Sacramento Valley Biographies ELIHU C. BUNKER Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, April 2009. This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm While California was still in the initial period of its history as a state Elihu C. Bunker, having previously operated as a miner in the mountains, came to the Sacramento river and took up a tract of government land nine miles north of Colusa. From the time of his settlement here in 1852 until his death thirty-four years later he devoted his attention to the raising of grain and kindred pursuits connected with agriculture. In the early days machinery was not in general use and the implements seen everywhere in the twentieth century had not then been invented. Hence the husbandman's task was one of the most severe and arduous labor. Where now improved seeders are used, then grain was sowed by hand. The binders, harvesters and threshing machines of to-day were unknown; instead the primitive cradle was used and the grain was bound and put in shocks by hand. Notwithstanding the difficulties of his work Mr. Bunker steadily worked his way forward and at the time of his death he owned about five hundred acres of farming land. The son of a native of North Carolina, who engaged in farming in Indiana, Elihu C. Bunker was born near what is now the heart of the present city of Indianapolis in 1828, and as a boy aided in the cultivation of the home place. After a youth uneventfully passed his whole life was altered by the discovery of gold in California. Tales of hardships experienced in crossing the mountains did not dampen the ardor of his spirit. With the courage of youth he started on the long journey across the plains into a strange land by the sunset sea. Having safely arrived here in the fall of 1852, he took up mining at Placer-ville, but soon transferred his work to the mines of Shasta county. As previously stated, he gave up mining for agriculture and in 1852 settled on the east side of the Sacramento river in Colusa county. However, later on he once more took up mining, and from 1861 to 1866 followed that occupation in Boise Basin, Idaho. As a partner he had George Goldring, a native of the Isle of Wight, England, and a pioneer of December, 1849, in California, where he and Mr. Bunker afterward followed mining and farming in partnership. Mr. Goldring survived his partner some years and died in Colusa county about 1898. In Butte Creek district, Colusa county, in 1866, occurred the marriage of Elihu C. Bunker and Esther F. (Moulton) Stinson, a native of Parkman, Me., and a descendant in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Her parents, Stillman and Esther (Foss) Moulton, were born at Leeds, Androscoggin county, Me., and after many years upon a farm in that state came to California, spending their last days in San Jose. The paternal grandfather, William Moulton, was a native of Maine and a farmer there; while the maternal grand-father, Millett Foss, was likewise a resident of that state. In a family of ten children, all but one of whom attained mature years, two are now living, Levi Foss, of Colusa, and Stillman A., whose home is in San Jose. Mrs. Bunker was the fifth in order of birth. Born in 1833, she received not only a common-school education, but had the further advantage of taking the entire course of study at Corinth Academy. After completing her studies she began to teach school at eighteen years of age. In 1860 she came by Panama to San Francisco and thence to Colusa county, where she taught the first school in Butte Creek district. The school-room was a cabin twelve feet in dimensions, with only one small window to admit the light, and the furnishings were as primitive as the building. Public schools had not yet been established, but the people paid whatever they desired; and all the money she received from her term of three months was $40, paid by two patrons, and out of which she was obliged to board herself. The school thus started has since been continued, but of course under the public-school system, and in 1903 a new building was erected for the convenience of the pupils. By her first marriage Mrs. Bunker had one child, Roscoe Stinson, now residing upon a farm in Colusa county. Of her union with Mr. Bunker there were five children born, namely: Mary, whose husband, Joseph Miller, is a farmer and dairyman and operates the Bunker farm; Annie, wife of Charles Heathcote, a farmer of this vicinity; Nellie, who married James McConnell, a farmer in the home neighborhood; Avis, Mrs. Kerr, deceased; and Hattie, wife of John Canney, residing near Colusa. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bunker were deeply interested in the development of schools, and as a school trustee he accomplished much for the educational interests of the district. In politics both were stanch supporters of the Republican party from the time of its organization. From the time of his death, which occurred December 19, 1886, until she passed away, she continued to reside on their homestead, which now (1905) embraces two hundred and twenty-three acres. However, as the property was rented to a tenant Mrs. Bunker was relieved of the care and responsibility of its management, and received an income sufficient to surround her declining years with the comforts abundantly earned by years of effort and industry. She passed away on the home farm April 3, 1905, surrounded by her family and friends. She was stricken with paralysis on Friday and died the following Monday. "History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906, Pages 482-483.