| Bruce, Thomas Decoursey 155146 |
| Birth: 09/05/1867 Death: 07/04/1952 Marriage: |
| Cemetery: Evergreen (22-90-WALK) |
| Record Source: Texas Death Certificate, Researcher-Submitted Info, The Paris News |
| Update info |
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If you copy this information, please cite this as your source: Betsy Mills and Ron Brothers. The Death and Cemetery Records of Lamar County, Texas, ReBroMa Press, 2008, http://www.lamarcountytx.org/cemetery. (12/15/2025) |
| Notes From an unknown and undated newspaper clipping about Thomas Decoursey Bruce: “Thomas D. Bruce, left in the picture above, has had a long and interesting career in the oil mill milling business since he first hit Texas way back in 1889. The following story of his life proves interesting also. He was born at Stephenson, Ala., on September 5, 1867, son of Harris and Sarah Bruce. He moved with his parents when he was quite young to Elijah, Ga., where his father died in 1873. After a few years his mother remarried and his step-father moved the family to Russelville, Ark., where he attended school in 1881. In 1882 they returned to Georgia, settling near Ringold, 25 miles from Chattanooga, Tenn. In these years of the South’s struggle for reconstruction after the Civil War, money scarce and times were hard, so Tom Bruce was hired out to a man by the name of Jim Burns for $10.00 a month, with room and board. This was the summer of 1882. In the fall of 1882 he was sent to Fort Payne, Ala., to go to school and stayed with his parental grandfather, U. S. Senator Bailey Bruce. In 1884 he started to work on a railroad which was being built up Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tenn. In 1885 he was working with A. G. S. railway company as news butch. After a short time he began firing on the run between Chattanooga and Birmingham, Ala. In 1889 he was married to Eliza Ann Walker in Murry County, Ga., and moved to Bonham, Texas, to work for Major Dale. The first work was the construction of a cotton gin, which he operated for three seasons. In 1893, he helped to build an oil mill at Bonham for Dale Halsell, and was superintendent of the Clarksville Cotton Oil Company until 1910. He began his career with the Southland Cotton Oil Company in 1910 as superintendent of the Ladonia, Texas, mill with Sam Roberts as manager. In 1916 he was transferred to the Paris, Texas, mill where he stayed 18 seasons before being transferred to the Waxahachie mill; then to Wynnewood, Okla., branch in 1937. He is in his eighty-second years of life and still on the Southland active payroll. He has two sons, one C. S. Bruce, superintendent of the mill at Wolfe City, Texas, and John Bruce (shown at right in the picture above) superintendent of the Durant Cotton Oil Company. Other members of Mr. Bruces’s family who are in some way connected with the oil milling business are Tommy Pierce, grandson, who travels out of Waco, Texas, for Mrs. Tucker’s Foods, Inc., and three nephews he reared in his home, Bailey Bruce, at Southland’s Paris Mill; Carlin Bruce, Southland’s Jackson, Miss., mill and Ben Bruce, chemist for Southland’s mill in Waxahachie, Texas. He never misses Sunday School and church, and he is an ardent reader of Shakespeare, early history and the Bible. At present he is resting and relaxing in the home of an only daughter in Paris, Texas.” THE PARIS NEWS,6 Jul 1952, Sunday, p. 7: “T. D. Bruce - T. D. Bruce, 84, longtime employee of Southland Cotton Oil Company here, died at home, 1623 Church St., Friday at 10:50 a.m. The funeral, Sunday at 3 p.m., will be held in Fry and Gibbs Funeral Home by the Rev. James S. Riley of First Baptist Church. Interment will be made in Evergreen Cemetery. Pallbearers will be three foster sons, Ben Bruce, Carlin Bruce and Bailey Bruce, and Amos Woodruff, Tom Allman and Emory Bridges. Thomas DeCoursey Bruce was born in Stephenville. Ala., Sept. 5, 1867, son of Harris and Sarah (Plemmoms) Bruce. He was a grandson of U. S. Senator Bailey Bruce who reared him and sent him to a private school at Fort Payne, Ala. The family traces its ancestry to Robert Bruce of Scottish history. A Baptist since the age of 21, Mr. Bruce had been a member of First Church here since 1916. He had been connected with Southland Cotton Oil Company nearly 25 years, until ill health caused his retirement, three years ago. He married Miss Elizabeth Ann Walker, who died in 1908. Their children surviving are Mrs. Myrtle Pierce, Paris; Bill Bruce, Longview, and John Bruce, Durant, Okla. There are 11 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.” Information from Texas Death Certificate: On the same stone with Elisa Ann Bruce. Tombstone is inscribed Thomas D. Bruce with years of birth and death only. |