Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 128,947, making it the state's 18th-most populous county,[James Alfred Ellis, "History of the Bunn Family in America" (Publisher: Romanzo Norton Bunn) (1928) P. 203 (See: Ancestry.com).] Henry Bunn was the son of Jacob Bunn (born 1736; died 1808) and Maria Elizabetha (surname unknown) (born 1744; died 1817).Cornelius Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
, and who was responsible for the nearly $7 million stock price rally of the Michigan & Prairie du Chien Railroad Company in 1865. William Marston gained a personal profit of between $1 and $2 million, in 1865, from the artificial rally, which he manipulated and caused when he rapidly purchased nearly 22,000 shares of stock in the Michigan & Prairie du Chien Railroad Company. The Irwin family also was interconnected with the Holden Family of Cleveland, Ohio, which owned the Island Creek Coal Company, the Pond Creek Coal Company, and the Forest City Publishing Company, publisher of ''The Plain Dealer
''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday.
As of Ma ...
'' newspaper, and the Hollenden Hotel.
John Bunn spent his childhood and early adulthood on the family farm located near Milford, New Jersey
Milford is a borough located in western Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 1,232, a decrease of one person (−0.1%) from the 2010 census count of 1,233, which ...
.Sangamon County, Illinois
Sangamon County is located in the center of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 197,465. Its county seat and largest city is Springfield, the state capital.
Sangamon County is included in the Sp ...
, having been induced to make the migration to Illinois by the positive and promising description that Jacob Bunn had furnished during a return visit to the New Jersey farm where both men had been raised.[James Alfred Ellis, "History of the Bunn Family in America" (Publisher: Romanzo Norton Bunn) (1928) P. 211 (See: Ancestry.com).] John W. Bunn was a principal member within, and one of the most important members and operators of, the Abraham Lincoln political network of friendship and political support, having once earned from Illinois historian and scholar George A. Lawrence the honorable description of having been one of the closest personal and political friends of Abraham Lincoln himself.
Friendship with Abraham Lincoln, middle and later life in Illinois, and industrial contributions to Illinois and the United States
Abraham Lincoln acted as the attorney for Jacob Bunn, who was the older brother of John W. Bunn.Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
served on the committee for the formation of the Alton & Springfield Railroad Company along with Jacob Bunn, leading Springfield merchant and banker John Williams, John Todd Stuart
John Todd Stuart (November 10, 1807 – November 28, 1885) was a lawyer and a U.S. Representative from Illinois.
Born near Lexington, Kentucky, Stuart graduated from Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, in 1826. He then studied law, was a ...
, John Calhoun
John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He ...
, B. C. Webster, J. N. Brown, Pascal P. Enos, William Pickrell, and S. B. Opdycke.
Jacob Bunn and John Whitfield Bunn, along with many of their colleagues and friends, such as Stephen Trigg Logan, John Williams, and Ozias M. Hatch, became close friends of Abraham Lincoln, and assisted Lincoln in various ways in his 1860 presidential campaign. As a part of his 1860 presidential campaign strategy Lincoln acquired, in May, 1859, the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger, a German-language newspaper of Springfield, Illinois, to further the cause of Republican Party politics among the German-speaking community of the region.[Carl Sandburg, Edward C. Goodman, "Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years" (Illustrated Edition, 2007), P. 104] Lincoln acquired the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger through his banker Jacob Bunn,[Jesse William Weik, The Real Lincoln: a portrait (1922), P. 283] Jacob Bunn, John Williams, Ozias M. Hatch, Thomas Condell, and Robert Irwin were also among the initial financial contributors to the campaign fund.[James Alfred Ellis, "History of the Bunn Family in America" (Publisher: Romanzo Norton Bunn) (1928) Pp. 210, 211, 212 (See: Ancestry.com).] A multimillionaire, John W. Bunn exhibited financial commitment and philanthropic loyalty to public causes in Illinois.
During the period lasting from 1847 until 1920, John W. Bunn accomplished numerous commercial and industrial objectives, and contributed to the development of numerous distinct industrial and civic sectors of Illinois during the nineteenth century and the twentieth century.
The J. & J. W. Bunn Grocery Company
Beginning as an entry-level employee in the wholesale grocery house owned by his brother, John rapidly ascended to increased levels of responsibility, not only within the grocery enterprise, but within a diverse array of additional commercial and civic organizations in Illinois, and throughout the United States as a whole.Bunn Capitol Wholesale Grocery Company Bunn is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alfred Bunn (1796–1860), English theatrical manager
* Bennie M. Bunn (1907–1943), American Marine officer killed in World War II
*Beverly Atlee Bunn, birth name of American a ...
" in the 1950s. George R. Bunn Jr. managed this company and created a beverage division that eventually turned into the Bunn-O-Matic Corporation, which also owns the "BUNN" brand.
Illinois Watch Company and Sangamo Electric Company
John W. Bunn was an active participant in the development of industrial production of pocket watches for the railroads, and served as a founder, director, and Vice President of the Illinois Watch Company
The Illinois Watch Company was founded on December 23, 1870, in Springfield, Illinois, by John C. Adams, John Whitfield Bunn (1831–1920), and various additional financiers. Twenty years later, Jacob Bunn Jr., (1864–1926) took over and ran th ...
of Springfield, Illinois. The Illinois Watch Company, a globally significant corporation with respect to the railroad logistics industry, operated branch corporate offices in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco. The assets of the Illinois Watch Company were sold, during 1927 and 1928, to the Hamilton Watch Company
The Hamilton Watch Company is a Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches based in Bienne, Switzerland. Founded in 1892 as an American firm, the Hamilton Watch Company ended American manufacture in 1969. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, th ...
of Lancaster, Pennsylvania for a sum in excess of $5 million. John Whitfield Bunn also worked with Jacob Bunn and Benjamin Hamilton Ferguson in the management of the Illinois Watch Company. The Illinois Watch Company was estimated by one source to have paid out nearly $20 million in employee wages by approximately 1920.
The Sangamo Electric Company was organized on 11 January 1899 in Springfield, Illinois, by Jacob Bunn Jr., Henry Bunn, Robert Carr Lanphier, and inventor Ludwig Gutmann.[Sangamo: A History of Fifty Years (1949).] The corporation grew institutionally as a division of the Illinois Watch Company
The Illinois Watch Company was founded on December 23, 1870, in Springfield, Illinois, by John C. Adams, John Whitfield Bunn (1831–1920), and various additional financiers. Twenty years later, Jacob Bunn Jr., (1864–1926) took over and ran th ...
, and developed global presence in the electric metering industry and defense industries.
Springfield Marine Bank
Bunn served for many years as president and director of the historically significant Springfield Marine Bank of Springfield, Illinois. As President of the Springfield Marine Bank, which was the oldest bank in Springfield, Illinois (having been established in 1851), John W. Bunn built the financial resources of the institution successfully.[Bankers' Magazine, Vol. 100 (1920)] In 1920, the deposit accounts held at the Springfield Marine Bank amounted to approximately $5 million.
Selz, Schwab & Company of Chicago
Eventually, John W. Bunn expanded his activities to include numerous industrial and financial contributions to the economic growth and development of Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. Bunn acted as a founding member of the shoe and boot manufacturing firm of M. Selz & Company, and held the executive position of Vice President with the shoe manufacturer for several years prior to his death. The Chicago firm, known later as Selz, Schwab & Company, rapidly achieved international scope in its markets, and extraordinary magnitude and profitability in its manufacturing business.[James Alfred Ellis, "History of the Bunn Family in America" (Publisher: Romanzo Norton Bunn) (1928) P. 212 (See: Ancestry.com).] The Selz, Schwab Company at one time owned and operated eleven factories, and after the company dissolved and ceased to exist, during the Great Depression, one of the factories was transferred to five employees who had begun their careers with the firm as office boys. Prior to 1894, the Selz, Schwab Company had generated annual revenues in excess of $2 million. The Selz, Schwab Shoe Company once enjoyed the status of being one of the largest shoe and boot manufacturers, if not the largest shoe and boot manufacturer, in the world, and was known to have filled individual foreign country orders to the scale of 1 million pairs of shoes, and 500,000 pairs of shoes. The corporate revenue was a multimillion-dollar figure in the early twentieth century, and the corporation rapidly grew to be one of the largest manufacturing concerns in the United States. By approximately 1931, one of the eleven factories owned by Selz, Schwab & Company was generating, by itself, $6 million annually.
Contribution to the development of the Illinois insurance industry
During the month of February 1867, Bunn was an incorporator of two separate insurance companies. He served as an incorporator of the American Standard Life Insurance Company of Springfield, Illinois, on February 25, 1867.[Laws of the State of Illinois, Vol. 2 (1867) P. 126] Like his younger brother John W. Bunn, Jacob Bunn was also an incorporator of the American Standard Life Insurance Company.
Franklin Life Insurance Company
Of historical note is the fact that merchant banker Benjamin Hamilton Ferguson, the brother-in-law of Jacob Bunn, served as an incorporator of the Franklin Life Insurance Company of Illinois. The Franklin Life Insurance Company had nearly $178 million of life insurance in force by the end of 1939, and had over $1 billion of life insurance in force by 1951. George Wallace Bunn Sr., a son of Jacob Bunn, and nephew of John Whitfield Bunn, had served as a member of the board of directors of the Lincoln Mutual Casualty Company of Springfield, Illinois, and also served as an incorporator of the Lincoln Casualty Company (successor to the Lincoln Mutual Casualty Company), also of Springfield, Illinois, in 1920/1921.
John Whitfield Bunn, Jacob Bunn, and Midwestern railroad development
The contributions to the commercial development of Chicago that the Bunn brothers made included a broad portfolio of directorships and executive contributions to several railroad corporations of special economic significance to Chicago, Springfield, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
. Both Jacob and John W. Bunn were elected to the board of directors of the Hannibal and Naples Railroad Company in 1874.
Kansas City Air Line Railway Company
John W. Bunn contributed to the financing and incorporation of the Kansas City Air Line Railway Company, a corporation capitalized initially in 1879 at $600,000, and based in Springfield, Illinois, which served as a western expansion of the preexisting Indianapolis, Decatur & Springfield Railroad Company, and that was intended to connect the Indianapolis, Decatur & Springfield Railroad Company line to the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company line.
Mid life career
Terre Haute & Peoria Railroad Company; and Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad Company
John W. Bunn also served as a member of the board of directors of the Terre Haute & Peoria Railroad Company, a $5.4 million (as measured by equity capital in 1893) corporation whose principal office was Decatur, Illinois.
Additionally, John W. Bunn was a member of the board of directors of the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad Company, a corporation whose equity capital exceeded $4 million in 1893.
North & Southern Railway Company
John W. Bunn served on the board of directors of the North & South Railroad Company of Illinois, a corporation capitalized at $2.8 million in 1890, and whose corporate precursor had been the St. Louis & Chicago Railroad Company.
Wabash Railway Company of Illinois
John W. Bunn served as founder and as the President of the Wabash Railway Company of Illinois in 1877. The Wabash Railroad system possessed approximately 16,000 rail cars (rolling stock) in 1880.
Wabash Eastern Railroad Company
John Whitfield Bunn served as one of the five incorporators of the Wabash Eastern Railroad of Illinois, along with Gen. George Smith, Charles Henrotin, Abram M. Pence, and John N. Harlan.[Saturday Herald (Decatur, Illinois), June 1, 1889 (See: Ancestry.com)] The Wabash Eastern Railroad Company was incorporated in May, 1889, with principal corporate offices at Chicago, Illinois, and an initial capitalization of $12 million. Bunn served as incorporator and director with Charles Henrotin, George W. Smith, John Harlan, and Abram M. Pence, all of Chicago.
Wabash Railroad Company
John W. Bunn participated as a principal founder, consolidator, and organizer of the Wabash Railroad Company that resulted from the consolidation of 1889.Wabash Railroad
The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary co ...
Company of 1889 comprised the former Toledo & Western Railroad Company, the Detroit & State Line Railroad Company, the previously existing Wabash Railroad Company, the Wabash Eastern Railroad Company of Indiana, and the Wabash Eastern Railroad Company of Illinois. John W. Bunn also served as a member of the first board of directors of the Wabash Railroad Company that was created through the 1889 railroad corporation consolidation.
Springfield City Railway Company
John W. Bunn assumed an active role in the development of intra-urban transportational infrastructure in Springfield, Illinois, and helped to establish and build the Springfield City Railway Company in March 1866.
Belleville City Railway Company
In 1867, John W. Bunn acted as an incorporator of the $50,000 Belleville City Railway Company of Belleville, Illinois.
Chicago & Alton Railroad Company
Jacob Bunn, also a railroad capitalist, the older brother of John Whitfield Bunn, had served in 1861 as one of the official reorganizers and incorporators of the Chicago & Alton
The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad , was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 a ...
Railroad Company, along with other Chicago corporate and civic leaders including William B. Ogden
William Butler Ogden (June 15, 1805 – August 3, 1877) was an American politician and railroad executive who served as the first Mayor of Chicago. He was referred to as "the Astor of Chicago." He was, at one time, the city's richest citizen.
...
. The Chicago & Alton
The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad , was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 a ...
Railroad Company, having undergone consolidation on several occasions, possessed issued equity stock of nearly $40 million in 1919.
Chicago Secure Depository Company
In March 1869, Jacob Bunn had also been an incorporator of the Chicago Secure Depository Company, a significant Chicago safety deposit institution whose incorporators included John B. Drake, Joseph M. Medill, Potter Palmer
Potter Palmer (May 20, 1826 – May 4, 1902) was an American businessman who was responsible for much of the development of State Street in Chicago. Born in Albany County, New York,[Lyman Trumbull
Lyman Trumbull (October 12, 1813 – June 25, 1896) was a lawyer, judge, and United States Senator from Illinois and the co-author of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Born in Colchester, Connecticut, Trumbull esta ...]
, John Wentworth, W. F. Coolbaugh, Jonathan Young Scammon ( J. Young Scammon), Ezra B. McCagg, John Villiers Farwell, Ira Y. Munn, George M. Pullman
George Mortimer Pullman (March 3, 1831 – October 19, 1897) was an American engineer and industrialist. He designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town, Pullman, for the workers who manufactured it. This ulti ...
, William B. Ogden
William Butler Ogden (June 15, 1805 – August 3, 1877) was an American politician and railroad executive who served as the first Mayor of Chicago. He was referred to as "the Astor of Chicago." He was, at one time, the city's richest citizen.
...
, and others.
Chicago Republican Newspaper Company and Chicago Inter-Ocean Company
Jacob Bunn had also at one time been a founder, and the sole owner of the immense Chicago Republican Newspaper Company, which had been chartered by the state of Illinois in 1865, with an initial capitalization of $500,000.[Office of the Illinois Secretary of State: Blue Book of the State of Illinois (1908) Pp. 576-579] The Chicago Republican Newspaper Company, which constituted the institutional precursor of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, provided the corporate framework upon which the ''Inter-Ocean'' built.[Pettengill's newspaper directory and advertisers' hand-book: comprising a complete list of the newspapers and other periodicals published in the United States and British America (1877) Pp. 130-131] The combined circulation of the Chicago Inter-Ocean Company represented, in 1877, the largest combined circulation of any newspaper in Chicago.
J. Bunn Bank and debts resulting from 1878 bank failure
Jacob Bunn had established a private bank that was called the J. Bunn Bank of Springfield, Illinois. The J. Bunn Bank rapidly accumulated large capital assets during the nineteenth century, but due to what became an overextensive portfolio of real estate holdings during the Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...
, the J. Bunn Bank was forced into liquidation. Jacob Bunn voluntarily effected the liquidation of the bank, and assumed liability for indebtedness that totaled approximately $800,000 in 1878.[Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. Vol. XVIII, No. 3 (October, 1925) Pp. 1063-1065.] Jacob Bunn, who acted from deep convictions of honor, honesty, and loyalty, personally assumed liability for the amount of indebtedness that remained after the forced sale of the bank assets failed to produce capital adequate to full satisfaction of the $800,000 debt.
Springfield Iron Company and Springfield Gas & Electric Company
John W. Bunn was a founder, director, and Vice President of the Springfield Iron Company, which was organized in 1871, had corporate offices in New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Springfield, Illinois, and at one point was one of the largest iron products manufacturers in the United States.
Having established a deeply rooted continental presence in the railroad metal products industry, the Springfield Iron Company once was the largest manufacturer of angle splice bars in the United States. The Springfield Iron Company was absorbed in 1899 into the iron and steel corporate combine called Republic Iron & Steel Company, a corporation capitalized at $55 million in 1899. The financing of the Republic Iron & Steel Trust was provided by the Manhattan investment banking firms of William C. Sheldon & Co. and Dominick & Dickerman, the latter of which Watson Bradley Dickerman had served as both a founder and principal member. Watson Bradley Dickerman was a very close personal friend and business associate of both of the Bunn brothers. Dickerman served in 1890 and in 1891 as the President of the New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
, was a director of the Long Island Loan & Trust Company, and was president of the old Norfolk & Southern Railroad Company.[Henry Hall (ed.), America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography, Vol. 1 P. 192 (New York Tribune: 1895-1896) (See: Ancestry.com).] Dickerman had begun his career in finance and banking as a young employee and trainee of Jacob Bunn, in the J. Bunn Bank of Springfield, Illinois.
Extended family in business and industry
John Whitfield Bunn, Jacob Bunn, and the descendants, collateral, and marital relatives of the Bunn brothers represented a continental network of corporate, industrial, and financial entrepreneurship, executive leadership, and civic development. Several of the historically important familial associations of John and Jacob Bunn are provided below. Taken as a whole, these familial associations constituted a long-standing continuum of visionary business and civic work.
George Whitfield Bunn and California banking, Texas petroleum, and land development
George Whitfield Bunn, a brother of Jacob Bunn and John Whitfield Bunn, also born in Hunterdon County
Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 128,947, making it the state's 18th-most populous county,[New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...]
, became a pioneer banker and land developer in Marin County, California, during the nineteenth century, and once owned immense oil interests in Texas, including more than of property that later became a major oil field in Texas.[Bunn Family Genealogical Records.] George Whitfield Bunn served as an incorporator and director of the Bank of Tomales, California.
The New York City and Connecticut connections to finance and industry
In addition to having direct connection with the enormous body of civic and commercial associations held by his brother Jacob Bunn, John W. Bunn was connected indirectly to the Leonard Richardson and William Henry Barnum industrial dynasties of Connecticut and New York, through the marriage of a nephew, George Wallace Bunn Sr., who married Ada Willard Richardson. Ada Willard Richardson, the daughter-in-law of Jacob Bunn, and niece-in-law of John W. Bunn, was the daughter of renowned building contractor William Douglas Richardson. John Whitfield Bunn and William Douglas Richardson were associates in business, and both men served as founders and directors of the Springfield Iron Company, in August, 1871, a corporation that was capitalized initially at $200,000.[Alfred Theodore Andreas, ''History of Chicago'' Vol. 3 (1886) P. 478] The capital stock of the corporation was increased in 1874 to $400,000.
Barnum & Richardson Company of Connecticut and Chicago
William Douglas Richardson was a nephew of Leonard Richardson of Lime Rock, Connecticut
Lime Rock is a village and historic district (listed as Lime Rock Historic District) in the town of Salisbury, Connecticut, United States, situated on the Salmon Kill. The village center and the historic district are substantially similar. The su ...
. Leonard Richardson was a pioneer in the development of the iron products manufacturing industries of New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
and Chicago, having served as a founder and owner of the immense railroad car wheel and iron products company known as the Barnum-Richardson Company of Chicago and Lime Rock, Connecticut
Lime Rock is a village and historic district (listed as Lime Rock Historic District) in the town of Salisbury, Connecticut, United States, situated on the Salmon Kill. The village center and the historic district are substantially similar. The su ...
. Milo Barnum Richardson, a son of Leonard Richardson, served as a director of the Barnum & Richardson Company along with other prominent Chicago industrialists, including John Crerar. Additionally, Milo B. Richardson served in close connection with Connecticut railroad financier Collis Potter Huntington
Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested i ...
in the establishment of the Ensign Manufacturing Company
Ensign Manufacturing Company, founded as Ensign Car Works in 1872, was a railroad car manufacturing company based in Huntington, West Virginia. In the 1880s and 1890s Ensign's production of wood freight cars made the company one of the three larg ...
of Huntington, West Virginia. Milo Barnum Richardson, nephew of William Henry Barnum of Connecticut, President of the Barnum- Richardson Company, son of Leonard Richardson, and a first cousin of William Douglas Richardson and Ada Willard (Richardson) Bunn, served as a member of the Connecticut State Board of World's Fair Commissioners during the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. William Douglas Richardson served on the personal staff of architect Daniel Burnham
Daniel Hudson Burnham (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the '' Beaux-Arts'' movement, he may have been, "the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ...
as the General Superintendent of Buildings at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. Consequently, John Whitfield Bunn, William Douglas Richardson, and Milo Barnum Richardson, all of whom were related either by blood or through marriage, each contributed to the development of the iron products manufacturing industry of the United States, as well as to the leadership and execution of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
(Chicago World's Fair). Jacob and John Whitfield Bunn, along with William Douglas Richardson, Benjamin Hamilton Ferguson, and others, constituted a cooperative association for investment, entrepreneurship, industrial expansion opportunity, and civic and charitable causes. Milo B. Richardson served on the board of directors of the Caledonian-American Life Insurance Company of New York City, which was organized in 1898. In harmony with the railroad products manufacturing, as well as the financial heritages of the Richardson family, Milo B. Richardson served as a director of the Rochester Car Wheel Works Company of New York, the Hartford & Connecticut Western Railroad Company, and the Falls Village Savings Bank.
Island Creek Coal Company
Elizabeth Jane Ferguson, the wife of Jacob Bunn and herself a prominent Illinois philanthropist, was related maternally to the Holden family of Cleveland, Ohio, which owned the Island Creek Coal Company, one of the most important and profitable coal corporations in the United States.
Henry Stryker Taylor and the Taylor-Stryker-Cunningham-Hart-Capps Lineage
Elizabeth Alice Bunn, a great-granddaughter of Jacob Bunn, married Illinois banker and financier Henry Stryker Taylor, who was one of the largest shareholders of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (renowned financier Howard Butcher of Philadelphia was at one time also one of the largest individual shareholders of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company). Henry S. Taylor, the son of bank president and Illinois real estate magnate Robert Cunningham Taylor, had once run the 100-yard dash
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length&nb ...
in 9.6 seconds, held numerous track records, and was captain of the track team at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois
Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria. At the 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal city of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistical ...
, during his undergraduate years there.[Taylor Family Historical Records.] Robert Cunningham Taylor was president of a farm and land company, co-founder and president of the Peoples Bank of Virginia, Illinois, president of the Cass County Title & Trust Company, co-owner of the King & Taylor Company, a funeral home and furniture dealer, and a director of the Farmers National Bank of Virginia, Illinois. Robert Taylor, the father of Robert Cunningham Taylor, was a farmer, cattle dealer, grain merchant
The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...
, and land entrepreneur, who served as vice president and director of the Farmers National Bank of Virginia, Illinois, as a Trustee of Virginia Township, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a local school board member. Robert Cunningham Taylor Jr., a Chicago banker and financier, the older brother of Henry S. Taylor, also a Knox College alumnus, went on to graduate from Harvard Business School in 1932.[Taylor Family Historical Records Collection.] Henry S. Taylor was a descendant of numerous founding financial and industrial families of Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
, Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
, and New York, and was a descendant of ''Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
'' passengers William Brewster, John Alden
John Alden (c. 1598 - September 12, 1687) was a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the ''Mayflower'' which brought the English settlers commonly known as Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, US. He was hired in Sou ...
, and William Mullins.Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
, Illinois, and California, whose business interests included international shipping, shipbuilding, electric power generation, water rights acquisition and development in California, and multinational banking. Henry S. Taylor was the descendant of one branch of the Henshaw family, and was a third cousin of California banker and financier William Griffith Henshaw (1860–1924), who, along with his family, was a primary owner and developer of some of the largest water reservoirs and commercial water courses in California, and who promoted and helped build (having served on the board of directors) the International Banking Corporation
Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City Ba ...
, a major and early corporate precursor to Citigroup.
Henry Stryker Taylor was the first cousin of Capt. Joseph H. Hart, one of the top ace pilots of Pan American Airlines
Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...
, and who had flown more than 2.5 million miles prior to dying in a fatal airline crash in the 1950s. John Hart, brother of Joseph Hart, and also a first cousin to Henry Stryker Taylor, was an international businessman involved in South American trade with the United States. Captain Joseph H. Hart was an expert pilot of the Pan Am Clippers, and was renowned for his knowledge and expertise with respect to this particular aircraft.
Henry Stryker Taylor was the cousin of the owners of the J. Capps & Son Company of Jacksonville, Illinois, which manufactured clothing and other textiles, achieving sales of $1 million annually by 1901, and employing around 500 people by 1901. William Thomas Capps Sr., the uncle of Henry S. Taylor, was a founder of the Midland Life Insurance Company of Chicago. Henry Taylor was the first cousin of Henry McClure Capps, prominent Hollywood art director, husband of Ruth Goldwyn, and son-in-law of renowned producer Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor an ...
.
Henry Stryker Taylor was the father-in-law of Thomas Keister Greer, Esq., a renowned corporate lawyer and trial lawyer of Virginia and California, who either represented or helped to build several of the largest land companies in United States history, and who became one of the foremost riparian rights
Riparian water rights (or simply riparian rights) is a system for allocating water among those who possess land along its path. It has its origins in English common law. Riparian water rights exist in many jurisdictions with a common law heri ...
lawyers in the United States, serving variously as junior general counsel to Miller & Lux Company of San Francisco, and as general counsel to Salyer Land Company of California, and to Crockett & Gambogey Company of California.
Henry S. Taylor was a cousin, through maternal lineage, of Oliver Hazard Payne
Oliver Hazard Payne (July 21, 1839 – June 27, 1917) was an American businessman, organizer of the American Tobacco trust, and assisted with the formation of U.S. Steel, and was affiliated with Standard Oil.
Early life
Oliver Hazard Payne was ...
, the Cleveland financier who helped to organize the American Tobacco Company
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members ...
, and the United States Steel Company, and who was a partner of tobacco industrialists and university founders James Buchanan Duke
James Buchanan Duke (December 23, 1856 – October 10, 1925) was an American tobacco and electric power industrialist best known for the introduction of modern cigarette manufacture and marketing, and his involvement with Duke University. ...
and Benjamin Newton Duke
Benjamin Newton Duke (April 25, 1855 – January 8, 1929) was an American tobacco, textile and energy industrialist and philanthropist. He served as vice-president at American Tobacco Company, being also founder of Duke Energy.
Life and career
...
.
Charles Cunningham, Esq.
Charles Cunningham
Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Cunningham KCH (1755 – 11 March 1834) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. He saw action during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and ...
, Esq., the paternal great-uncle of Henry Stryker Taylor, was a native of Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
, served as the British Consul (and earlier as Vice Consul) to Russia, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Danube River Commission system of tariffs and trade structures, serving as one of the founders of the Danube River Commission, and as an originator of the concept for the commission. Cunningham had also engaged in the mercantile business in Smyrna (now İzmir
İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...
), Turkey.
John Stryker
Furthermore, lawyer Jon Stryker
Jon Lloyd Stryker (born c. 1958) is an American architect, philanthropist, and billionaire heir to the Stryker Corporation medical technology company fortune.
As reported by Forbes, Stryker's net worth is estimated at $4.2 billion.
Stryker is t ...
of Rome, New York, who was a maternal first cousin of Henry Stryker Taylor, established and owned the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, was one of the principal founders of the New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
, and established, controlled, and presided over numerous extensive manufacturing concerns in the State of New York. The Michigan Southern Railroad system was capitalized at $200 million in 1914–1915.
William Beaumont Whitney of Philadelphia
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
industrialist William Beaumont Whitney, a maternal first cousin of Henry Stryker Taylor, had founded and owned, with Mahlon S. Kemmerer, the immense Whitney & Kemmerer Coal Company of Philadelphia, and had served on the board of directors of the Girard National Bank of Philadelphia. Whitney served as a vice president of the Law and Order Society of Philadelphia, was an annual member of the Archaeological Institute of America, and was a director of the Penn Mutual Insurance Company of Philadelphia. The Penn Mutual Insurance Company had achieved, by 1897, $147,973,567 of insurance in force, with 59,411 policies in force by 1897.
Whitney also served as president of the Theodore Starr Savings Bank of Philadelphia, as president of the Quaker City Electric Company of Philadelphia, and as director of the Gondolo Tannin Company of Philadelphia. Whitney served as coal department manager of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company from 1864 until 1870,[''The history of the Girard National Bank of Philadelphia, 1832-1902'', p. 106 (1902)] as treasurer of the Whitehall Portland Cement Company,[''The Manual of statistics: Stock Exchange Handbook'', p. 703 (1903)] The Stonega Coal & Coke Company, capitalized at $2 million in 1903, owned two plants that had consisted of 666 ovens, and 500 ovens, respectively.American Geographical Society
The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...
.
A. G. Edwards and Edwards family of Illinois and St. Louis
Benjamin Hamilton Ferguson, the brother of Elizabeth Jane (Ferguson) Bunn, married Alice Edwards, who was both the daughter of Judge Benjamin Stephenson Edwards, and the niece of Albert Gallatin Edwards (the founder of A. G. Edwards Co.).
Joseph Wellington Willard and the explosives industry
Joseph Wellington Willard, a first cousin of Ada (Richardson) Bunn, was an inventor and manufacturer of explosives, and assisted Lammot du Pont in the establishment of the Repauno Chemical Company near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Extended family involvement with New York and California banking
Interconnected with the Bunn family had been, through marriage and collateral relation, Robert Burns Motherwell, II, who was once Chairman of Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
, and Charles Stillman, who had once been the controlling force behind National City Bank of New York, later known as CitiGroup. Robert Burns Motherwell, II, married into the Hogan family (see below), and became the father of renowned American New York Expressionist School artist Robert Burns Motherwell, III.
The Hogan-Regan dynasty and international law, petroleum, and precious metals mining industries
Willard Bunn Sr., a grandson of Jacob Bunn, and great-nephew of John W. Bunn, married Ruth Regan of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.Chicago Musical College
Chicago Musical College is a division of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.
History
Founding
Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld Sr (1841–1923), founded the college in 1867 as the Chicago Academy of Music. The institution h ...
, was a church and school founder, and promoter of musical education.[Obituary for Mary Rehan, ''New York Times'', Friday, August 20, 1963.] She specialized in tariff law, and was reputedly the first woman admitted to practice before the United States Customs Court
The United States Court of International Trade (case citations: Int'l Trade or Intl. Trade) is a U.S. federal court that adjudicates civil actions arising out of U.S. customs and international trade laws. Seated in New York City, it exercises ...
.American Women's Association
The Hudson New York was a boutique hotel located along 58th Street (Manhattan), West 58th Street (at Ninth Avenue (Manhattan), Ninth Avenue), in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. The hotel closed in November 2020 due ...
, and was a principal founder and patron of the International Bar Association
The International Bar Association (IBA), founded in 1947, is a bar association of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. The IBA currently has a membership of more than 80,000 individual lawyers and 190 bar associa ...
.Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty.
Brookly ...
in 1927.Museum of Costume Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, which she helped found in 1937.Costume Institute
The Anna Wintour Costume Center is a wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's main building in Manhattan that houses the collection of the Costume Institute. The center is named after Anna Wintour, the longtime and current editor-in-chief of ' ...
of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
and an honorary life fellow of the museum.Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
for the Presidency in 1932, but in 1936, when he sought a second term, she helped organize and became national treasurer of the Independent Coalition of American Women, an anti-New Deal group.[Obituary for Robert G. Regan, Joliet Herald-News, Tuesday, August 17, 1948, page 1. See: Hogans of Chippewa County, Wisconsin.] R. G. Regan served as the building contractor for the Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...
Corporation plant in Chicago, the Petralager Building of Chicago, and the Tropic-Aire plant of Chicago, and served as the chief executive of the Chatham Housing Project in the South Side of Chicago.Joliet, Illinois
Joliet ( ) is a city in Will and Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 census, the city was the third-largest in Illinois, with a population of 150,362.
Hist ...
, the Kennedy-Cochran building at Hillside, Illinois
Hillside is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 8,320.
Geography
Hillside is located at (41.874797, −87.900372).
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Hillside has a total ar ...
, the Silver Cross Hospital, the Munroe Hatchery, the Tractor-Motive Corporation building at Deerfield, Illinois
Deerfield is a north shore suburb of Chicago in Lake County, Illinois, United States, with a small portion extending into Cook County, Illinois. The population was 19,196 at the 2020 census. Deerfield is home to the headquarters of Walgreens Bo ...
, the Public Service garages and offices at Joliet, and the Atlas Wallpaper Company at Coal City, Illinois.[''Dallas Morning News'' (September 27, 1957), obituary for Thomas Stephen Hogan.] T. S. Hogan built the first skyscraper of Midland, Texas, in 1929, known as the Petroleum Tower, and served as a catalyst of the West Texas oil industry when he sold the John T. McElroy Ranch to the Franco-Wyoming Company for $3 million.[Speech to Young Democrats by THOMAS S. HOGAN; This speech was given in the 1940s during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's last term for office. T. S. Hogan worked for many years with Labor leader John L. Lewis and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn on labor issues.] Additionally, T. S. Hogan conducted, operated, and owned oil exploration and production enterprises in Oklahoma, Indiana, Montana, Illinois, Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, and Mexico.[Obituary for John Carol Hogan: ''Aberdeen Daily World'', November 24, 1947. See: Hogans of Chippewa County, Wisconsin.] John Carol Hogan held the long-distance runner championship at the University of Wisconsin.
Republican politics, civic philanthropy, and civic vision
John W. Bunn also demonstrated strong interest in the Illinois judiciary of his time, and served as a Delegate, representing Sangamon County
Sangamon County is located in the center of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 197,465. Its county seat and largest city is Springfield, the state capital.
Sangamon County is included in the S ...
, to the Illinois Judicial Convention of 1888. In 1874, the Springfield Republican City Convention nominated John W. Bunn for the office of Mayor of Springfield, although he soon afterwards declined the nomination. John W. Bunn was a close friend of and supporter of Illinois statesman Shelby Moore Cullom
Shelby Moore Cullom (November 22, 1829 – January 28, 1914) was a U.S. political figure, serving in various offices, including the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate and the 17th Governor of Illinois.
Life and ca ...
. When Shelby M. Cullom
Shelby Moore Cullom (November 22, 1829 – January 28, 1914) was a U.S. political figure, serving in various offices, including the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate and the 17th Governor of Illinois.
Life and ca ...
served as Governor of Illinois
The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...
, Cullom relied heavily on the counsel and influence of John W. Bunn and Chicago lawyer Milton Hay, among others. During the tenure of his association with the Illinois Republican State Central Committee, Bunn served as its Chairman on at least one occasion. John W. Bunn was an active participant in Republican Party politics at both the state and national levels, and served as an active member of the Illinois Republican State Committee from 1872 until 1876, and again in such a capacity from 1900 until 1902.
John Whitfield Bunn, public works, and significant civic associations and contributions
John W. Bunn made significant contributions to the coordination of, and corporate infrastructure of, the 1893 World Columbian Exposition (World's Fair of 1893) in Chicago, Illinois, by having served as a member of the Illinois Board of World's Fair Commissioners, and through having acted also as the Treasurer of the Illinois Board of World's Fair Commissioners. John W. Bunn was a member of the board of directors of the Illinois Centennial Commission of 1918, whose corporate purpose was the coordination and execution of ceremonial commemoration of the statehood of Illinois, which had been achieved on December 3, 1818. John W. Bunn served as a vice president, director, Executive Committee member, and founder of the Abraham Lincoln Centennial Association (See: Abraham Lincoln Association), having established the Lincoln Centennial Association along with Melville Weston Fuller (a Chicago jurist who served as United States Supreme Court Chief Justice), Shelby Moore Cullom, Adlai E. Stevenson, Richard Yates, Melville E. Stone, Albert J. Hopkins, J. Otis Humphrey, Charles S. Deneen, John P. Hand, James A. Rose, Ben. F. Caldwell, Dr. William Jayne, and Horace White.[The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, Vol. 1 (Edwin Erle Sparks, Ed.) 1908] The specific and express object of the Lincoln Centennial Association was: "To properly observe the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln; to preserve to posterity the memory of his words and works, and to stimulate the patriotism of the youth of the land by appropriate annual exercises."orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or ab ...
home for widows and orphans during the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, and the Bettie Stuart Institute, a Springfield academy for girls.
City of Springfield, Illinois
With a sound reputation for being an accomplished and trusted financial counselor and manager, John W. Bunn served as Treasurer of the City of Springfield, Illinois, from 1857 until 1859.
Illinois Board of Agriculture
John W. Bunn served as Treasurer of the Illinois State Board of Agriculture from 1858 until 1898.Illinois State Fair
The Illinois State Fair is an annual festival, centering on the theme of agriculture, hosted by the U.S. state of Illinois in the state capital, Springfield, Illinois, Springfield. The state fair has been celebrated almost every year since 1853 ...
Association when he personally advanced $15,000 to the Association for the purpose of enabling the liquidation of the debts that the Association possessed at a particular time in 1887.
Illinois Pension Agency
During the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
period lasting from 1861 until 1865, John W. Bunn was appointed by Abraham Lincoln to serve as Pension Agent for the State of Illinois.
University of Illinois
Having always taken a strong interest in the welfare and promotion of education, John W. Bunn served as the founding Treasurer of the University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
, having acted as Treasurer of the University of Illinois from its institutional commencement in 1868, until 1893.
Chicago Historical Society, waterways development
Additionally, John Bunn was an active member of the Chicago Historical Society.
John W. Bunn assisted with causes connected to the development of waterway infrastructure between The Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. In 1909, Bunn was appointed, in addition to several other men, by the Governor of Illinois as Delegate to the Water Ways Convention held at New Orleans, Louisiana.
United States Centennial International Exposition at Philadelphia
John W. Bunn was an incorporator of the United States Centennial Commission of 1876, the corporate body that organized and carried out the United States Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.[United States Congress: The Congressional Globe (1872) P. 2887] Along with Illinois delegates and incorporators Norman B. Judd, William B. Ogden, John Williams, William F. Coolbaugh, J. M. Adsit, H. O. Armour, D. J. Ely, George Bruner, Charles Fisher, John C. Proctor, and L. C. Bull, John W. Bunn served as incorporator of the $10 million corporation that provided the financial and directorial structure of the 1876 United States Centennial Exhibition.[Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Sangamon County (Newton Bateman & Paul Selby, Eds.) Munsell Publishing Company: Chicago, 1912. P. 830.] John Bunn, a lifelong bachelor, died on June 7, 1920 in Springfield, Illinois.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunn, John Whitfield
1831 births
1920 deaths
People from Alexandria Township, New Jersey
People from Hampton, New Jersey
People from Illinois
Businesspeople from Illinois
Pennsylvania Railroad people
Illinois Republicans