Harry Gottleib Brune, 1883–1955

Harry Gottleib Brune was born on 22 April 1883 at home at 1932 Benton Street in St. Louis, the son of Henry Brune and Sophi Aldine Hussman. Harry was confirmed on 29 March 1896 at Zion Evangelical Church located at Twenty-fifth and Benton Streets. Harry lived in the same home for sixty-two years.

Harry Brune married Amalie “Mollie” Bremer on 3 June 1908 at Zion Evangelical Church. Mollie Bremer was born on 24 October 1887 in St. Louis to Herman Bremer Sr. and Auguste Louise Koch.

When Harry registered for the World War I draft, he lived at 2344 Benton St. He was thirty-five, six feet tall, of slender build, and had gray eyes and dark hair. He was a coal dealer with his own business,

In 1901, Harry began an ice and coal business that he kept for the rest of his life. There were no refrigerators until the 1930–1940s, so people had a twenty-five, fifty, or seventy-five pound piece of ice delivered daily. Ice wagon deliveries were from six a.m. to noon, using two horses and a wagon with a roof to keep the sun off the ice.

He purchased his first truck in 1926 and delivered coal before that, up to Kingshighway, which was as far as horses could go in a day from 2500 Benton. He drove the coal wagon to the railroad track and forked it off the train car to the wagon and shoveled it at a customer’s home. He hauled two tons in the wagon with one horse or four tons with two horses. In the backyard at Benton Street there was a large two-story brick building next to the alley. At the ground level there was a stable for four horses and a room for storing coal and sacks of oats and bran for the horses.

Mollie Brune died at age forty-five on 4 June 1933. In 1946, Harry and his daughter Marie moved from Benton Street to 4519 Clarence Avenue where he lived until his death. Harry Brune died on 22 December 1955 at age seventy-two. Burial for Harry and Mollie occurred at St. Peters Cemetery.

Harry and Mollie had the following children:

• Harry Herman Brune, born on 15 November 1910 in St. Louis and died on 17 January 2006 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• Edwin Milton Brune, born on 14 November 1912 and died 10 December 2010. He married Ruth Naomi Hecht on 22 April 1939 at Zion Evangelical Church. Burials occurred at Zion Cemetery. All events in St. Louis.
• Stillborn Brune, born on 5 July 1914 in St. Louis and buried in St. Peter’s Cemetery.
• Ida “Anita” Brune, born on 16 October 1916 and died on 30 November 1993. She married Louis C. Kraus on 14 September 1946 at Zion Evangelical Church. Burials occurred at St. Johns UCC Cemetery. All events in St. Louis.
• Marie Olive Emma Brune, born on 22 July 1919 and died on 19 April 2011, both in St. Louis.

Written by Marion McCreary
June 2017

© 2016 St. Louis Genealogical Society