Bruen, George W.

Flourished: New York, New York

Bruen was a New York City politician, businessman, and civic leader. Bruen married a daughter of Thomas H. Smith, a prominent tea merchant in the city. In 1822, George W. Bruen and his brother Herman established the firm of G. W. & H. Bruen, which concentrated on the Mediterranean trade. When Thomas H. Smith & Company failed, G. W. & H. Bruen also collapsed, as George and Herman were bondsmen for Smith. From 1832 to 1833 and from 1834 to 1835, George was an assistant alderman on the Common Council, representing the Fifteenth Ward. In 1834, he served as president of the Board of Assistants. From 1837 to 1838, he represented the Fifteenth Ward as an alderman.

D. T. Valentine, Manual of the Corporation of the City of New-York for the Year 1849 (New York: McSpedon & Baker, 1849), 185, 186, 187; Longworth's American Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory for the Fifty-Ninth Year of American Independence (New York: Thomas Longworth, 1834), 57; Walter Barrett, The Old Merchants of New York City (New York: Thomas R. Knox, 1885), 37, 87, 90, 91.