Louis J. Bruner, the military claim attorney of
Portland, established his business in December, 1884, and is the only
exclusive military claim attorney the town has had. Before engaging in this
business, no work in his line had been done by the attorneys of the place.
Mr. Bruner is very successful in pressing the claims of the old soldiers,
and in 1886, including arrearages he recovered about 200 pensions.
Mr. Bruner is a native of Indiana, born in Monroe County, October 6, 1838,
his father, Elias Bruner, being one of the first pioneers of Monroe County,
where he located as early as 1819. Elias Brunner was a native of
Pennsylvania, and in early childhood was taken by his parents to Virginia,
thence to East Tennessee, coming to Indiana when a young man. He was a local
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For his wife, he married Jency
Tyrant, who died at the birth of our subject. They were the parents of six
sons and two daughters, all of the sons but Louis who united with the
Methodist Episcopal Church at the age of seven years, becoming Methodist
ministers, four of whom are still living. In 1852, Elias Bruner removed with
his family to Texas, where he lived until 1869. Then moved to Arkansas and
died in 1870.
Louis J. Bruner, the subject of this
sketch was reared in his native county and in his youth had common school
and collegiate advantages, being a student at Indiana Asbury University for
three years. In 1862, he enlisted in Company H, Fifth Indiana Cavalry, in
which he served three years, and had previously served a short time in
Company E, Seventy-Sixth Indiana Infantry. He was a gallant and faithful
soldier, and was constantly with his regiment, participating in all its
operations. The regiment, of which Mr. Bruner was a member, did very
effective serving during the war, almost constantly marching and fighting,
principally in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia. It
participated in twenty-two battles, and every day during the month of June,
1864, it was engaged in skirmishing with the enemy. During its term of
service, it marched 2800 miles and was transported by water 1,000. It
captured 640 prisoners. Thirty-four members of this regiment were killed in
battle, thirteen died from wounds, 115 died in rebel prisons, seventy-four
died in hospital, seventy-two were wounded in action, 497 were taken
prisoners by the enemy, officers killed, one, and officers wounded,
seventeen, the total casualties of the regiment being 829.
At the close of the war, Mr. Bruner returned to Indiana and engaged in
teaching school, which he successfully followed until 1881. In November of
that year, he came to Portland and engaged in the grocery business which he
followed until December, 1884, when he established his present business. Mr.
Bruner, in his political views is a Republican. He is a member of the
Masonic fraternity and a comrade of the Grand Army Post at Portland.
Biographical & Historical Record of Jay County, Indiana
Lewis Publishing Company, 1887
Transcribed by Jim Cox
Buried in Green Park Cemetery