Document text
AppAximately 2,000 words
SOUTH CAROLINA. WRITERS' PROJECT
LIFE HISTORY
TITLE: KARL A. BRUCKER* STONECUTTER
Date of First Writing Deoember 29, 1938
Nmae of Person Interviewed George A. Bruns (white
Fictitious Neale Karl A. Brusker
Street Address 1300 Calhoun Street
Place Columbia, S. C.
Occupation Stonecutter
Name of Writer
Name of Reviser
Stiles M. Soruggs
State Office
When I called at the stoneyard of Karl A. Brucker, he was closing a
sale of a tor:beton* to a lady customer. After he had finished, he asked
the object of my visit. 114 then invited me into his offioe and willingly
gave the following story of his life.
"I was born March 27, 1874* at our home, which was then on the 2000
block of Sumter Street, Columbia. I am the youngest son of Karl Brucker
and Elisabeth (Kiibraugh) Bruoker. Both my father and my mother were born
near Hanover, Germany. They, with their parents, came to South Carolina,
when father was sixteen and mother was twelve years old. These families
were neighbors in Germany and likewise when they Game over here.
"Father had never seen a banana until he ewe a big bunch hanging in
a Charleston grocery store. He asked the clerk what the bunch was. tBanamas,
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the clerk said in German. 'They are good to eat.' lie pulled off one and
handed it to father, and he started to eat it, rind and all. 'Hey, you can't
eat it that mayil said the clerk, taking the banana and pealing it. Then he
han4011 it back, saying, 'Now eat it.' And father did. He liked is so well
that he bought a dozen and kept eating. Soon he was ill from the effects of
the strange fruit. He never oared for bananas again. He told me the story
one day when I carried his lunch to the jewelry store. I had bought two
bananas and placed them in his lunch.
"My father learned the jeweler's trade and established a jewelry !store
on the 1500 block of Main Street. The store stood on the site where the
S. H. Kress store now stands. He managed to pay house and store rent and to
support the family, which embraced my mothers four some, and two daughters.
But none af the children had any spending money unless they earned it. At
the time I started to school, when I was saran years old, I had a few nickels
in my pocket that I had saved from my paper carrying earnings. I carried the
route for The Columbia Daily Register in 1881, for fifty cents a week. The
carriers today, they tell me, now get ten or twelve dollars a week for the
job I did for half a dollar.
"I kept in the public eohool until I completed the course, and on "-,;atur+
days I sold papers, or carried a route between sessions. The little sums that
I earned in the summer, generally less than a dollar a week, helped to pay for
school books and little things dear to boy life, such as candy and chewing gum.
Through direction of my father, I transferred from public school to Thompionis
Aoademy. It stood where Tmrlor public school now stands. There I remained
during 1890-91.
*My schooling was apparently a tug of war between me and the teachers
from beginning to end. One illustration may suffice to show what caused it.
:Ivory time a oiroue came to town I would leave the sohoolroom and follow the
parade to the a hair grounds. One time it was P. T. Barnuces slim. I had seen
his picture in the norespapers and read about him until I vas anxious to see
him. At the show grounds I was talking about it to the strange lads I saw
there near the big teat. II sure would love to see P. T. Barnum, I was say
Lug. As I looked up a welleedreased., smooth -faced gentleman was passing by me.
Be adjusted his silk hat tad wailingly saids Ladle, you wish to see
Ub. Barran?' Ives dIsabfouzaled, but I saids'Yes, sir, but I lack ten cents
having the price) to get in.' lie took me by the hand, and at an entrance he
told the mans
'See that this lad gets a good seat near the oenter ring. 110 is RI
guest, and I'm judging he will grow up to be a great shoeman.' The nart who
took no to a seat, said, 'You must be a great lad to win favor or the Mall who
mem Barmaa's Greatest Shows on Barth.' ?rota ry seat I cheered when the same
gentleman who put me in the twat came out to nuke an announoeuent. This thrill
was so enjoyable to me that school switches mattered little. I think I got one
for that lark, but I received so maw whippings that I have lost track of the
eount.
ma I warn seventeen years old, I became anxious to earn SOMO money. So
I got a job with A. R. Stewart, who was working the granite quarry at Granby,
three and a half mils* below :;oltasbia, on the east side of the Congaree River.
fat:o.or was unwilling for mo to quit school, and he arranged for TAO to attend
might school, when returned. from Gra. 4o I began work at Granby the next
day. And a2ter I had finished a lard days work and walked approximately four
:Ales hale, I was not yet through my daily task.
"7.he hard days work in the grunito quarry, and the four mile walk home,
wore 2ollowed with a bath, supper, and then an hour at night school. neturning
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home, I studied at least an hours preparing my lessons for this next day.
When I hit the hey, as our boy gang °ailed tho bed, I was so dolma tired
that I vas *Alsip almost instantly. Father saw the tasks were hard Gnaw,.
but ha was not disturbed much about it. Ono evening as we talked, he said,
'Every German boy has to learn at least one trade. Even the son of the
Kaiser is not excepted. Life is a struggle, Son, physleal4 and mentally.
Although you aro an American citizen, you are a German boy, and you are
learning a good trade. You will not bit breeds become* you are net afraid
of hard work and long bows. Ion proud of you!'
"After three years at Granby, during which my ear, had increased from
fifty cents a day to throe dollars a day, Mr. Stewart told ms I could go to
Rion, where he also had a producing plant, and finish my four year appren-
tioeship, if I so desired. I gladly accepted the ohmage. Aaid at Rion,
Fairfield County, South Carolina, I became a full-fledged journermmt stone-
outtor,and my limes increased accordingly.
From 1896 to 1904, I engaged in the building trades as a stonscutter.
At different times, I worked on the Anderson Courthouse# several stool,
steno, and brick buildings at Atlanta; Stone Mountaini and on 'mother court..
house at Lithonia, Georgia, The wage in 1896 vas not so big as it is now.
The top was five dollars a day then. Now is it nine dollars. I saved a
considerable sun on these early jobs. But they were far between, and I had
to spend money when I oamo home, waiting to get work again.
"My father was getting old, and he was 6f ten siek; or my younger sister
was and the money in irri pocket went out to both of then when it was
needed. My sister, Amelia, was a mere babe when our mother died. I was the
youngest son, and I VIA only three years old at that time. Amelia and I
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stayed with father all his life. When he died of old age ailments, in 1916,
he left the home residence to Amelia endue.
"Failing to get rieh in the building trade, I quit it. And in 1904,
I engaged in the monument business in Columbia, under the firm name of Hyatt
and Brooker. Mr. Hyatt looked after the granite dnd of the work, and I ape..
oialised on the marble side. rhs firm managed to vizi favor with the buying
group, and we did a pretty fair business. In 1916, I bought Mr. Hyattls
interest in the stonmyard and have been operating it ever since. As I look
over the years, it occurs to me that my life has been a struggle from infancy
to date. What little education I got wee a big struggle. My trade apprentiee-
ship wee a hard grueling life. My career as a builder was full of hard work
at a law scale of wages, and the building ur of this monument yard was not at
all an easy life.
"The reason that I am a bachelor is net because didn't level the girls.
The one great love I had for one girl, here in Colunbia, gives me a sweet
memory even to this day. The men who 'rote: 'It is better to have loved
and lost,, than never to have loved at all,' certainly spoke my sentiments.
I lost the girl because I told her we would have to care for my father and
sister as long as they lived. She wished a home of her own and nobody in it
but herself and her husband.
"And now, at the age of 65, one of my big duties at the stoneyard today
is the designing of monument patterns. These change with the years, just as
the styles of hate or automobiles do. MC practice in the cutting of stone
here on the yard. In addition, we get monument catalogues annually, from
which we get fashion designs.
"JIst now the request for monuments is, generally speaking, for either
marble or gmanite in rather modest design. Each monument is fitted with spe-
cial coping to surround a grave, and the onseMble in a modern cemetery is
naa thought to be very attracti7o to the eys.
"From the business angle of my stoneyard, we keep busy, therefore, we
aro reasonably happy. I buy my supplies of granite and marble fresay sawed.
The blue granite from nion quarries won the blue ribbon at the ChloagoWorldes
2air, in 1094, and it has been popular in the trade ever since. I buy marble,
freshly saved, from the quarries at Tate, Georgia, and iaport Italian marble
from Philadelphia. The sawed stone arriving here in the rough, is dressed,
lettered, and carved on this yard.
"The letters are first carved on a glass -like rUbber, attached over a
stone. Then the letters are out out on the rubber, and afterwards, we blow
them in the cut holes on the rubber with a said machine. When we remove the
rubber blanket with hot water from the stone, the letters are out in the
stone. This is a great improvement over the old system of outting the letters
by hand, which sometimes cracked the stone and was not nearly so regular and
neat as the present system.
"I employ stonecutters who have specialised in dressing and lettering in,
seriptions on uonuments. TWO of the employees work an granite and one on mmr-
ble. I am inclined to think that my plant sells its full share of monuments
in the f;oluribia District. The law, and public sentiment as well,eauses the
maret to oall for the three foot height and two and one-half foot width mono-
nuent in either granite or marble.
"The tall theft is made only on speoial order, and it has been more than
a year since we have had a call for one. The depression in past years, such
as in 1693, or 1907, never interferred very noeh with my sales. But the de..
pression of 1929 and yet hanging fire caused a considerable sleekness in
my trade. Duainess for 1838-9 has been better at my yard than it has in other
years since 1929. My sales in 1938 netted me 43,147.50. This figure is about
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as high an averane as I have yet had at the olose of a year. But, of course.
I hope to do a nreater business in 1939."