Captain W. B. Brunton Mora County, New Mexico

Captain W. B. Brunton (Company A Second Regiment Iowa Cavalry), a rancher and cattleman of Shoemaker, New Mexico, has resided in the Territory since 1883. He was born in Pennsylvania, either at East Liberty or East Pittsburg, April 27. 1838, and in 1856 became a resident of Iowa, engaging in farming in Muscatine County until the Civil war, when, aroused by a spirit of patriotic devotion to the Union, he enlisted as a member of Company A, Second Regiment of Iowa Cavalry. He became first sergeant and was promoted through successive ranks to the captaincy, being mustered out as such at Selma. Alabama, September 19, 1865. He was with General Pope's Army of the Mississippi and participated in the battles of New Madrid and Island No. 10. He was ordered to Corinth under General Halleck, participated in the siege and battle there and was in the campaigns in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. The last battle in which he participated was at Nashville under General Thomas. When the war was over and the volunteers were discharged Mr. Brunton entered the regular service June 18, 1867, continuing with the army until he resigned May 17, 1873. He entered the service as second lieutenant, but when he resigned was first lieutenant with the brevet rank of captain, for gallant conduct at the battle of Nashville, Tennessee.

He resigned while in Brazil on a leave of absence and there turned his attention to railroad construction, working as a sub-contractor and contractor in Brazil for nine years, and during two years of that period was in a commission house. His last work in South America, however, was doing railroad work. Returning to the United States in 1883, he came to New Mexico and purchased his present place near Shoemaker. He was induced to go into the cattle business and ranching and has since continued in this line of business activity, owning eleven thousand acres and also leasing twenty thousand acres of cattle land. He operates extensively in the cattle industry and is meeting with gratifying success in his undertakings.

In 1870, at Bloomfield, Iowa, Captain Brunton was married to Miss Laura B. Eichelberger, who died in Iowa in 1878. Their children are: Mary D., the wife of Lewis J. Bauer, Jr.; and John, a miner of Idaho. Captain Brunton is a commander of Sherman Post No. 1, G. A. R., Las Vegas. He was elected department commander, G. A. R., May 4, 1906, at Las Cruces. He has served as school director for two terms and is a stalwart Republican, who has frequently served as a delegate to the county and territorial conventions of his party.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.

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