Mercer County PAGenWeb

Prof. Earl Daniel Bruner


Prof. EARL DANIEL BRUNER. During a number of years the name of Prof. Earl D. Bruner has been associated with educational work, and in this high calling he has gained a reputation not confined by the limits of Mercer county, where the family was founded many years ago, and from that time to the present its representatives have occupied a distinctive place in its many walks of life. Daniel Bruner, born near Philadelphia on July 14, 1812, came to Mercer county in the year of 1857, and in the following year of 1858 he built a woolen mill at New Lebanon. He continued as the proprietor of that pioneer industry from that time until his life’s labors were ended in death on the 15th of March, 1892.

William Wesley Bruner, the fourth child of Daniel and Mary Bruner and one of the leading agriculturists and stockmen in Mill Creek township, was born in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1852, and in his early life he received a good educational training, attending first the district schools of Mill Creek township, then the public schools of New Lebanon, and finally the New Lebanon Academy. He married on the 23d of March, 1876, Sarah Morton, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, June11, 1855. Her father, George Morton, was also born in Washington county, and he resided there until 1858, when with his family he moved to Mill Creek township in Mercer county. Purchasing a farm there he was actively engaged in its improvement and cultivation until he retired from active labor in 1884, and his death occurred on the 30th of September, 1896. William Wesley and Sarah Bruner became the parents of three children, namely: Mary Elizabeth, who was born on January 23, 1877, and is the wife of Professor S. A. Rhoads, the principal of school No.22 in Washington county; Earl D., who is mentioned below; and Anna Helen, who was born on the 22d of March, 1889, and is a graduate of the McElwain Institute. In politics William Wesley Bruner is a stanch Republican, and during the past twelve years he has served as the tax collector of Mill Creek township. He is a member of the fraternal order of Knights of Maccabees, and both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church at Utica.

Prof. Earl Daniel Bruner was born on the 2d of December 1879, in Mill Creek township, and after attending the McCracken school there for some years he entered the McElwain Institute and graduated with its class of 1898. Then passing to the Edinboro State Normal School, he was graduated from that institution in 1901, and with this excellent training to serve as a foundation he has made the education of the young his profession. His educational labors include two years in Mercer county, two years in Venango county, one year in the New Bremen high school, one year at Dunbar in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, one year at Ohiopyle Falls in Fayette county, and since 1904 he has been the efficient superintendent of the North Union schools. On the 22d of June, 1904, he was united in marriage to Martha Belle Moon, who was born on the 31st of October, 1880, a daughter of George W. and Amanda (Bailey) Moon, of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, where Mr. Moon is a retired lumber dealer. The only child of this union is a son, William Henry Bruner, born on the 20th of September, 1906. Professor Bruner gives his political support to the Republican party, and he is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Methodist church at Uniontown.

Source: A Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, Vol. II, p. 928-929, by J. G. White (Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1909.  Originally transcribed by Thomas Felt. Submitted by Jane Stratton-Boast


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