Henry B. Bunnell is a member and treasurer of Coan & Bunnell, Inc., conducting an extensive general insurance business hardly surpassed by that of any firm in the state. Their name is a synonym for enterprise and reliability and there is no feature of the insurance business with which they are not thoroughly familiar.

     Connecticut claims Mr. Bunnell as a native son, his birth having occurred at Waterbury, January 23, 1876, his parents being John B. and Helen A. (Osborn) Bunnell, who were natives of Woodbury. The father became a well known contractor and builder of Waterbury and many of the prominent buildings of that city are today monuments to his skill. The later years of his life were passed in New Haven, whore his death occurred in 1900. At the time of the Civil war he put aside all business and personal considerations and enlisted as a private in the Eighth Connecticut Regiment, with which he participated in many of the hotly contested battles. He was wounded at Gettysburg, and after partial recovery was assigned to hospital duty, thus serving until the close of hostilities. His widow is still living and now makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. George K. Coan. In the family were four sons and a daughter: John W. and Louis A. Bunnell, residing in Waterbury; Henry B. and Charles A., of New Haven; and Mary L. Coan, the wife of George R. Coan, of Woodbridge, president of Coan & Bunnell, Inc.

     Henry B. Bunnell, after attending the Waterbury schools, continued his education at night school and also pursued a course in the Scranton Correspondence School and in the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1900. After leaving the public schools he secured a position with the Rowland & Berbecker Manufacturing Company, of Waterville, Connecticut, operating automatic machines. He afterwards served an apprenticeship at tool making with the same concern and on completing his apprenticeship came to New Haven, where he entered the employ of the New Haven Bicycle Company, the business being conducted by Dann Brothers. After a short time he entered the employ of Edwin P. Bement, a manufacturer of fine tools and special machinery at New Haven and rose to the position of foreman in the establishment. He afterward became assistant foreman under James Dewey in one of the departments of the Coe Brass Company at Torrington, Connecticut. While there he took a government examination and passed, and he then resigned his position with the Coe Brass Company and was assigned as an inspector in the ordnance department of the United States navy; he was assigned to duty at the Winchester Repeating Arms Company's plant at New Haven. Connecticut, in 1898, who were doing a large amount of government work, for the country was then at war with Spain. His principal work was the inspection of all kinds of brass cases and other ordnance materials. Subsequently he was transferred to the Broderick Projectile Company, of Windsor. Connecticut, and afterward to the Midvale Steel Company, of Pennsylvania. After a time he was transferred to the Bethlehem Steel Company, of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, controlled by Charles M. Schwab, and he remained there six years inspecting large and small gun work, armor plate and other ordnance materials; the ammunition manufactured at the plant was taken to the company's own proving ground at Reading, Pennsylvania, and there tested.

     Mr. Bunnell resigned from the government service in 1907 and entered into partnership with George R. Coan, his brother-in-law, in the insurance business, Mr. Coan having succeeded to the business of the firm of Charles R. Coan & Son, of which his father was the senior partner. This is today one of the oldest and most thoroughly reliable insurance agencies in New Haven. At the time the partnership was formed the company was acting as managers for the Security Insurance Company in its New Haven department, with offices at 37 Center street. In September, 1910, they severed connection with the Security as local managers to represent them as local agents and representing several other companies they opened up an office at 17 Center street and advertised "doing business on the Ground Floor." Since then their patronage has steadily increased until, having outgrown their quarters, they removed in May, 1913, to their present location at Nos. 25-27 Center street, where they have a large clerical force engaged in carrying on their extensive business, and are now numbered among the most prominent of the general insurance agencies of the state, having a business of extensive and gratifying proportions.

     On the 21st of October, I899, Mr. Bunnell was married to Miss Ellen W. Holland, of Waterbury, Connecticut, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Holland, now residents of Los Angeles, California. They have one child, Warren Beach, who was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on September 1, 1903, and is now attending school in New Haven.

     Mr. Bunnell holds membership with the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Malta, and Snow Melters, of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and at New Haven he is a member of the Patriotic Sons of America, Sons of Veterans, and the Second Company, Governor's Foot Guard, one of the oldest military organizations in the United States.