George W. Bruce is one of the successful businessmen of De Lamar, where he is conducting an extensive and well appointed meat market. He is also the owner of a well cultivated fruit and stock farm on Castle creek, Owyhee county, and is one of the citizens of foreign birth of whom the community has every reason to be proud, for he has taken an active part in developing the resources and augmenting the wealth and prosperity of this section of the state.
A native of the Emerald Isle, Mr. Bruce was born in county Wicklow, Ireland, in the town of Bray, September 28, 1851, and is of Scotch ancestry. His parents, John and Margaret (Thompson) Bruce, were farming people and worthy members of the Methodist church. Mr. Bruce was educated in his native country and emigrated to the United States when twenty years of age. The following year he took up his residence in Silver City, Idaho, and has spent twenty-six years in this part of the state, so that he is numbered among the pioneer settlers. He first engaged in quartz-mining, but after three months devoted to that pursuit he became proprietor of a dairy farm at Flint, and, in addition to supplying the citizens of Silver City and vicinity with milk and butter, he engaged quite extensively in raising stock, continuing in that enterprise until 1890 and having as many as twenty-five hundred head of cattle on his ranch at one time. His efforts in that direction were crowned with success, prosperity attending his labors as the years passed. In 1890, in partnership with J. C. Connors, now treasurer of the county, he opened a meat market in Silver City, and after establishing that enterprise on a paying basis they opened a branch house in De Lamar. This partnership continued until 1898, at which time the Owyhee Meat Company was organized, the members of the firm being W. P. Beers, Mr. Colborn and George W. Bruce. They have built a large cold-storage warehouse and a good shop, and are doing an extensive and lucrative business. They supply meat to the De Lamar Mining & Milling Company and to almost all the citizens of the town and surrounding country. They put up a great deal of their own beef, pride them-selves on carrying the best grades of mutton and pork, and as the result of the excellence of their products, combined with their trustworthy business methods, they have secured a large and desirable patronage.
In his political affiliations Mr. Bruce is a Republican, and socially is connected with the Odd Fellows fraternity. He is a man of strict integrity, well and favorably known in Owyhee County, and his life illustrates what can be accomplished through determined efforts, perseverance and capable management. Such men form the bulwark of our nation.