant harvest, but in August the grasshoppers came and devoured it all. He succeeded in smoking them off the first time they came, but three weeks later they came in such abundance that he could do nothing but submit to the inevitable. That summer and fall he was compelled to live on corn bread, barley and wild game — the latter consisting of deer, elk and jack-rabbits, which were quite plentiful in those days, Mr. Bruker having seen, near his place, one drove of fifteen elk. He drove his team back to Burlington that fall and spent the winter there, returning in the spring. He has had good average crops since the grasshopper times and now has a well improved farm, with 120 acres broken and neat frame buildings.

Mr. Bruker was married June 15, 1884, to Julia Streit, who is a native of Austria, born June 4, 1858, and came to this country, April 11, 1884. They are both members of the Catholic church. In politics, Mr. Bruker is a republican.