Massey Road Trip and a Finding of Ancestors

The bright lights of Las Vegas.  The Masseys are headed for a wedding so stopped in Vegas for the night.  Lots of lights, noise, and smoky smells.  I haven't been there for years but it is always growing.

They also stopped in Bunkerville and learned a little about their ancestors.  Edward Bunker Sr. was one of the first settlers in 1877 and the town is named after him.  Richard liked going there in the summer because there were a lot of relatives still there when he was growing up.

This is a picture of  the monument dedicated tp Edward Bunker, Sr who lived from 1822 to 1901.  In a brief summary, he was born in Maine, left home at 19 and was baptized in Ohio where he was working in 1845. He went to Nauvoo where the Saints were being harassed at this time but he worked on the building of the Temple for a time and then joined the militia to help protect the Saints.   He met and married Emily in 1846  and they were living in Montrose and he was preparing to bring her West when they asked for volunteers for the Mormon Battalion for the Government to go to Mexico.  He completed the trip to San Diego and was released and traveled back and arrived in Salt Lake City in October of 1847 and then had to return to get his wife and new son who was now 11 months old.  They came out and settled in the Ogden, Utah area and then were later sent to settle Southern Utah where they lived until they were sent to Nevada in 1877 and founded Bunkerville.

He wrote his life story which can be found by clicking on the Hardy Family Histories to the side of this blog.   But at the end of his life story he concludes:

"In conclusion, I would say that now at the age of 72 I am resting from my labors and am associated with a goodly portion of my family, having in all three wives, 28 children, seventeen boys and eleven girls. Three girls and two boys have died. I also have seventy grandchildren, sixty-one of whom are living and two great-grandchildren."

Actually it was his son Edward Bunker Jr. who, at the time of the writing (1994) of this life story, was the Bishop of Bunkerville and who was called "Bishop Bunker" and written about in the Ensign..

Edward Bunker Sr would be the Great-Great-Great Grandfather.of the Massey Children.  Lineage is Keira, Meagan, John, Vida, Calista, Edward Bunker Sr and his wife Emily Abbott (no 1 wife).