JOSEPH S. BRUBAKER is the senior druggist of
Vinton, having been in the business there since 1869 and in that period
having seen all his competitors, at the time he began, retire from
business. He is also the oldest active druggist in Benton county. His
store has been in its present location for twenty-six years, and he
also owns the building which he formerly occupied. Mr. Brubaker has
been a resident of Vinton since 1863, and at first was a clerk in the
Van Horne store, that being a general mercantile establishment, and he
had charge of the drugs. Then for three years he filled a similar place
in the store of Mr. Loree, after which he began business for himself.
Mr. Brubaker was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, March 19,
1830. He spent his early years on a farm, and in the fall of 1848 came
west to Stephenson county, Illinois. During the Pierce administration
he was a clerk in the Freeport post-office, under Postmaster Frank
Brawley. In 1853 he began learning the drug business at Freeport with
Emmert & Burrell, who were also from Pennsylvania. Mr. Emmert, now
deceased, went to Chicago and established the Emmert Proprietary
Company, while Mr. Burrell is now living retired in Freeport. With this
firm Mr. Brubaker became a skillful pharmacist, and in the fall of 1856
established a business in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He sold this in the fall
of 1861, and after spending a year or two in the east about his native
home he returned to Iowa and has since been identified with Vinton. In
politics he has always been Democratic, as have his sons. He is a
thirty-second degree Mason, and was formerly a member of the Odd
Fellows. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church.
Mr. Brubaker's parents were Samuel and Catherine (Stauffer) Brubaker.
The Stauffers, originally from Switzerland, were one of the old
Pennsylvania families, and Stauffer's Mills, a well known locality, was
founded through the enterprise of the greatgrandfather of Catherine
Stauffer. She spent all her life in her native state. The Brubakers
were also from Switzerland. Samuel Brubaker was born in Lancaster
county, Pennsylvania, and followed the occupation of farmer, and died
in Pennsylvania in 1862, at the age of sixty-five. In visiting his son
he had at one time come as far west as the Mississippi, but he lived
practically all his life in his native state. There were two sons and
two daughters in their family, but Joseph S. is the only one now living.
The latter has gained success through his own efforts and has been
dependent on himself since he was eighteen years old. The only
schooling he had was obtained during winter months, and his practical
education has been largely the result of studious reading carried on
all his life.
Mr. Brubaker has been twice married, his first union being with Miss
Hostetter. The three sons of this marriage are: Stauffer Joseph, of
Cedar Rapids; Charles W., who was in his father's store six years and
later graduated in pharmacy from the University of Iowa, and is now
owner of a fruit and truck farm near Cedar Rapids; Frank, who is on the
farm with his brother Charles. Charles W. also served two terms as
county treasurer of Benton county. Mr. Brubaker married as his second
wife, in Warren county, Pennsylvania, Miss Susan Smith. She was born in
that county, her father being a Frenchman and her mother (nee Schafer)
of Holland descent. There is one child by this marriage, Miss Ella S.
She is a teacher of the piano, violin and voice in the Vinton schools,
being a graduate of the Philadelphia School of Music, both vocal and
instrumental.
Picture of Joseph Brubaker
