Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 191.  Jefferson County.

HORATIO WASHINGTON BRUCE, of Louisville, was born on the 22d of February
1830, on the Ohio river about one mile below Vanceburg, in Lewis county,
Kentucky.  His parents were Alexander and Amanda (Bragg) Bruce, both born
in Kentucky, of Virginia parents, and representatives of old families of
that state.  The Bruce family is of Scotch origin and was founded in
American by the great-grandfather of the subject of this notice, who left
his native Scotland and took up his residence in Virginia, where he
followed merchandising. He spent the remainder of his days in Pittsylvania
county, Virginia.  John Bruce, the grandfather,--of Pittsylvania county,
Virginia,--was born in 1748, and died in 1827, at the age of seventy-nine.
He married Elizabeth Clay, daughter of Henry Clay, Jr., of Mecklenburg
county, Virginia, and they had a large family of children, one of whom,
Alexander Bruce, was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, in 1796.  He
married Amanda Bragg, who was born in Lewis county, Kentucky, in 1803, a
daughter of Thomas and Lucy (Blakemore) Bragg.  Along the maternal line
the ancestry of Mr. Bruce can be traced to Scotland.  Mrs. Bragg was a
daughter of Thomas and Ann (Nevill) Blakemore, and the latter was a
daughter of George and Mary (Gibbs) Nevill.  The parents of Mrs. Nevill
were John and Marian Gibbs, Scotch people, who took up their residence in
Virginia long prior to the war of the Revolution.
     Alexander Bruce, father of Judge Bruce, of Louisville, was a
prominent business man, devoting his energies to various pursuits. He was
a lawyer, farmer, merchant and mill owner and represented Lewis county
in the Kentucky legislature in the session of 1825-6.  Just thirty years
afterward, the son, H. W. Bruce, represented Fleming county in the general
assembly of the state.  Alexander Bruce died in Lewis county in 1851, and
his wife died the following year.
     Horatio W. Bruce acquired his education in private and subscription
schools in Lewis county and in Manchester, Ohio.  He studied the usual
branches comprised in an academic course, including higher mathematics,
surveying and Latin, and all his life he has continued his research in
the fields of knowledge, filling the store-house of his mind with many
valuable treasures.  With the aid of a private teacher he studied French
and at one time could read it fluently.  He is today a man of ripe
scholarship and broad general information, and his investigations will
be carried forward through all his years.
     When a young man of fifteen Mr. Bruce entered a general store in
Vanceburg, Kentucky, where for several years he was employed in the
capacity of general salesman and bookkeeper.  As the post office of the
town was in the same building he also preformed the duties of postmaster.
In 1849 he was employed to teach a five-months term of school in
Vanceburg and the following year he taught a school for a similar
period in the Ohio river bottom, just below Quick's run.  He resided in
Lewis county, in or near Vanceburg, until December, 1850, when he went
to Flemingsburg, Kentucky, making his home there for eight years.  During
that period he spent the whole time in the study and practice of law. He
was a student in the law office of the Hon. Leander M. Cox, of
Flemingsburg, a very able and learned lawyer and a man of extensive and
varied erudition.  Mr. Bruce was admitted to the bar in 1851, but since
that time has never ceased to be a law student.  He has carried his
researches in jurisprudence far beyond that of the average practitioner,
and his legal learning is accurate, comprehensive and masterful.  He is
never at a loss for authority, and has won some notable victories in the
courts, yet he scorns the glittering chaplet of forensic triumph if it
must be won by debasing himself, debauching public morality or degrading
the dignity of his profession.  In December, 1858, he removed to
Louisville, where he has since made his home, with the exception of a
temporary absence from September, 1861, to June, 1865.
     Mr. Bruce was reared in the political faith of the Whig party, and
his first political speeches were in support of Winfield Scott, the
presidential candidate of that party.  On the dissolution of the Whig
party he joined the American, popularly known as the Know-Nothing party.
After the presidential campaign of 1860, in which he supported Bell and
Everett, he acted with the States'-Rights party and was its candidate
for congress in the Louisville district in June, 1861.  He had previously
served in the state legislature in 1855-6, elected on the American
ticket.  The platform of the opposition, or Bell and Everett party--"The
Union, the constitution and the enforcement of the laws"--is yet largely
his political belief.  In many offices has Judge Bruce demonstrated his
fidelity to the best interests of the country and state.  By the circuit
court he was appointed examiner for Fleming county in 1851, at which
time the office was created in the civil code of the practice.  Not long
afterward he was elected trustee of the common schools in Flemingsburg
district, in 1855 was elected to the legislature from Fleming county, and
in August, 1856, was chosen commonwealth's attorney of the tenth judicial
district, composed of the counties of Mason, Lewis, Greenup, Rowan,
Fleming and Nicholas.  That office he resigned in 1859, after removing to
Louisville.  In that city he formed a law partnership with Ben Hardin Helm,
under the firm name of Helm & Bruce, and successfully practiced his chosen
profession until the commencement of the war.
    Mr. Bruce was made a member of the southern conference held in
Russellville, Kentucky, on the 29th, 30th and 31st of October, 1861, and
of the Sovereignty convention, which met pursuant to a call issued by the
former conference and held in the same town November 18-29, 1861.  Among
other measures, on the last day of the session, the convention passed the
following ordinance: "Therefore, be it ordained, that we do hereby forever
sever our connection with the government of the United States, and in the
name of the people we do hereby declare Kentucky to be a free and
independent state, clothed with all power to fix her own destiny, and to
secure her own rights and liberties."  The convention also adopted a
constitution and established a provisional government of the state. Its
executive was a governor, and it legislature was a council of ten
members.  Its first governor was the Hon. George W. Johnson, of Scott
county, who held the office until he was killed at the battle of Shiloh,
when heroically fighting in the ranks.  Mr. Bruce was a member of the
legislative council until elected a member of the Confederate congress in
January, 1862,--Kentucky having been admitted a member of the Confederate
States of America on an equal footing with the other states in the
Confederacy, on the 10th of December, 1861, and authorized to have twelve
members in the house of representatives of the Confederate congress, as
well as two senators.
     After the downfall of the Confederacy Mr. Bruce returned to
Louisville and resumed the practice of law as a member of the firm of
Bruce & Russell, his partner being Samuel Russell.  In August, 1868, he
was elected circuit judge of the ninth judicial district, composed of
the counties of Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Bullitt.  In
January, 1873, he was appointed chancellor of the Louisville chancery
court, was elected the following February to fill out an unexpired term,
and in August, 1874, was re-elected for a full term of six years.  In
March, 1880, he resigned the chancellorship in order to become attorney
for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, and is now its chief
attorney having in charge all the intricate law business that arises in
connection with large railroad corporations,--a business which attests
his superior ability and brings into play his resourceful talents as a
legal practitioner.  Not the least important of Mr. Bruce's work, in
connection with the legal profession, was that which he performed during
the eight years in which he held a professorship in the law department
of the University of Louisville.
     Mr. Bruce was married June 12, 1856, to Elizabeth Barbour Helm,
daughter of Hon. John L. Helm, of Helm Place, Hardin county, formerly
governor of Kentucky.  Her mother, Lucinda Barbour Helm, was a daughter
of Ben Hardin, one of Kentucky's most celebrated lawyers.  The Judge and
Mrs. Bruce have five living children: Helm, Elizabeth Barbour, Maria
Preston Pope, Mary and Alexander.

Bruce Bragg Clay Blakemore Gibbs Nevill Pope Helm Russell
=
Vanceburg-Lewis-KY Garrard-KY Fleming-KY Hardin-KY Mecklenburg-VA
Pittsylvania-VA OH Scotland

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/bruce.hw2.txt