by Bundy, Dillwyn C.

See previous entry: Little Home Histories, Part 07 -- Early Times in Barnesville, Ohio.

In the late 1700s, five brothers came from England. One of them settled in Louden County, Virginia and the other four in Wayne County, North Carolina.

One of these became dissatisfied and went to central New York where there are still folks of the Bundy name and such given names as Hezekiah, John and William. The earliest record is of Dempsy and Mary, his wife, who both died in N. Carolina. Their estate was settled by Wm. Bundy who married Sarah Overman in 1803 near the southern edge of the state. Sarah Overman was not able to write her name on the marriage certificate, but she was energetic and skilled in caring for her family.

After his mother's death, William Bundy brought his wife and small children to a squatters permit in section 16, Somerset Township in Belmont County, Ohio. He with Joseph Cox and John Coyler, paid the wagoner $250. to bring their goods here from N. Carolina.

William Bundy also entered a quarter section in section 27, Warren township and bought 26 acres in section 13, Somerset township. On this 26 acres he built a weatherboarded log house and painted it red. It was known as the red house farm. The house was moved away in 1885.

Thomas Marshal, a land speculator from Baltimore, entered a half of section 4 in Warren township under a patent signed by President James Madison. In his travels, Thomas Marshall saw the red house and was so taken with it and its surroundings that he traded his 320 acres of unimproved forest for this 26 acres with the red house.

William Bundy started at once to make a home on the new purchase. He took his oldest son Ezekiel and his daughter Mary, to cook for them and help with the work. They stayed at night while he went back to his wife and younger children. At first they had only a homespun blanket to cover the opening for the door, so Mary would sit and sew or knit most of the night to keep a bright fire so that the wolves would not come into the house. The log house had two rooms, one of which was used for spinning and weaving.

In 1822, William Bundy contracted with a brickmaker for bricks to build a large house. The written contract provided the terms and methods of payment. Clay for the brick was dug from the cellar and ground in a wooden mixer operated by a horse walking round and round in a circle. After mixing, the clay was molded into bricks and laid out to dry. Then the brickmaker hoped earnestly for sunny days till the bricks were dried enough to cover up around and over furnaces which were fired with wood till the brickmaker deemed them hard enough to put in the wall. Also in the same year, a contract was made with Elias Williams to dress and lay the stone range work for the foundation and for the chimney and sills and caps for the windows. This work was to be done in a workmanlike manner in the warm season of the year. Wm. Bundy was to pay $50.00 and 200 pounds of swingled flax. The written contract shows the delivery of the 200 pounds of flax.

The carpenter and joiner work was done by Giles Brooks. For pay he was to receive board and lodging and a deed for the east half of section 27 in Warren township, where Wm. Bundy had formerly lived and made improvements. The new house was built with the view of keeping drovers, and as they were sometimes a rough set, there was a brick wall partition with no doors dividing the upstairs.

In order to get white lime for the plastering, teams were sent to haul mussel shells from the Ohio River. When these were burned in a kiln and sorted from among the ashes, they yielded a very hard white surface which is smooth and hard after 120 years. As Wm. Bundy was picking shells from the ashes, a neighbor, George McNichols came along and joined him in the work while they "visited". However, George soon got tired and raised up with the remark "Mr. Bundy you are stronger in the faith than I would be." William replied "Thee is as strong in the faith as I am but thee is too lazy to work for it." It so happened that Wm. Bundy did not live long enough to enjoy the fine house he had built. He and his wife rode away one morning to attend Quarterly meeting of Friends in Morgan County and to visit their oldest daughter who married Wm. French, and lived near Chesterhill. As they started away, mother stooped down and told the little boy to be a good boy till mother gets back. His father said, "I cannot say till I get back."

While they were visiting at Mary French's, he was taken suddenly ill and died and was buried at Elliot's Cross roads. Sarah Bundy came home alone leading her husband's horse and took up the work of making a home for her children. She also was active in aiding escaped slaves on their way to Canada and Freedom.

On one occasion they had a whole family hidden away in the hay mow for more than a week. It was son William's job to take their meals to them and to help to entertain the children till they could be sent on their way. With such a mother, it was no wonder the children grew up to be abolitionists, and son William -- known as Black Bill -- in later years became a successful conductor on the underground railroad but such was the respect for him, that with a price on his head for helping the negroes, he was never in toils of the law.

On one occasion he was passing the Ebenezer Baptist Church just as the meeting broke up. It was a moonlight night and the road was full of church goers, but none of them betrayed him.

In 1843, Thomas Marshall sold 108 acres adjoining the Wm. Bundy farm to Thomas Schofield. He dug a deep well, planted an orchard of fruit trees, and built a two story log house on a rising knoll -- 200 yards from the highway. Not long afterward Schofield sold to Dempsey Bundy. Of these transactions, we do not have as clear records as those left by Wm. Bundy. Before many years Dempsey decided he wanted to live nearer the road and entered into a contract to have the brick made on the premises to build a large 8 room two story house. The building was plain and substantial and still stands, a monument to the work of those early days.

He built a large barn in 1839 and again it happened as in the case of his father William Bundy, he did not live long to enjoy the new home but died in 1876. The farm has passed to strangers but is kept in excellent repair.

Source: Written by: Dillwyn C. Bundy, Tacoma, Ohio.

See next entry: Little Home Histories, Part 09 -- Anna Stanton Bundy.

For the table of contents and first entry in this series, please see: Little Home Histories, Part 01 -- Table of Contents and Introduction.

This entry is adapted from Little Home Histories in Our Early Homes, Belmont County, Ohio, which was published in 1942. Its publication was coordinated by Robert D. and Beulah Patten McDonald. This entry has been reedited for inclusion in the Pierian Press Fulltext eBooks database, and is included on the Stratton House Inn Website by special permission. This entry is licensed for use ONLY on this Website. It may be used for educational purposes and personal pleasure under fair-use provisions via this Website. Please note that the Stratton House Inn iteration of this entry does NOT include the subject headings assigned each chapter for use in the Fulltext eBooks database.

DATABASE: Fulltext eBooks: Copyright (c) 2002 The Pierian Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ENTRY NUMBER: EBK30013708

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