Late in January, 1859 the City Council recorded the following:

"The petition for road across Weber River from south west corner of city plot was again read and on motion was referred to a committee of 2 with instructions to ascertain the practicability of having such a road located. Alderman Bunker and Councillor Farley were appointed by the Mayor as said committee."

This entry reaffirms once again the expertise that Edward possessed for road building. Whether or not he had developed this ability or skill prior to living in Ogden is not known, but he apparently exhibited some talent and ability in the area.

In mid February, Alderman Bunker made a strange motion. He presented a bill to the Council for a "balance due him on Weber Canal for labor done in 1852." No action was taken at that time. Six years after the event, Edward is asking for payment. From a review of the record, this does not seem to have been a common practice of council members. This action seems to be a turning point in his political career, for at the next election on February 14th, 1859, he was removed as an Alderman and restored to the Council in general. It does not appear that the position of Aldermen was rotated on a routine basis.

In late February, the City Council met and Edward's claim of $19.35 for "labor on Weber Canal in 1852" was read and approved. At the March 12th meeting Edward was appointed to the Improvements, Claims, and Public Works committees. Edward retained his seat on the Council and continued to serve as the Bishop of the Ogden 2nd Ward (congregation).

About this time Sir Richard Burton visited Salt Lake City on his worldwide visit to interesting religious capitals. He commented on the office of Bishop as follows:

"The episcopate is a local authority in stakes, settlements, and wards, with the directorship of affairs temporal as well as spiritual. This `overseer' receives the tithes on the commutation-labor, which he forwards to the public store-house; superintends the registration of births, marriages and deaths, makes domiciliary visits, and hears and determines complaints either laical or ecclesiastic."

In addition to managing the affairs of the local congregation without monetary compensation, Edward had to coordinate his time to provide for his families' emotional and temporal needs and still conduct his responsibilities as City Councilman. In 1859 his oldest child, Edward, Jr., was 13 years old. David McKay was a member of Edward's congregation and father of one of the future presidents of the Church, David O. McKay. Years later President McKay wrote:

"When my father, David McKay, was a young man he was employed for a time by Bishop Edward Bunker. Just where I do not know. One morning father arose before daylight to attend to his chores. Approaching the barn or stable he was greatly surprised to hear a voice. Pausing, he recognized Bishop Bunker who evidently had preceded him to the barn and was praying out loud. Father was near enough to him to hear him distinctly. In Bishop Bunker's supplication he pleaded with the Lord to give him wisdom that he might deal with his loved ones fairly and justly, showing no favoritism and keeping peace, harmony, and love in his family circle.

"That prayer made a deep impression upon my father who added, when he related the incident, the following: `I thought if a man as upright and noble as Bishop Bunker had to plead with the Lord for wisdom to deal justly with his wives and his children, I did not feel that I was worthy or capable of assuming the responsibility that plural marriage seemed to entail.'"

Toward the end of 1859 Emily was expecting another baby. This would be Edward's 8th child and Emily's 6th. In Novem-ber a baby girl was born.

8th Child: Elethra Calista Bunker
Born: November 9th, 1859, Ogden, Utah,
Mother: Emily Abbott [6th Child].

EB: In the fall of '59, our daughter Emily, then ten years old, was sick with bilious fever and tape worm and near unto death. She lost her speech and memory and was as helpless as an infant. Her mother weaned the baby and gave Emily the breast and that was all the nourishment she took for two months. She was healed through the ordinances of the church by the power of God, as one raised from the dead. All her faculties returned and she is now living and the mother of four boys.

As 1860 came along, events were taking place that would have a profound effect on Edward and his family. President Brigham Young had become very interested in the Virgin River Basin, situated in present-day southwestern Utah and southeastern Nevada. Several reasons seem to have prompted President Young's interest.

First, the Church might very well have settled in California, as Sam Brannon wanted, except President Young wanted a place that was somewhat isolated where the church could gain an initial foothold before Gentiles (Non-Mormons) came in sufficient numbers to cause a disruption. As a part of this isolation he wanted to protect access routes and in particular control the southern approach from the west coast. The Virgin River Basin was a key to this route.

Second, with the impending war between the southern and northern states, prophesied by Joseph Smith, the migration of saints across the eastern United States would certainly become a problem. An alternative would be to travel south to the Isthmus of Panama and then to California and over the Old Spanish Trail to the Great Basin. The Virgin River Basin would be a way station on the new route.

Third, many Non-Mormons had interest in accessing the interior of the United States by way of the Colorado River. The lower Virgin was directly in line with the proposed new trade route.

Fourth, there were numerous Indians in that region and the Mormons had an interest in converting them and reducing potential hostilities and depredations.

Fifth, the climate of that region was the key to the production of important goods that would sustain the saints in their self-sufficient isolationism. In addition President Young had promoted a policy of locating communities throughout the territory surrounding the Salt Lake Valley for future growth and expansion.

With all these concerns in mind, President Young was not pleased to hear in 1860 that the few settlers and missionaries that had been sent to that region were not prospering as he had hoped. Many wanted to return to the more populous regions near Salt Lake City. In the Spring of 1861, President Young visited the Virgin River Basin. He stood at the confluence of the Virgin River and the Santa Clara in the valley that is now St. George. He looked in silence as his entourage gathered around. He surveyed the mountains and hills all around and then transfixed his gaze on the valley before him. He said:

"There will yet be built, between those volcanic ridges, a city, with spires, towers and steeples, with homes containing many inhabitants."

Not only did President Young prophesy of a city that would come, but he determined to do everything he could to cause it to literally come about.

In November of 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected Presi-dent of the United States. In December word came that South Carolina had seceeded from the United States. Shortly thereafter, six other southern states followed, forming the Confederate States of America. In March of 1861, Lincoln was inaugurated followed by four more states defecting and joining the confederacy. Civil War diverted national attention away from Utah and many of the solders stationed in Utah were called to the east.

In Ogden, Edward was contemplating his family and the principle that the more children a man had the more blessings would be poured out upon him. He began to look for another wife and his eyes fell upon a young Scottish girl living in his ward. Her name was Mary McQuarrie.

The last year of Edward's mission to the British Isles, 1855, was spent in Scotland. Just outside of Glasgow was the town of Renfrew and a convert family by the name of McQuarrie. During the emigration of 1855, the McQuarrie family sent one of their sons, Hector, to America. He settled in Ogden and awaited the rest of the family. Whether Edward was acquainted with the family in Scotland we do not know, but he may well have seen them in meetings and even visited their farm. Perhaps it was Edward who recommend they settle in Ogden.

Edward emigrated in 1856. In 1857, the McQuarrie family followed Hector to Ogden and settled in Edward's ward.

ED: In April of 1861, I married Mary McQuarrie.

Mary Mathieson McQuarrie was born August 28th, 1846, at Climbreahead, Scotland to Allan McQuarrie and Agnes Mathieson. She was the youngest of seven children. The family had a meager farm life, and when they heard the message of the missionaries they joined the Church. They left Scotland in March of 1857, arriving in Utah later that year. They purchased a 40-acre farm in Ogden.

Larry Bunker's account of Mary's life states:

"Mary was a very pretty girl. She had black hair and her eyes sparked with laughter. Her charming disposition gained for her the love of many dear friends. She lived in a good home for pioneer days. He parents, brothers and sisters were kind, true and devoted to each other. Her mother was a very capable homemaker. She taught Mary while young in all the ways of good housekeeping. Here she learned the art of sewing, for she was an expert seamstress. Her needle work was finer than a machine could do. She was trained in all the arts of weaving, suit making, and cooking. Her children would say that she had the art of making plain, simple food taste delicious. None excelled her in the art of thrift. She was truly a Scotch lady in every way."

"When Edward asked Mary's father if he would consent to this marriage to his daughter, Allan McQuarrie answered in his Scottish brogue, `Mon, do they marry the bairns [children], in this country?'"

Mary became Edward's third plural wife on April 20th, 1861. Mary was not yet 15 years-old and just 6 months older than Edward's oldest son. Edward was a few months short of being 39 years old. Emily must have felt some challenge of faith when Edward first proposed the idea of marrying Mary to her. Emily and Sarah may have wondered why Edward didn't choose a woman with no apparent opportunity for marriage, or another widow who may need the support that such a group could offer.

Edward, like others in his position, decided to choose a woman who was young enough to provide an abundance of children. He firmly believed the children were the greatest gift that life could bring to any man. His was not a selection based on carnal desires or a yearning for lost youth. His was a selection based on duty to a principle that "children are a gift from God and blessed is he whose quiver is full of them." John McQuarrie, Emily's nephew later wrote:

"Edward believed thoroughly in Eternalism. That life is eternal, that progress is eternal. That God, angels, and men belong to the same race. That the gulf which now separates them differs only in degree. He believed that we may become Gods or creators, not equal in office with God, but like him in person. He believed that as we are able to use the materials at hand to build a temporal home here for our family, that eventually as they multiply, through an increase of knowledge, he would be permitted and able to draw the elements together and create a world for his own posterity. To him the glory, honor, majesty, and power to which he attained would be determined by the greatness in number and the character of his children. He wanted a wife with all her potential powers, that she might have, not one or two which would have been the limit if he married a woman near his own age, but many children."

"If Emily was rewarded for her sacrifice at Council Bluffs, she was blessed far more by accepting Mary McQuarrie into the family. She with her youth, vigor and good judgment became at once a companion, a partner, a helpmate, a Godsend to Emily. She became a blessing to her husband, not only in doing her share of the work in the home, but in being a Clara Barton or Florence Nightingale to the sick and needy in the wards over which he presided as a father."

"[Mary] never was to regret this marriage. She had a deep and abiding faith in the Gospel and believed in the principal of plural marriage. She came to know by experience that if this law were lived as God intended it should be, in honor and true live, it would refine and purify the soul as nothing else would. She loved her husband dearly. Edward was a noble man, one of the stalwarts of this Church in its very beginning. Mary always taught her children to love and obey their Father and to love Aunt Emily and Aunt Sarah and their children."

Every six months, in April and October, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held a general conference in Salt Lake City. At conference held in October of 1861 President Brigham Young announced that 309 missionaries had been called to relocate their families to the "Cotton Mission" in the Virgin River Basin. Edward Bunker was one called.

Emily and Sarah were both expecting babies. Mary was young and would be leaving most of her family behind. Edward had been a willing servant, but this meant the sacrifice of a stable home and society to venture out into the Indian- infested desert to break new trails.