History of Harrison and Mercer Counties, Missouri

The Mercer County Battalion’s winter of 1861-62 (Edinburg, Chillicothe, escort duty at Utica). Eli Bruner and his wife, Hickman Bruner and his wife, and Adam Bruner were founding members of the Somerset Methodist Episcopal Church in 1858; Hickman kept a wagon shop beside Eli’s forge.

On Somerset (p. 446): “Somerset, a village in Somerset Township, was laid out in 1856 by Frederick Royse and Albert Bruse. … Within the next five or six years Joseph Burkhammer and David Templeton opened a store, Albert Bruse, a harness shop, Hickman Bruner, a wagon shop, and Eli Bruner, a blacksmith’s shop.” (The page as posted on Ancestry, “somerset missouri”, by kathj1012, 2018; the image is in the Gallery.)