Frank Charles Bunnell
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Pennsylvania
In office
March 4, 1885  March 3, 1889
Preceded byGeorge A. Post
Succeeded byMyron B. Wright
Constituency15th district
In office
December 24, 1872  March 3, 1873
Preceded byUlysses Mercur
Succeeded byJames D. Strawbridge
Constituency13th district
Personal details
Born(1842-03-19)March 19, 1842
Washington Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania
DiedSeptember 11, 1911(1911-09-11) (aged 69)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Political partyRepublican

Frank Charles Bunnell (March 19, 1842 – September 11, 1911) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.[1][2]

Formative years

Born in Washington Township in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania[3] on March 14, 1842[4] (alternate birth date: March 19), Frank C. Bunnell was a son of Pennsylvania natives James Bunnell (1814–1899) and Mary (Harding) Bunnell (1817–1898). Reared and educated initially with his sister, Savannah (1840–1864), in the common school of Dauphin County, he later attended the Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pennsylvania.[5][6]

Civil War

Frank Bunnell became one of the early responders to President Lincoln's call for volunteers to help preserve America's union. After enrolling on September 20, 1861, at the age of 19 at Mehoopany, Pennsylvania, he then officially mustered in on October 11, 1861, at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg as a private with Company B, 52nd Pennsylvania Infantry. Promoted to the rank of quartermaster sergeant of his regiment on March 1, 1862[7] during the Peninsula Campaign under General McClellan, he fought with his regiment in multiple engagements, including the Battle of Williamsburg (May 5, 1862) and Battle of Seven Pines (May 31-June 2, 1862). He was subsequently discharged from the military on April 2, 1863, on a surgeon's certificate of disability.[8][9]

Post-war life

Following his honorable discharge from the military, Bunnell returned home to Luzerne County where, from 1864 to 1869, he worked as a merchant. He then relocated to Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, where he worked in the agricultural and banking industries, and began a 20-plus-year tenure as president of the Wyoming County Agricultural Society.[10]

On October 1, 1898, he wed Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania resident Martha A. Smith in Tunkhannock.[11]

An unsuccessful candidate for federal office in 1872, he was elected to the Forty-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ulysses Mercur.[12][13]

In 1884, he was elected burgess and borough treasurer of Tunkhannock.[14]

A Republican, he was then elected again to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses,[15] but did not seek renomination in 1888.[16][17] Still residing in Tunkhannock two years later, he was documented as suffering from rheumatism and deafness, according to the special census of Union veterans and widows of the Civil War which was conducted that year.[18]

Residing alone in Tunhannock at the turn of the century,[19] he relocated to Philadelphia sometime during or before 1911.[20]

Death and interment

Suffering from Bright's Disease and aortic regurgitation,[21] Bunnell died at his home at 2320 North 19th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 1911. Following funeral services at the M.E. Church in Tunkhannock on September 15, he was laid to rest at that community's Gravel Hill Cemetery later that same day.[22][23][24]

  • "Frank Charles Bunnell" (memorial and gravesite information). Salt Lake City, Utah: Find A Grave, retrieved online September 2, 2018.

References

  1. "Bunnell, Frank Charles, (1842-1911) Archived 2020-03-30 at the Wayback Machine", in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Congress, retrieved online February 14, 2008.
  2. "Bunnell, Frank Charles (1842-1911)". Kestenbaum, Lawrence. "The Political Graveyard": Retrieved online February 14, 2008.
  3. "Death of Hon. F. C. Bunnell". Honesdale, Pennsylvania: The Citizen, September 20, 1911, p. 8.
  4. "Frank C. Bunnell", in Death Certificates. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, September 11, 1911.
  5. "Bunnell, Frank Charles, (1842-1911)", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  6. "Bunnell, Frank Charles (1842-1911)", in "The Political Graveyard".
  7. "Bunnell, Frank C.", in "Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866". Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
  8. "Bunnell, Frank C.", "Registers of Pennsylvania Volunteers,1861-1865", in "Records of the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs" (Record Group 19). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.
  9. "Bunnell, Frank Charles, (1842-1911)", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  10. "Bunnell, Frank Charles, (1842-1911)", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  11. "Frank C. Bunnell" in "Married". Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania: Jeffersonian, October 8, 1868.
  12. "Bunnell, Frank Charles, (1842-1911)", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  13. "Bunnell, Frank Charles (1842-1911)", in "The Political Graveyard".
  14. "Bunnell, Frank Charles, (1842-1911)", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  15. "Pennsylvania" in "Yesterday's Elections". Washington, D.C.: Evening Star, November 3, 1886.
  16. "Bunnell, Frank Charles, (1842-1911)", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  17. "Bunnell, Frank Charles (1842-1911)", in "The Political Graveyard".
  18. "Bunnell, F. C.", in U.S. Census of Union Veterans and Widows of the Civil War (Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, 1890). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  19. "Bunnell, Frank C.", in U.S. Census (Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, 1900). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
  20. "The Hon. F. C. Bunnell" (obituary), The Citizen.
  21. "Frank C. Bunnell", in Philadelphia City Death Certificates, Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
  22. "The Hon. F. C. Bunnell" (obituary), The Citizen.
  23. "Bunnell, Frank Charles, (1842-1911)", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  24. "Bunnell, Frank Charles (1842-1911)", in "The Political Graveyard".
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