In 1894, at age 72, Edward Bunker paused to reflect on his long and full life. He wrote a brief autobiography touching on what he felt were the most significant events. Unfortunately, the story he told was brief, to the point, and lacked the rich detail and emotion that could have instructed and inspired us. But from that autobiography and other information we can piece together the fabric of a marvelous life. His life reached from early nineteenth century New England to the untamed American West and the broad pioneering movement.

He traversed the North American continent, east to west, north to south several times. He spent three years amongst the working class Victorian subjects of the British Isles. He was a frontiersman, soldier, and missionary. With great leadership and knowledge based on practical experience he built roads and communities and skillfully navigated the rugged way. But more important to him than anything else he may have accomplished was his faith and family.

[Note: Quotations from Edward's writings will be included in the text printed in italics and preceded with an "EB".]

EB: I was born in the town of Atkinson, Penobscot County, State of Maine, August 1, 1822. My parents were Silas Bunker [Jr.] and Hannah Berry Bunker. I was the youngest of nine children; seven boys and two girls, whose names were as follows:

[1] Abigail [1801], married Mr. [Samuel F.] Heath;
[2] Nahum [Berry, 1804], married Irene Thayer;
[3] Hannah [1807], married John Berry;
[4] Alfred [1809], who never married;
[5] Martin [1811], married Mary Ann Gilpatrick;
[6] Kendall [Kittredge, 1812], married his cousin, Rachel Bunker;
[7] Silas [1816], died when 27 years old, unmarried;
[8] Sabin [1818] married after I came west so I do not know who he married.
[9] [Edward 1822]

Edward tells little of life in the small New England town of Atkinson, Maine. Going back it is possible to reconstruct the stage on which he played out his youth. Beginning in 1820, two years prior to Edward's birth, several significant things happened: 1) Maine was admitted to the union as the 23rd state, 2) The inland territory of Maine was divided and sold to private individuals, and 3) Silas Bunker, Jr., Edward's father, moved his wife and eight children from the coastal town of Trenton to Atkinson, a new town on the edge of the north woods of Maine. That same year Joseph Smith, a fifteen-year-old boy in upstate New York, claimed to have seen a heavenly vision that would become the foundation for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

In 1820 the population of Maine was about 300,000, mostly scattered along the Atlantic seaboard. The people were sturdy middle class descendents from Pilgrim ancestors mixed with emigrants from various countries. Home, church and family were important. When not tending crops, they were clearing land, sailing, hunting in the woods, and fishing the Atlantic coast or inland waterways.

As towns became more crowded and opportunities for cheap land in the new upstate regions developed, many relocated to the numerous communities that were springing up across the state. Edward's uncle, Benjamin, had taken his family up the Penobscot river about 70 miles from Sedgwick and settled at Williamsburg on the edge of the North Woods. The land was inexpensive and resources abundant. Soon Edward's father and another uncle, Thomas, followed and settled their families at the nearby towns of Atkinson and Charleston, respectively. Atkinson was a small farming community with a population of 250, incorporated in 1819. The town had a physician, Dr. E. W. Snow who had moved to the town in 1818 from New Hampshire and was regarded as a kind generous man and good physician.

When the town was incorporated, Judge Atkinson of Dover, New Hampshire, for whom the town was named, presented the town with one hundred books for a public library. The center of town was called "The Mills" where a saw mill and store were located. There was a church in town and a tavern on the outskirts at Jameson Hill.

Here, in a little farming community surrounded by the north woods, Silas Bunker, Jr. and Hannah Berry welcomed their ninth and last child into the world. They named him Edward Bunker after Hannah's father.

Edward was a fifth generation descendant of James Bunker who had come to America in 1646 from England. Edward's line of Bunkers had slowly migrated from the original Bunker Garrison at Durham, New Hampshire up the Atlantic coast to Sedgwich, Maine and finally inland to Atkinson. Edward's older brothers and sisters were marrying and establishing themselves in nearby communities. Edward must have had relatives all along the New England coast. His father, Silas, was one of eleven children raised in the Sedgwick area and his mother, Hannah, was one of nine children raised in the Trenton area.

During Edward's youth the North Woods became alive with the sound of the axe felling tall trees. Rough and rowdy men flooded into the woods in the winter time to harvest the waiting lumber. Bearded, hairy-chested loggers in red shirts and gray pants, with boots and woolen hats, would leave the summer-time sailing trade to paddle up the Penobscot. After the trees close to the river were cut, the loggers moved deeper and deeper into the forest.

Swampers build roads into the interior. Choppers cut the logs, barkers strip the bark, and teamsters and their oxen drug the logs across the snow to the river. In the spring, logs jammed the Penobscot river surrounding the numerous islands whereon the Penobscot Indians dwelled. Eventually the logs would reach Bangor, Maine's leading lumber port. The population of Bangor went from under 3,000 in 1830 to 8,000 in 1834. It was a town built on the lumber trade, where land speculators, loggers, and the related businesses thrived.

No information is yet available to indicate that Edward's family was ever involved in the lumbering trade. The loggers were a rough bunch contrasted with Edward's people who were close to home and family. But Edward's later ability to build roads and handle an ox-team suggests that he may have had some experience as a youth in the wintertime activity.

In the winter of 1829, Edward's grandfather, Silas Bunker, Sr. traveled the 70 miles from his home at Sedgwick to visit Williamsburg. He was 82 years old and probably visited all three families at the time. On his way home he stopped at Blue Hill to visit his daughter, Jennie, and in the morning opened the wrong door by mistake and fell into the cellar. He was seriously injured and lay near death for ten days.

Not only was Silas, Sr. in serious condition, but Edward's uncle Isaac, who lived at Sedgwick, became ill at the same time. Isaac died February 11th, 1829 and Silas, Sr. died four days later, on February 15th, 1829. The double funeral and loss of his grandfather must have seemed a strange time for a six-year-old boy.

The census of 1830 counted a population of 418 at Atkinson. Edward was 8 years old and youngest of the 6 boys still at home. His older brothers undoubtedly taught him patience and humility early in life. But, as the youngest, perhaps his mother was protective which endeared her even more to him. In that same year Joseph Smith officially organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with six members at Fayette, New York. Though Edward was not aware of this event, it would be of great significance in his later life.

The next few years passed with all the natural joys and hard work of a rural small town existence: Exploring the North Wood, White Mountains, and Moosehead Lake, swimming and fishing in Pushaw Pond and Alder Stream.

On April 27th, 1836, Edward's older brother Martin, married Mary Ann Gilpatrick, probably a cousin on his mother's side. Edward's grandmother's maiden name was Gilpatrick. Martin and Mary moved to Trenton, Maine, where most of the Gilpatricks lived.

The next year Edward's uncle Tom at Charleston built a boat called the "Betsey Bunker" in honor of his wife and intended for his son, Richard. Richard was 17 and just two years older than Edward. Tom hauled the vessel overland more than 20 miles and launched it in the Penobscot River at Bangor, Maine on the 4th of July. Edward may have watched with keen interest as this modern Noah built his Ark. He may have shared Richard's enthusiasm and silently desired that he too could travel up and down the river.

On April 7th, 1838 when Edward was sixteen his older brother Kendall married Rachel Bunker. Rachel was Uncle Tom Bunker's daughter and Edward's cousin. The family had several instances of intermarrying with cousins and must have been very close as an extended family.

EB: When I was about sixteen years old, Father sold our home and moved to Charleston at which place we lived five years. During our stay there, Father deeded his farm and other property to my brother Silas on condition that he take care of the old folks as long as they lived.

The census of 1840 showed Charleston with over 400 residents. Thomas Bunker (Edward's uncle) and a household of nine lived next door to Kendall Bunker (Edward's brother) and his household of three. Silas Jr.'s residence was some distance from Thomas and Kendall and identified five people living there.

EB: When I was nineteen years old, I left home with the consent of my parents and brother Silas, to work for myself, as Silas owned the property, I felt I ought to have my time. After an absence of two or three months, Silas requested me to come back and live at home as he was lonely without me. He offered me a deed to one-half of the property if I would go back. I refused the offer, telling him it would be a good home for him and he could care for father and mother.

A nineteen-year-old Edward was experiencing the same desire to travel that had taken charge of an eighteen-year-old James Bunker in England five generations earlier.

EB: A spirit of unrest had taken possession of me and I longed to get away. The farm was a good one, consisting of 100 acres of land, good buildings and a nice stock of cattle. Silas felt so lonely without me that he rented the farm and went to Trenton, a distance of sixty miles, to work for my brother Martin. After he got work, he wrote for me to come there, too. As work was plentiful and I could get a job, I went down. A few days after my arrival, Silas was taken sick with filious fever. I stayed with him until he died. Before his death, realizing his time had come and not wishing the property to go back into Father's hands as he was not capable of taking care of it, he wished to deed the property to Martin and myself for the benefit of Father and Mother.

So we had the deeds drawn up and he sat up in bed and signed them. After the death of Silas, Martin made me a proposition which was this: He would pay the funeral expenses and the doctor bills and deed me his share of the property if I would pay him $200 and take care of the old folks. Or he would pay me $200 and take care of the old folks if I would deed him my share of the property and pay Silas' funeral expenses. I accepted the latter offer, which astonished Martin very much. We returned to Charleston, where at my request, he gave Father and Mother a life lease and I deeded him my share of the property.

After this was done, I returned to Atkinson, bought a small farm of my brother Kendall and took a notion to visit my brother Nahum living in Boston. Accordingly, Brother Sabin took myself and a load of shingles to Bangor. I sold the shingles and worked my passage to Plymouth.

I visited Nahum in Braintree and he proposed we visit Alfred, who was living in Hartford, Conn. This we did. Alfred wanted me to remain with him, as I could get plenty of work and good wages, so I spent the summer there.

In the fall, my brother-in-law, John Berry [Hannah's husband] came along and wanted me to go to Wisconsin with him to see the country. Alfred was away from home at the time, but I packed my trunk and left for the West without bidding him good-bye, and never saw him again.

The Erie Canal had been completed in 1825 and with it a connecting waterway from New York City to the Great Lakes region. Horace Greeley's admonition "Go West, Young Man" seemed to whisper in many a young man's ear. In 1844 railroads were being built connecting the Atlantic with the Ohio region.

EB: John Berry and I came to Cleveland, Ohio. The lake froze over and we had to spend the Winter there.

The fact that Edward does not mention traveling either on the Erie Canal or by rail suggest these new and exciting modes of transportation were probably not used. It seems most likely the 600 mile trek from Hartford, Connecticut to Cleveland, Ohio was made on horseback. Their trip probably went to New York City and then across the roadways of Pennsylvania.