Person:William Bruce (24)

James’ grandson wrote his Memoirs in 1851^[3]: “My first recollection that I have of my ancestors was hearing my grandfather, James Bruce, telling that himself and a younger brother, George Bruce, came from Scotland about the year 1740. My grandfather located in Winchester, Virginia. He was a house carpenter by trade, and I have heard him say that he built the first frame house that was ever built in that town. About the year 1744 he married a Margaret McMahon and moved to the north branch of the Potomac in Maryland. He continued there, following his trade and farming until he raised a large family of children. My father, William Bruce, was the eldest. He was born the 14th day of February, 1745. He had two sons younger than my father and six daughters, viz., Elizabeth, who married a man by the name of Thomas Anderson; Margaret, who married David Cox; Jane was married to a William Marshall; Nancy, that married Samuel Percifull; Ann, who married Samuel Glass; and James, who married one Polly Runyan, and George, that married the widow Biggs.

“My father married a widow Percifull, and the youngest daughter, Sally, married a Joshua Carmen, a Baptist preacher, a man of excellent character and a considerable speaker. He moved to the state of Ohio about fifty years ago, raised a large family and died at a good old age-about eighty-five. From the above enumerated uncles and aunts there has sprung an almost innumerable multitude. They mostly moved to Kentucky at an early day and settled in Nelson County. My father, soon after marrying my mother, moved to Monoghahela and settled about fourteen miles above Pittsburgh, between the mouths of Peteso Creek and Newels Store, now Elizabethtown. It was then the haunt of Indians and forts were the only place of safety for the families of those hardy pioneers. I had two sisters older than myself, that were born in the fort, and myself, the third child, soon after they ventured to their farms. I was born the Sixth of August, 1776, one month and two days after Independence was declared. I can, with the Apostle Paul, say that I was free born, while our forefathers had to obtain their freedom by their blood and treasure. During the Revolutionary War, my father was frequently called upon to perform military service. The first that I recollect him talking about was being stationed at a place then called Catfish Camp, called after an old Indian chief, near a place now called Washington, and not far from a place on the Monongahela then called Red Stone. My father served then in the capacity of lieutenant. The next service he performed was under General George Rogers Clark. He commanded a company under the veteran soldier to Louisville; was absent from home some five or six months.”

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Judy & Gary Griffin, [email protected]. Hutchinson - Laird - Griffin - Eggleston and Related Families.
2.   Annette Fisher Albin. The Albin’s of Harrison County, Indiana. (1990, Revised 1992, Revised 1994).
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5} Bruce, William, 1776-1853. Memoirs of The Bruce Family. (Bruceville, Knox, Indiana, United States : Rainbow Class, Bruceville Christian Church, 1954).