HOME
REGARDING JOHN BRUCE
1849 Counted in
Red River census at St, Boniface: #9, Bruce, John, age 19, of Ruperts
Land,
married, with married woman, no
children, & no house or other property
1856 Living at Red
River, age 27, with wife, 1 young son, & 1 young daughter
1861 July 15, St.
Boniface, witnessed burial of Louis Bruce
1862 April 13, St.
Boniface, witnessed burial of Elise Beauchemin dit Millette
1862 July 11, St.
Boniface, stood godfather at baptism of Virginie Bruce
1864 Jan 11, St.
Boniface, witnessed burial of Francois Poitras
1864 Jan 12,
St. Boniface, witnessed burial of father Pierre Bruce
1865 Oct 31,
St. Boniface, signed name, witnessed burial of Sara Henry
1866 July 30, St.
Boniface, signed name, stood godfather at baptism of John Plante
1866 Dec 9, St.
Boniface, signed name, stood godfather at baptism of Alexandre Hayden
1867 Jan 20, St.
Boniface, stood godmother at baptism of Veronique Larance
1867 Feb 19, St.
Boniface, witnessed marriage of Antoine Larocque & Elise Delorme
1867 June 8,
St. Boniface, stood godfather at baptism of Marie Poitras
1868 Feb 9,
At St. Boniface, stood godfather at baptism of Chrysostome Hayden
1868 Dec 17,
Appointed by Council as magistrate for Middle District Court (Oliver,
The Canadian North-West, Vol. I, p. 598)
1869 Oct.
15, Employee of
AGB Bannatyne,
elected President of council which became Provisional
Metis Govt.
1869 Oct
21, [Red
River] "The High
Constable, Mulligan, has just come to inform me, as a matter
of duty, that a meeting took
place yesterday, at a house of a French half-breed,
named Bruce, on the other side
of the river, by a number of the disaffected French
party, among whom the man Riel
was conspicuous. That at such meeting it
was
resolved, to send an armed party
to meet the Governor, whom they expected to
come in to-morrow, and to
prevent at all hazards, his entering the settlement." (J. S.
Dennis to Wm. McDougall, Oct 23,
1869, in Correspondence and papers connected
with recent occurrences in the
North-West Territories, p. 7)
1869
Dec. 18, "John Bruce who
has been
dangerously ill is recovering and he is now thought to be
out of danger." (Alexander Begg's Red River Journal, p. 233)
1869
Dec 19, At St.
Boniface, signed
name, stood godfather at baptism of Sara Lane
1869
Dec. 20, "John Bruce
President of
the French who was reported some time ago as not being
likely to recover from his
sickness was out to-day and took his place at the head of
the Council board." (Alexander Begg's Red River Journal, p. 235)
1869
Dec. 24, "President Bruce
has
retired from being the head of the French Party on account of
his health and now acts only as
a councilor." (Alexander Begg's Red River Journal,
p. 239) (Made official Dec. 27,
ibid., p. 255)
1869
Dec. 28, "John Bruce is
suspected
of acting double as a spy - he is recovering his health
more rapidly since he retired
from being president." (Alexander
Begg's Red River
Journal, p. 244)
1870
Feb 21, At St.
Boniface, witnessed
marriage of Joseph McMillan & Appoline Bruce
1873
July 1, At St. Boniface, witnessed
burial of Marguerite Blondeau
1877 Mar
20, Received
patent to Lot 12, 161
56/100 acres, Parish of St. Norbert
(RG: 68 / Liber: 48 / Folio: 1 /
Name: John Bruce)
1879
Jun 3, St. Joseph, Pembina, stood
godfather at baptism of Marie Marguerite Bruce
1880
Counted in United States
CENSUS at E. D. 128,
Pembina, Dakota Territory:
John Bruce, Self, Married, Male,
NA, age 52, b. Can, Farmer, father b. Can, mother b. Can
Angelegie Bruce, Wife, Married,
Female, NA, age 50, b. Can, Housek, father b. Can,
mother b. Can
Jean Bruce, Son, Single, Male,
NA, age 23, b. Can, At Home, father b. Can, mother b. Can
Romi Bruce, Son, Single, Male,
NA, age 21, b. Can, At Home, father b. Can, mother b. Can
William Bruce, Son, Single,
Male, NA, age 18, b. Can, At Home, father b. Can, mother b. Can
Joseph Bruce, Son, Single, Male,
NA, age 15, b. Can, At School, father b. Can, mother b. Can
Marie Rose Bruce, Dau, Single,
Female, NA, age 10, b. Can, At Home, father b. Can, mother
b. Can
Margurite Bruce, DauL, Married,
Female, NA, age 18, b. MN, At Home, father b. MN, mother
b. Dak
1883
Aug 6, At Our Lady of Sacred Heart, Olga,
witnessed marriage of Jean Bruce & Justine Godon
1886
Bruce, John - Extract from a
private letter to N. O. Cote, that his children Jean, Reine,
Joseph and Marie Rose sold their
HB patents to William Betts when they were minors,
has been informed that the
transaction is null and void and asks information re the
recovery of said patents.
(RG1, Series D-II-3, Volume 191,
Reel T-12031, File: HB 3683, Finding Aid: 15-17)
1887
Lands Commissioner - Encloses
schedule of disallowed HB applicants residing in
Dakota and residents there
before and after the transfer. Refers to declaration John
Bruce, first president of
Provincial Government in 1869
(RG15, Series D-II-3, Volume
194, Reel T-12033, File: HB 4323, Finding Aid: 15-17)
1889
Sep 20, St.
Joseph, Pembina,
stood godfather at baptism of Jules Josue Venne
1891
May 31, St. Joseph,
Pembina, stood
godfather at baptism of Veronique Bruce
1893 Oct
26, John Bruce died St. Joseph,
Pembina Co
1893
Oct 28, St. Joseph,
Pembina Co: John Bruce, buried age 68 years,
widower,
Witnesses: John Bruce and Remi Bruce.
M. Z. A. PERRON priest. (Morin,
SJL, Record of Interments, page 5)
John Bruce has been
described as a “figurehead” in the Métis movement of 1869–70 in
the northwest,
but evidence seems to suggest that he was a man of some prominence who
had
ideas of his own as to the future of the Red River settlement. He was a
carpenter and, although not particularly well educated, assisted fellow
Métis
in presenting cases before the courts of Assiniboia. In 1869 he was
working for
the firm of Andrew Graham Ballenden Bannatyne* and Alexander Begg.
At the beginning of October
that year he met with Louis Riel* and three other Métis,
probably
François-Xavier Dauphinais, Pierre Poitras, and André or
Jean-Baptiste
Beauchemin, in the court-house just outside Upper Fort Garry (Winnipeg)
to form
a committee to prevent the lieutenant governor designate, William
McDougall*,
from entering the settlement until the Canadian government had
guaranteed that
the rights of the inhabitants would be respected. Riel and Bruce
subsequently
attended a meeting at the home of magistrate Thomas Sinclair in the
parish of
St Andrews, in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade
English-speaking
mixed-bloods to oppose McDougall’s entry. In mid October Bruce was
elected
president of the National Committee of the Métis and on
8 December, when a
provisional government was proclaimed by Riel, he became its head. He
occupied
the latter post until he resigned on 27 December, citing poor
health.
There was speculation concerning divisions of opinion among the leaders
of the
government. In a letter to Le Courrier
de Saint-Hyacinthe in
February 1870 Bruce denied the existence of such divisions, but
hinted at his
own opposition to the settlement’s becoming part of Canada rather than
of the
United States. He remained on the governing council, serving as
commissioner of
public works. Under his direction the ice on the Assiniboine River was
cut away
from the pontoons supporting the bridge so that the spring breakup of
1870
would not remove it. Repairs were made to other bridges.
Although Bruce later denied
further participation in the provisional government, he was at Upper
Fort Garry
in July 1870 and privy to Riel’s activities. He wrote to
Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché of
the problems faced by Riel in coping with Indians who came for help in
response
to promises made to them during the winter by anti-Riel agitator John
Christian
Schultz and by agents of McDougall.
He also knew of the arrival of Captain William Francois Butler, an
intelligence officer for the Red River expeditionary force on its way
to the
colony under the command of Colonel Garnet Joseph Wolseley. Bruce
did not
accompany Riel and Ambroise-Dydime Lépine when they fled on the
arrival of
Wolseley’s troops. He remained in the settlement and was appointed
petty judge
and magistrate by Adams George Archibald,
Manitoba’s first lieutenant governor.
In August 1871 Bruce
decided to sell his land, but feared that if he sold it to Bannatyne,
it might
be resold to an Orangeman. In a letter to Taché he mentioned
debts as a reason
for selling, but there was another more compelling. All through the
fall and
winter of 1870–71, the 1st (Ontario) Battalion of Rifles, a volunteer
regiment
stationed at Upper Fort Garry, had sought out and attacked Métis
who ventured
into the fort, making nearly impossible Archibald’s sincere attempts to
establish peace and order. The volunteers did not ask whether a
Métis had
supported Riel. Any Métis was fair game. The violence culminated
in a mutiny on
18 Feb. 1871, when the jail was broken open, prisoners were
released,
and the mutineers were out of control for hours. Fresh violence erupted
again
in the spring. In a letter to Prime Minister Sir John
A. Macdonald, Archibald explained why Riel’s
former associate William Bernard O’Donoghue* could with good reason
expect a
general rising of the Métis if he appeared at the border with an
armed force of
Fenians, as it was rumoured he planned to do. “Many of [the
Métis],” Archibald
wrote, “actually have been so beaten and outraged that they feel as if
they
were living in a state of slavery.”
There is evidence to
suggest that Bruce joined O’Donoghue when he appeared with a small
force at Pembina,
N.Dak., that autumn in an unsuccessful attempt to strike a blow against
Britain
by invading Manitoba. Jean-Baptiste Lépine* and André
Nault* explained their
absence on 4 October from a meeting of a committee then working to
maintain Métis allegiance to the federal and provincial
governments by writing
that they had gone “to see what O’Donoghue wants, whether he is strong,
and to
watch the doings of Bruce, and all the Métis of the Province
near him.” A
proclamation was published stripping Bruce of his appointments. In
November
Archibald reported to Macdonald that “the dismissal of a man named
Bruce from
the Magistracy has also done good.”
Bruce appeared as a key
witness at the trial in 1874 of A.-D. Lépine, charged with
the
murder of Thomas Scott. Le Métis
referred to him as a “Turncoat and traitor,” because of his testimony
against
Lépine. Some time after 1874
he and his family moved to Leroy. In early 1892 he
fell ill and wished to become reconciled with his church. He wrote to
Taché,
saying that he had listened to poor advice and asking for forgiveness.
He died
at Leroy, and was buried in the cemetery of the Roman Catholic church.
Study of John Bruce sheds
new light upon the varying shades of opinion which existed both in the
provisional government of 1869–70 and in the tormented Métis
community of later
years.
