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From: "David & Carol Eddleman" <>
Subject: Benjamin M. Bunker of Altoona, Pa.
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 12:53:47 -0400


In my recent research in Blair County, Pa. Archives of GenWeb, I found this
biography which I hoped might be of interest to someone on this list:

BENJAMIN M. BUNKER,

for many years a prominent carpenter, contractor and builder of Altoona, and
senior partner in the well-known firm of Bunker, Orr & Flick, whose
handiwork is seen in many of the more substantial structures of that city,
is a son of Isaiah W. and Isabella (Maizh) Bunker, and was born in the city
of Hollidaysburg, this county, on the 30th of October, 1847. The Bunker
family is of Scotch-Irish descent, and has long been settled in the State of
Delaware, where Isaiah W. (father) was born and reared. In the spring of
1840 he removed to Pennsylvania, locating at Hollidaysburg, Blair county. In
that city he resided until 1855, when, having lost his wife, he went east
and remained until the civil war came on. He then enlisted in the Union army
and served for a term of three years. At the close of the war he came back
to Pennsylvania, and lived in Blair county for a number of years. He died in
1886, at the Soldiers' home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was a stanch
democrat in politics, a blacksmith by trade, and married Isabella Maizh, by
whom he had a family of children. She was born in Huntingdon county, this
State, and died in Blair county in 1854.
Benjamin M. Bunker was reared principally in the city of
Hollidaysburg, and educated in the public schools there. After leaving
school he became an apprentice and learned the trade of carpenter. In 1866
he removed to Tyrone, this county (Blair), where he remained for a period of
five years, employed in the line of carpentering and building. In 1871 he
came to Altoona, where he
has resided ever since. For a time he worked at his trade, but in 1883 he
formed a partnership with J.S. Booth, of this city, under the firm name of
Booth & Bunker, and the firm began operating a planing mill, and engaged in
contracting and building. This combined business was vigorously and
successfully prosecuted by that firm until 1886, when Mr. Booth retired, and
Mr. Bunker became associated with G.W. Rhine, under the style of Bunker &
Rhine. They carried on the business of contracting, building and furnishing
builders' supplies until 1890, when the firm dissolved. Soon afterward Mr.
Bunker became a partner with J.C. Orr and J.S. Flick, under the firm name of
Bunker, Orr & Flick, and they succeeded to the business of the old firm.
This firm is composed of practical men, who thoroughly understand their
business in all its details, and the energy and ability they possess,
evinced by the substantial work they do, has given them a reputation as
first-class builders. They employ an average force of fifty men, and turn
out great quantities of finished lumber from their planing mill, in addition
to their constantly growing business in the line of contracting and
building.
In 1870 Mr. Bunker was married to Louisa Glint, of Hollidaysburg. To
this union has been born a family of five daughters: Elizabeth B., Bertha
M., Annie C., Gertrude M., and Louisa-all of whom are living at home with
their parents.
In his political affiliations Mr. Bunker is a republican, giving his
party a general support on National and State issues, but inclined toward
independence on local politics, and too liberal in his views to ever become
a partisan. He is a member and trustee of the Baptist church at Altoona, and
earnest in his support of all church interests. He has always taken an
active part in Sunday school work, and is now serving as superintendent of
the Sabbath school connected with his church. He is a pleasant, affable
gentleman, and deserves the respect and esteem so willingly accorded by his
friends and neighbors.

> Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Samuel T. Wiley,
Philadelphia, 1892.

> Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by
> Linda
> Shillinger

Carol C. Eddleman

PA-Roots Data Board Administrator (Bedford, Bucks, Northampton, Counties)
http://www.pa-roots.com/data.html



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