Born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of April, 1836. His father, Henry L. Holbrook, was a surveyor and schoolteacher, and owned two or three farms in Somerset county, on one of which Bruce, as he was generally called, was reared. His mother was Nancy Connelly, of whose family but little is known. The Holbrook's were from England, and among the early settlers in Oneida county, New York. Bruce remained in his native county until of age, farming and attending in a scanty measure to his intellectual wants, finally supplementing the common school with two or three terms at an academy. In the month of April, 1857, Mr. Holbrook came to Iowa; located at Marengo; at first surveyed land and taught school; commenced operating in the real-estate business in four or five years; read law and was admitted to the bar, but has not practiced, except in foreclosing mortgages and in other business immediately connected with real estate. He has operated mainly in lands in Iowa county, being the leader in this branch of business. He has paid considerable attention to the loaning of money on real estate for eastern capitalists, and has been very successful in his negotiations and transactions generally, being a careful and reliable business dispatcher. Holbrook was elected sheriff of the county in 1859, and held the office two terms. He was at the head of the Marengo school board several years at a time when the graded school was being established and the large school-house was being built, and was very energetic and serviceable in that connection; he was also president of the county board of supervisors four or five years, and was a member of the Seventeenth, Twenty and Twenty-first General Assemblies, representing Iowa county. He has always acted with the democratic party, and was a delegate to the national convention which met at Baltimore in 1872 and nominated Horace Greeley for the Presidency. His wife, Miss Lizzie S. Adams, was a native of Oneida county. New York; married at Marengo, on the 23d of November, 1861.

Born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of April, 1836. His father, Henry L. Holbrook, was a surveyor and schoolteacher, and owned two or three farms in Somerset county, on one of which Bruce, as he was generally called, was reared. His mother was Nancy Connelly, of whose family but little is known. The Holbrook's were from England, and among the early settlers in Oneida county, New York. Bruce remained in his native county until of age, farming and attending in a scanty measure to his intellectual wants, finally supplementing the common school with two or three terms at an academy. In the month of April, 1857, Mr. Holbrook came to Iowa; located at Marengo; at first surveyed land and taught school; commenced operating in the real-estate business in four or five years; read law and was admitted to the bar, but has not practiced, except in foreclosing mortgages and in other business immediately connected with real estate. He has operated mainly in lands in Iowa county, being the leader in this branch of business. He has paid considerable attention to the loaning of money on real estate for eastern capitalists, and has been very successful in his negotiations and transactions generally, being a careful and reliable business dispatcher. Holbrook was elected sheriff of the county in 1859, and held the office two terms. He was at the head of the Marengo school board several years at a time when the graded school was being established and the large school-house was being built, and was very energetic and serviceable in that connection; he was also president of the county board of supervisors four or five years, and was a member of the Seventeenth, Twenty and Twenty-first General Assemblies, representing Iowa county. He has always acted with the democratic party, and was a delegate to the national convention which met at Baltimore in 1872 and nominated Horace Greeley for the Presidency. His wife, Miss Lizzie S. Adams, was a native of Oneida county. New York; married at Marengo, on the 23d of November, 1861.

Born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of April, 1836. His father, Henry L. Holbrook, was a surveyor and schoolteacher, and owned two or three farms in Somerset county, on one of which Bruce, as he was generally called, was reared. His mother was Nancy Connelly, of whose family but little is known. The Holbrook's were from England, and among the early settlers in Oneida county, New York. Bruce remained in his native county until of age, farming and attending in a scanty measure to his intellectual wants, finally supplementing the common school with two or three terms at an academy. In the month of April, 1857, Mr. Holbrook came to Iowa; located at Marengo; at first surveyed land and taught school; commenced operating in the real-estate business in four or five years; read law and was admitted to the bar, but has not practiced, except in foreclosing mortgages and in other business immediately connected with real estate. He has operated mainly in lands in Iowa county, being the leader in this branch of business. He has paid considerable attention to the loaning of money on real estate for eastern capitalists, and has been very successful in his negotiations and transactions generally, being a careful and reliable business dispatcher. Holbrook was elected sheriff of the county in 1859, and held the office two terms. He was at the head of the Marengo school board several years at a time when the graded school was being established and the large school-house was being built, and was very energetic and serviceable in that connection; he was also president of the county board of supervisors four or five years, and was a member of the Seventeenth, Twenty and Twenty-first General Assemblies, representing Iowa county. He has always acted with the democratic party, and was a delegate to the national convention which met at Baltimore in 1872 and nominated Horace Greeley for the Presidency. His wife, Miss Lizzie S. Adams, was a native of Oneida county. New York; married at Marengo, on the 23d of November, 1861.

Born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of April, 1836. His father, Henry L. Holbrook, was a surveyor and schoolteacher, and owned two or three farms in Somerset county, on one of which Bruce, as he was generally called, was reared. His mother was Nancy Connelly, of whose family but little is known. The Holbrook's were from England, and among the early settlers in Oneida county, New York. Bruce remained in his native county until of age, farming and attending in a scanty measure to his intellectual wants, finally supplementing the common school with two or three terms at an academy. In the month of April, 1857, Mr. Holbrook came to Iowa; located at Marengo; at first surveyed land and taught school; commenced operating in the real-estate business in four or five years; read law and was admitted to the bar, but has not practiced, except in foreclosing mortgages and in other business immediately connected with real estate. He has operated mainly in lands in Iowa county, being the leader in this branch of business. He has paid considerable attention to the loaning of money on real estate for eastern capitalists, and has been very successful in his negotiations and transactions generally, being a careful and reliable business dispatcher. Holbrook was elected sheriff of the county in 1859, and held the office two terms. He was at the head of the Marengo school board several years at a time when the graded school was being established and the large school-house was being built, and was very energetic and serviceable in that connection; he was also president of the county board of supervisors four or five years, and was a member of the Seventeenth, Twenty and Twenty-first General Assemblies, representing Iowa county. He has always acted with the democratic party, and was a delegate to the national convention which met at Baltimore in 1872 and nominated Horace Greeley for the Presidency. His wife, Miss Lizzie S. Adams, was a native of Oneida county. New York; married at Marengo, on the 23d of November, 1861.