Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Where was John Whitfield Bunn born?
John W. Bunn was the third son of Henry Bunn and Mary (Sigler) Bunn, both of Hunterdon County, New Jersey.[2] The Bunn family was Presbyterian, and they recorded the baptisms of several children in a Presbyterian Church located at one time in Alexandria, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.[5] There exists evidence that the Bunn family ancestors had originally purchased property from the heirs of William Penn.[6]
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.[19] Many of the businesses and civic institutions with which the Bunn brothers and their extended family were connected are discussed below.
John Whitfield Bunn spent the remainder of his life in Illinois, and maintained a varied and successful commercial, industrial, and philanthropic career that lasted from 1847 until 1920.[19] A multimillionaire, John W. Bunn exhibited financial commitment and philanthropic loyalty to public causes in Illinois.[20]
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.[38] Like his younger brother John W. Bunn, Jacob Bunn was also an incorporator of the American Standard Life Insurance Company.[38] Additionally, John W. Bunn served as an incorporator of the DuBois Insurance Company of Springfield, Illinois, on February 20, 1867.[39]
Henry Bunn was born October 19, 1772, in Alexandria Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.[7] Henry Bunn was the son of Jacob Bunn (born 1736; died 1808) and Maria Elizabetha (surname unknown) (born 1744; died 1817).[5] Henry Bunn married Mary Sigler (born April 7, 1788; died July 31, 1833).[7] Henry Bunn and Mary (Sigler) Bunn owned a prosperous farm in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and at the time of Henry Bunn's death in 1859 he left an estate valued at a quantity in excess of $34,000.[7] There exists evidence that Henry Bunn, the father of Jacob Bunn, John Whitfield Bunn, and George Whitfield Bunn, engaged in the banking business in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.[8]
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.[73] 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.[74] 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.[75] The capital stock of the corporation was increased in 1874 to $400,000.[75] Leonard Richardson served as president of the Iron Bank of Falls Village, Connecticut.[76]
This article concerns John Whitfield Bunn, Jacob Bunn, and the entrepreneurs who were interconnected with the Bunn brothers through association or familial and genealogical connection.
In 1847, at the age of 16, John W. Bunn left New Jersey to join his older brother Jacob Bunn in the wholesale grocery trade in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois, 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.[2]
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,[48] and whose corporate precursor had been the St. Louis & Chicago Railroad Company.
John W. Bunn served as Treasurer of the Illinois State Board of Agriculture from 1858 until 1898.[9] Bunn provided financial assistance to the Illinois State Fair 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.[142]
Abraham Lincoln acted as the attorney for Jacob Bunn, who was the older brother of John W. Bunn.[9] In his very own words, in the relation of an interview concerning his personal memoirs and acquaintanceship with Abraham Lincoln, John Bunn stated that he and Lincoln had been extremely close friends and political allies.[11] Abraham Lincoln 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 Calhoun, B. C. Webster, J. N. Brown, Pascal P. Enos, William Pickrell, and S. B. Opdycke.[12]
During the American Civil War period lasting from 1861 until 1865, John W. Bunn was appointed by Abraham Lincoln to serve as Pension Agent for the State of Illinois.[9]
In 1867, John W. Bunn acted as an incorporator of the $50,000 Belleville City Railway Company of Belleville, Illinois.[56]
John Whitfield Bunn (June 21, 1831 – June 7, 1920)[1] was an American corporate leader, financier, industrialist, and personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, whose work and leadership involved a broad range of institutions ranging from Midwestern railroads, international finance, and Republican Party politics, to corporate consultation, globally significant manufacturing, and the various American stock exchanges. He was of great historical importance in the commercial, civic, political, and industrial development and growth of the state of Illinois and the American Midwest, during both the nineteenth century and the twentieth century. John Whitfield Bunn was born June 21, 1831, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.[2] Although every one of the business institutions co-founded or built by the Bunn Brothers has ceased to exist, and fallen purely into the realm of history, each of these businesses left an important legacy of honorable industrial, commercial, and civic vision for Illinois, the Midwest, and the United States.
In 1858, John W. Bunn achieved the status of partner in the wholesale grocery firm of "J. Bunn Company."[2]
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.[46] 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.[47]
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.[55]
John W. Bunn assisted with causes connected to the development of waterway infrastructure between The Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.[145] 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.[146]
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.[13] 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.[14] Lincoln acquired the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger through his banker Jacob Bunn,[14] who was a close personal friend and client of Lincoln.[15] Jacob Bunn and his brother John Whitfield Bunn were close personal friends of Lincoln and his family,[16] and were industrialists and financiers who established a national and international network of industrial corporations ranging from Chicago railroads and banks to manufacturing corporations of global scale in production and economic impact.[17] John Whitfield Bunn served as the treasurer of, and as one of the initial financial contributors to, the $5,000 1860 presidential campaign fund for Lincoln whose establishment and formation had been originally suggested to John W. Bunn by Judge Stephen Trigg Logan, a former law partner of Lincoln.[18] Jacob Bunn, John Williams, Ozias M. Hatch, Thomas Condell, and Robert Irwin were also among the initial financial contributors to the campaign fund.[18]
George Whitfield Bunn, a brother of Jacob Bunn and John Whitfield Bunn, also born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 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 10,000 acres (40km2) of property that later became a major oil field in Texas.[71] George Whitfield Bunn served as an incorporator and director of the Bank of Tomales, California.[72]
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.[51] 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.[52]
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.[40] 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.[41] 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.[42]
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 of Springfield, Illinois.[24] 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.[25] The assets of the Illinois Watch Company were sold, during 1927 and 1928, to the Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania for a sum in excess of $5 million.[26] John Whitfield Bunn also worked with Jacob Bunn and Benjamin Hamilton Ferguson in the management of the Illinois Watch Company.[27] The Illinois Watch Company was estimated by one source to have paid out nearly $20 million in employee wages by approximately 1920.[28]
John Bunn spent his childhood and early adulthood on the family farm located near Milford, New Jersey.[2]
Additionally, John Bunn was an active member of the Chicago Historical Society.[144]