Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1932-07-28
By. L. S. MOORE

this sketch, was born in. Rowan Coun.
ty on the Yadkin River about sever
miles from Salisbury.He was the only
son 'ot Henry Bruner, a gunsmith by
trade, and the third generation of the
name-the first Heruich having i'm
migrated to America in 1871 with
John Jacob Bruner, presumably hi,
father, as he was then a mere lad OF
less than siateen years of. age. Wheth-
er or not the trade of gunsmith wa
handed down from father to son i.
not positively known, but a few of the
Bruner flint lock rifles are still in ex-
istence and are evidently the work of
Henry, the father of the Henry nam
ed above. From wills dated 1869 and
1903 respectively, it is known howev-
er, that they were landowners and men
of substance.
On September 18th, 1914, Henry
Bruner married Edith, youngest daugh-
ter of Col. West Harris of Montgom-
cry County and his wife, Edith Led
better of Arson. Col. Harris was a
native North Carolinian, but his faith
er, West Harris, ST., came from Isle
of Wight County, Virginia, and was
first a citizen of Granville County,
North Carolina, serving there as
vestryman of St. Johns Parish in
1746, and in 1856 he is one who long
refused to qualify as a Justice of the
peace" Subsequently he settled with
his family in that section now known
as Montgomery County. The history
of this family is of interest, as it cov-
ers a period of more than two hun
dred and twenty-five years, going
back to the first settlement of the
country. The. ancestor Of the North
Carolina branch was one Thomas Har-
ris, the date of whose will, as record
ed in Isle Of Wight County, Virginia,
is October ye 9th, 1888, and that Of
his son, Edward, dated March 18th,
1884. Both father and son leave land
granted them by Patent to their pos
terity. West Harris, ST., was the son
of Edward and father of Col. West
Harris, who ION the breaking out of
hostilities with the mother country,
enlisted in the North Carolina Line of
the Continental Amry-9th Regiment
as Lieutenant, and Notwithstanding
lis youth, by PATRIOTISM, zeal and IN
.repidity was advanced before the end
# the war to the rank of Colonel.
After the peace he represented his tel
low citizens for a number of years in
the General Assembly Of the State.
And such was the confidence of the
people in his probity and intelligence,
that any office in their gift was at his
command. In the private walks OF lite
he was equally esteemed: he was be-
.nevolent to the poor, and honorable in
ali his dealings with the world"
Western Carolinian August 7fb,
1920. He died July 18th, 1926, aged
sixty-nine years and was Aid to rest
in the private burial grounds on his
estate near the mouth Of Beaverdam
Creek.
Here for more than a century had
rested the bodies of members OF the
Harris families, but owing to the fact
that when the big dam on the Yadkin
near Badin, then under construction
-1e16-was finished and the waters
turned on, practically submerging ten
thousand acres of land, this among
Others, would become the bed OF a
vast body of water. In consequence
thereof, steps were at once taken by
descendants to exhume the remains.
During his life Mr.. Bruner had seen
personally to the care of this sacred
SPOT and had made provisions for its
upkeep after his demise, hence it was
deemed but fitting that the ahes OF his
beloved dead should lie with his in the
old English Cemetery, there to awal
the Resurrection Morn.
The exhuming Of these remains, OF
which seven in number were brought
to Salisbury, goes back into -he his
tory Of the family in North Carolina
nearly two hundred years, the eldest
being West Harris, ST., born August
18th, 1715, died May 18th, 1875.
To Henry Bruner and Edith, nj:
wife, two children were born, Salins
Williamson, first and only daughter
August 4th, 1915, and John Joseph
March 18th, 1917. When the latte1
was a little over two years old, hi
father died and his mother with he1
two children returned to her father,
residence in Montgomery.
In 1925 John Joseph came to Sal.
isbury, under the care of his uncle
the Hon. Charles Fisher, father of Col
Chas. F. Fisher who fell at the Battl
of Bull Run. His first year in Sails.
bury was spent in attending the schoo
~ IL Wv,