Houghton Surname Project

Dr. Bradley Bunnell¹

M, #103261, b. 26 January 1784, d. 1856

Family: Charlotte Houghton b. 19 Apr 1788, d. 1845

Marriage*: Dr. Bradley Bunnell married Charlotte Houghton, daughter of James Houghton and Joanna (?), on 1805 at VT, USA.

Lafayette Houghton Bunnell M.D. b. 1824, d. 1903

Biography

A Contributor to Houghton Surname Project

Corresponded with author

Birth

Jan 26, 1784

Newtown, CT, USA²

Marriage

1805

VT, USA

Children+

1814

Willard Bradley Bunnell 1814 – 1861
Anna Marie Bunnell 1830 –
Charlotte Bunnell 1830 – 1920
Stephen Bunnell 1830 –
Lafayette Houghton Bunnell 1822 – 1903
Frances Augusta Bunnell 1830 – 1870
Leumann S Bunnell 1831 – 1888

Death

1856

Homer, Winoma Co., MN, USA²

ParentsS

Job Bunnell 1752 – 1827 and Rachel Bradley 1751 – 1839

Biography

The writer's father, Dr. Bradly Bunnell, was born in New London, Conneticut, in about 1781, and his mother, Charlotte Houghton, was bom in Windsor, Vermont, in about 1785. Soon after their marriage they came to Albany, New York, where the eldest sister of the writer was born, and where also was born her husband, Stephen Van Rensselaer. From Albany his parents moved to Homer, New Yoi-k, where the eldest son, Willard
Bradly Bunnell, was born in 1814. Ten years later, 1824, the writer was born in Kochester, New York.

While living in that beautiful city, his father conceived the idea of visiting the Territory of Michigan, and in 1828 went to Detroit. The writer is made sure of the time, by the date of a diploma of his father's membership in the Detroit Medical Society, signed by Stephen C. Henry, president, and II. S. Rice, secretary, and other papers in his possession.

In the autumn of 1831, Bradley Bunnell started for Detroit, with the intention of establishing himself in the practice of his profession, but, delayed by the inclemency of the season, and lack of secure transportation, was induced to open an office in Buffalo.

His practice grew into importance, and during the season of cholera, 1832, the calls for his services to relieve the distressed and dying were almost ...

The writer had an attack of Asiatic cholera, and passed into what was ...osed by consulting physicians to be a collapsed stage of the
disease, but the heroic treatment decided upon caused a rally of

the vital forces, and the grim enemy was routed. Although but
eight years old at the time of the Black Hawk war, that event, and
incidents connected with it, he distinctly remembers. The passage
through Buffalo of United States troops on their way to the scene
of conflict made a vivid impi-ession that years have failed to eradi-
cate. In 1833 it was thought advisable by the writer's father to
move up to Detroit, but meeting with what he thought a better
opportunity to establish himself, after a short delay at Detroit, con-
tinued on up to Saginaw. There he purchased forty acres of land,
that now forms part of that flourishing city. He also bought forty
acres that forms the site of Carrolton. Soon dissatisfied with his
purchase, and the felicity afforded by howling wolves and croaking
bullfrogs in their gambols and songs of love, he left in the sweet
spring-time for metropolitan life in the French village of Detroit.
His family, on the score of economy, and most likely for want of
ready funds, were left in Saginaw to care for the household goods
and garden, and the children to cultivate their unfolding intellects at
a country school. The writer was called "Pef' by his mother, and
was allowed to run at large with Chippewa children (whose tongue
wsis soon acquired), visit their camps, sugar-groves, hunt, fish, swim,
skate and fight, to his unbounded satisfaction. His pride was to
excel his dusky competitors in all things, and this was soon accom-
])lislied, to the admiration of an old Chippewa warrior instructor by
his killing two immense bald eagles at the age of eleven. The
writer was not then aware of the importance Indians attach to the
killing of an eagle.

His mother soon became satisfied that her "Pet" was learning
more of the camp than tlie school, more of the hi-yah, of Indian
music, than of that taught by his sisters. After a few written notes
received from his teacher (confidential), and a vain attempt to take
all of "his hide off," after the most approved methods of that
''''good old time''%'). It was thought best, upon one of his father's
periodical visits, to place the writer in a Detroit "classical school."

At about the age of twelve the misguided boy was placed in the
Latin school of Mr. O'Brien, of Detroit, who has for many years
taught the 3'oung ideas "to shoot," fitting many young men with
preparatory instruction for useful lives. Mr. O'Brien had been
educated for the Catholic priesthood, but discovering some peculi-
arity in his character (it was thought to be his temper) un suited to
so sacred an office, he opened his Latin school in Detroit.

There can be no doubt of the masterly ability of O'Brien as a
teacher ; but his method was the old one he learned in his bible, to
"spare not the rod !" So, after a very short term at that school,
receiving in the meantime a few extr'a lessons in the manly art ot
self-defense^ the writer one day with a ty-yah ! left the school and
his books never to return.

A new method was then tried with the young savage, and his
experiences at the "Bacon Select or High School," of Detroit, are
cherished in grateful memory. The writer made rapid progress
toward the goal of his ambition, a liberal education, but the "wild-
cat mania" had seized upon his father, and as a consequence of
losses, sickness and deaths in his family, the boy aspirant had to be
made self-supporting.

He was placed in the drug store of Benjamin T. Le Britton,
opposite Ben Woodworth's hotel, where he boarded for a time upon
his arrival in Detroit, and with that kind and upright gentleman,
and his successor in business, he remained until the fires that raged
in the wooden buildings of that period had destroj^ed them.
Before the destruction of the American or Wale's Hotel by fire
the writer was boarded at that house by his employer, and
while there remembers that Henry R. Schoolcraft boarded there also
for some considerable time, engaged, probably, upon his Indian
works. A Chippewa maiden in attendance upon his invalid wife
(who was of mixed blood), though shy, seemed pleased when spoken
to in Chippewa, which, boy like, the writer would do.

For a time, at intervals, though young for the work, he was sent
by his employer to take orders and make collections in Ohio, Ken-
tuck' and Virginia.

It was now thought advisable to engage the writer in the study
of medicine. This was distasteful to him, but finally, with his ex-
perience as a druggist to build on, in 1840 he went into his father's
office in Detroit, and in winter, for want of other resources, attended
private clinics and demonstrations.

The reading and confinement involved was too great a change
from his former and accustomed habits, but nevertheless, in order
not to disappoint the fond expectations of -his parents, he worked
against his inclinations. He had continued liis studies, more or less
regularly, when a most welcome letter from his brother, Willard B.
Uunnell, decided him, in the spring of 1842, to go to Bay-du-Noquet,
where Willard was engaged in the fur trade.