Weston Wednesday: The adventures of Scott Bruner
Editor's Note: In collaboration with the Bartlesville Area History Museum, the Examiner-Enterprise has revived the late Edgar Weston's 'Revisiting the Past' columns that ran in the newspaper from 1997-99. Weston's columns recount the history of Bartlesville as well as Washington, Nowata and Osage counties.
Scott Bruner was a very interesting individual, but learning much about him was difficult. He talked about all of the old characters, but became silent when the conversation turned to himself. He was born at Osage Mission, about fourteen miles north of Parsons, Kansas, in Neosho County on March 4, 1872. His father farmed and ran cattle, about 300 head, on open range in that area. This was in an area served at that time by the Katy Railroad.
At about 16 years of age, he left home and settled on the Foster A. Lenno allotment on Caney River, about seven miles northwest of where Dewey is now. Soon after this, he moved to about a mile east of where Copan is now. He and Jim Gibson, a Delaware Indian, who was later a Deputy U.S. Marshall, made a place there and broke horses, principally for Robert L. Owens and Halsell’s, O.H. Ranch, the headquarters of which were then located about five miles east of present Copan.
In 1896, he married Myrtle Perkins of Shaw, Kansas. To this union no children were born, however, they did raise two children, Mrs. Bruner’s half-brother, Eddie Moore, and Mrs. Jerry Toalson. After this time, he left the Copan location and moved to Hogshooter Creek, northwest of Glenoak, or about 10 miles east of Bartlesville.
After three years of unsuccessful farming, principally due to drought, he moved to Jake Bartles’ Ranch, the headquarters at that time were three miles east and a mile north of Bartlesville. This was about 1903, and until 1905 he worked for Bartles under the supervision of his son Joe Bartles. They handled up to 10,000 head of cattle on open range, wintering most of the cattle in the Caney River bottoms northwest of Dewey, on old grass and hay.
An attempt was made to feed these cattle, trailed up from Texas, on ear corn, but since they had never seen corn before, the experiment was a failure. These cattle were steers and were kept until they were four years old before driving them to the shipping point on the railroad. They were fed cotton seed cake beginning in 1905 and gained well on the cake, old grass and hay.
In 1911, Scott Bruner went to work for Harry Brent as foreman. The Brent Ranch, about four miles east of Bartlesville, is still operating. Scott Bruner was ranch foreman and continued there until the death of Harry Brent in 1926. After that Bruner purchased a small place east of Dewey and retired. Later, they moved to Dewey locating one block west of the Santa Fe Depot where they lived until their deaths.
Naturally, a man living through the rough and rugged early days of this country had some interesting experiences and Scott Burner’s, I think you will agree, fills our desire for excitement.
In 1905, Scott Bruner was appointed a Deputy U.S. Marshall under Col. Yeas, whose headquarters were at Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and served this district with Deputy U.S. Marshall, Jim Gibson. They carried a warrant for one Bud Pitman, who had killed and sold some cattle belonging to Johnstone and Keeler, then operating a ranch east of Ramona, and who had also committed several robberies. On this particular occasion, Jim Gibson and Scott Bruner had made a trip to Cleveland, Oklahoma on a horse theft case, and on their return had camped at McClellan’s Ford, east of Ramona. They knew that there was a dance about five miles east of Ramona and that Bud Pitman might be attending. Gibson and Bruner ran into Pitman for whom they were looking. Scott Bruner, coming up the road first, accosted Pitman, and ordered him to put up his hands, all of them being mounted. As Pitman raised his arm, he drew a Winchester from the toe of his boot and shot Bruner through the left chest. Just barely under his heart, the entering bullet having first shattered his left forearm.
Pitman beat Bruner to the draw only because Bruner was wearing a mackinaw. Bruner fell from his horse and from a prone position drew his gun and shot a bullet through Pitman’s hat. The second shot killed Pitman. Jim Gibson was on the road slightly behind Bruner at the time that he killed Bud Pitman.
It was several hours before Dr. Woodring of Bartlesville could reach the scene, and why Bruner did not die from the wound with the medical facilities at that time has always seemed to be a miracle.
Bruner was asking for water in the Delaware language that he had learned from Jim Gibson, but no one could understand him. Mrs. Gibson knew the Delaware language, but she would not ford the Caney River. Mr. Buskirk of Oglesby carried water to Bruner and he was taken to Tom Harmon’s place. He had to go to Ft. Smith before Judge Parker to answer for the shooting and Parker told Bruner to go back to his home, he would never be brought to trial for this shooting.
In Jake Bartles’ record books is a long list of Delaware Indians and some white men whom Bartles loaned money so they could travel to Kansas City, Missouri to take the “Keeley Cure” to try to control their drinking problem. This was after the Santa Fe Railroad was completed. Joe Bartles and Scott Bruner took the “Keely Cure,” it worked for Scott Bruner, but didn’t help Joe Bartles.
The Indian Territory Pioneer Association was organized in 1915 and met in the Exhibit Hall at the fairgrounds each fall. Joe Bartles, Pistol Pete, and Scott Bruner were always together at the I.T.PA., and spent the day reminiscing about the past. We always gathered as close to them as possible to listen to their stories of the past. Pistol Pete always had lots of stories to tell.
When I was City Water Superintendent in Dewey in the early 1940’s, Scott Bruner came by every day. His neighbors two blocks west, complained about being awakened each
morning by Scott rattling their door or knocking and hollering, “It’s time to get up!” He did this at five or six houses near his home, waking them up from 5:30-6 a.m. He just grinned when he was confronted.
He and his wife had a happy retirement in Dewey. Scott died August 7, 1955, his wife, Myrtle, died June 5, 1956. Anyone that ever met Scott never forgot his eyebrows, they grew out and turned down to where he had to sorta look through them. They were his trademark! If we could have gotten Scott to open up and tell more of his past, I’m sure it would have been exciting
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Weston Wednesday: The adventures of Scott Bruner
