Bruce Pine
The man who starts out when he is fourteen years of age to seek his fortune will find it if he has the necessary ambition and ability. Such a man is Bruce Pine, who started out for himself at a time when the boys of today are still in school. Beginning at the foot of the ladder, he has earned his way to independence solely through his own efforts and therefore is eminently entitled to recognition in this history of his county. Not only has he made a name for himself as an efficient farmer, but he has also taken an active part in the life of the community about him, thereby earning the approbation of his fellow citizens.
Bruce Pine, the son of George and Ellen (Irion) Pine, was born February 3, 1871, at Washington C. H. His father was a native of Martinsburg, West Virginia, and located in Greenfield, Ohio, when he was a young man. After his marriage, George Pine moved to the county seat of Fayette county, where he followed his trade of bricklaying and contracting. In addition to his other interests in Washington C. H., George Pine owned a farm in Union township, where he lived for a time. He and his wife reared a family of six children. Charles, Ward, Dudley, Bruce, Glenn and Frank. The father and mother are buried in the cemetery at Washington C. H.
The education of Bruce Pine was received in the schools of Washington C. H. and the district schools of Union township. At the early age of fourteen he began to work out by the month for Eli Post and, although his wages were very small, he saved enough within a few years to make a payment on a forty-acre farm in Union township. He worked on this farm for several years and then sold it at a good profit and bought his present farm of one hundred and eighteen acres in the same township. He is a systematic and careful farmer and gets the maximum results for his labor and is rightly classed among the best farmers of the county.
Mr. Pine was married February 20. 1901. to Laura E. Clifton, the daughter of M. J. and Serilda (Mallow) Clifton. Her father was born and reared in Ross county, Ohio, and came to Fayette county about twenty years ago. M. J. Clifton is the son of Daniel and Eliza Ann (Rogers) Clifton, his father being one of the very first white children born within the present state of Ohio. Eliza Ann Rogers was the daughter of John Rogers, who was the nephew of Benjamin Rogers, one of the first settlers in the state. John Rogers came to Ross county in 1796 from Loudoun county. Virginia, by way of Kentucky, and he helped to build the first cabins in Chillicothe in 1796. Isabella Rogers, the mother of Benjamin, was the oldest woman in the state at the time of her death. Mrs. Pine is one of four children, the others being John M., Charles M. and Arthur B. John lives in Ross county and the other two brothers are residents of Fayette county, both being farmers in Wayne township.
Mr. Pine is a Democrat politically, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Eiiiscopal church.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)