Aiming at brick-wood rural residence that occupies the highest proportion among all rural residences in China, an elasto-plastic analysis on mode and acceleration time-histories of a typical structure is examined by applying ABAQUS software. The first three characteristic periods and vibration modes of two brick-wood rural buildings with masonry strengths of M0.5 and M5 are given, and the results are then compared and analyzed with the value calculated using an empirical formula, proposing the problems and suggestions on empirical formula revisions. In this study, by taking Tianjin seismic waves as the input ground motion, this study calculates the elasto-plastic responses of two different brick-wood rural buildings at different seismic peak accelerations and depicts the corresponding tensile damage nephograms. The damage characteristics and seismic weak part of the structure are also analyzed. The contrastive analysis on different masonry strengths shows that the masonry strength is a key factor affecting the seismic capability of the structure.