There, like his father, he adopted the surname Bruhn. Bruhn worked as a sailor on the Great Lakes; moving west, he worked on the railway and as a miner and logger. In 1898, he settled in Malakwa, British Columbia. Bruhn married Anna Treat in 1902. Bruhn supplemented his income from farming with road contract work. In 1910, he moved with his family to Salmon Arm, working as a road foreman and then road superintendent. He also served four years as an alderman.
