Blanche K. Bruce Collection

Collection

Identifier: MSS-909

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Materials include one receipt signed by Bruce while serving as sheriff of Bolivar County, Mississippi. The remaining twelve documents are deeds, which Bruce signed while servering as recorder of deeds.

Dates

1871 - 1890

Creator

Bruce, Blanche Kelso (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

None.

Rights Statement

Any requests for permission to publish, quote, or reproduce materials from this collection must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Unit of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Mississippi State University as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Biographical Note

Blanche Kelso Bruce was born on March 1, 1841, near Farmville, Virginia. His parents were Polly Bruce, an enslaved person, and Pettus Perkinson, his mother’s enslaver. Bruce was originally named Branch, but later changed his name to Blanche and gave himself the middle name Kelso. He was one of eleven children and served as a personal servant to his white half-brother, William Perkinson. Though enslaved, Bruce studied with the Perkinson children’s private tutor. During the Civil War, he fled to Kansas, where he attempted to join the Union Army. His application was declined, so he turned to teaching in Lawrence, Kansas, and later Hannibal Missouri, where he organized the state’s first school for Black children in 1864.

Later in the 1860s, Bruce worked as a steamboat porter on the Mississippi River ultimately moved to Mississippi in 1869. It was in 1870 that Bruce found his way into government and politics. Throughout his career he would be appointed registrar of voters in Tallahatchie County (1870); be elected as sergeant at arms for the Mississippi legislature (1870); be elected sheriff and tax collector of Bolivar county (1871); be appointed county superintendent of education (1872); be a land investor and planter (late 1870s); be appointed to the board of levee commissioners (1872); be elected to the U.S. Senate (1874-1880); serve as the presiding officer at the 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago; serve as register of the U.S. Treasury (1881-1885; 1897-1898); be appointed recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia by President Benjamin Harrison (1889); and serve on the board of trustees for Howard University (1893).

Bruce died at the aged 57 on March 17, 1898, due to complications from diabetes. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, located in Washington D.C.

Extent

.25 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

System of Arrangement

These papers have been arranged chronologically.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The John F. and Jeanne A. Marszalek Library Fund

Accruals

Future accruals possible.

Preservation Note

All materials have been encapsulated in mylar and stored and acid-free enclosures.

Processing Note

This artificial collection was aquired in March 2023 as a generous gift from the John F. and Jeanne A. Marszalek Library Fund. This collection was pieced together from three entities: Bartleby's Books, Between the Covers, and Charles Agvent. Carrie P. Mastley processed the collection in March 2023.