| The
Perry BUNCH Family |
Symonds
District
|
.In
1902 the William B. Bunch family arrived in Lacombe on the same
train that brought the Joseph Marshall family.
Mr. & Mrs. Bunch were accompanied by their two sons,
Tapley B. and Perry Sydney Both sons were widowers, their wives
having died in Illinois near Springfield, where the boys were born
and grew up. Tapley was left with two children - Ruby (Mrs. William
Cork) and Ralph. The death of Perry's wife in childbirth and of
an infant son Roy, left him with four children. Nellie
(Mrs. Richard Pridgeon - Dick was a brother
to Mrs. Tom Iddings);
Alma (Mrs. Glen Chiles); Gertie (Mrs. James
Cadek), and William.
Grandma Bunch was left to care for the six grandchildren on the
train trip up from Illinois as both Perry and Tapley had to ride
with stock to the care for them. Since they were not able to get
their homesteads and get houses built they spent the first year
in Lacombe, where William died.
In November 1908 Perry married Mattie Everhart, a widow with three
daughters - Gracie (Mrs. John Hall), Pearl (Mrs. Carl Cox), and
Mabel (Mrs. Leroy Rimbey). Mattie was the eldest daughter of Frank
(Dad) Symonds who arrived in the area in 1903 from Iowa, U.S.A.,
and homesteaded in the Symonds district. Mattie was the first white
girl born in Victoria Township, Cass County, Iowa, USA In 1909 their
daughter Lula was born in an old log house on the "Townsend
Place" two (2) miles north of Rimbey.
Perry took as his homestead, the "Hyde Place" just south
of where Monte Vista School was built. There was a small house on
the northeast corner of the place, and Perry and his family lived
there while he was building a larger house farther south. Perry
received his naturalization papers on June 21, 1905. He farmed his
homestead and had a threshing outfit. He also had one race horse,
which I am afraid wasn't very successful. Glen Coleman road and
took care of the race horse.
Frank Stephas
did farm work, and Lula remembers Frank or "Steppie" as
he called him as a very good friend, who spend hours of his spare
time playing games with her when she was a little girl.
Perry had the agency for the John Deere Implement Company and when
the different machines were shipped to him, they came knocked down.
The Company sent men to assemble these machines and they boarded
and roomed at Perry's.
In the spring of 1915, Perry and Mattie held a sale on the farm
and moved to Rimbey, where they lived in a small house a block south
of the main street and almost directly behind the livery barn. The
house was bought from Frank Symonds.
Later Perry bought a larger house to which they built on two more
rooms. It was situated just south of the Clifford Hewitt home. Perry
bought the livery barn and had freight wagons with which he hauled
supplies from Lacombe for Ralston's and Beatty's, and several other
businesses. It was all hauled by either wagon or sled depending
on the season.
Nellie and Dick left for British
Columbia in 1922 where Dick passed away. They had two boys and two
girls. Nellie died in 1975.
Alma and Glen had a son Sydney Chiles and a daughter.
Alma died in 1954.
Gertie married an auctioneer. She had three children
and still lives in Lacombe.
Lulu lives with her husband, Merle Armstrong in California,
USA The Government awarded contracts for mail delivery to the outlying
post offices such as Leedale, Lockhard, Iola, etc. Perry had the
contract to haul the mail from Bentley every day and to the other
places once a week. During the time Perry owned the livery he also
had a taxi and drove a Grey Dort car. Once, during the time he owned
the livery, two young fellows who were employed at the bank hired
a team and cutter to go to a dance out in the country. They were
told to just drive the team into the runway of the barn and leave
them, and whoever came to do the feeding would unhitch and unharness
them. They decided it was going to be a long time for the team to
stand there so they would unhitch and unharness, However, they had
no idea how to do it, so
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| (Left
to right) Mattie, Perry & Lulu Bunch (June 1917) |
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| (Left
to right) Perry's daughters - Nellie, Alma, Gertie & Lulu
in 1946 |
unfastened every
strap on the harness. It took one man two days to get the harness
back together again!Mattie was a practical nurse and worked for
years with Dr. Byers. She had a small private hospital in her home.
In 1926 she left Rimbey to go to Anacortes, Washington, USA to keep
house for her brother Arthur. She later returned to Rimbey and died
there of cancer in 1932. |
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| Additional
notes on the Bunch family... (a little info has been provided
- for more info, please follow the link to the source!) |
|
1.
|
In
1870 William B. Bunch, was born in Illnois, and was 26 years
old. He was married to Lucinda, who was born in Tennessee,
USA, and they had 4 daughters at the time: Susan, 8 years
old, Harriett, 6, Sarah, 5, and May, 6 months old. William's
occupation is listed as Farmer. |
Source: |
1870
Census of Morgan County, IL p.674 |
| 2. |
Murrayville
is located in Morgan County, in the state of Illinois, United
States of America |
Source: |
US
geographic search engine |
| 3. |
There
is a mailing list for BUNCH family queries at Rootsweb |
Source: |
https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/legacy/surname/b/bunch.html |
| 4. |
Other
sources that may be helpful:
Morgan
County, Illinois GenWeb Project
Morgan
Area Genealogical Association & Waverly Genealogical & Historical
Society
Illinois State Archives
Rootsweb
Iowa State Resources
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