Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Bunker, Benjamin M. October 30, 1847 - ????
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Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 January 11, 2025, 12:26 pm

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

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, 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.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Linda Shillinger  LindasTree@AOL.COM.

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