Daniel Bunnell

DANIEL BUNNELL. One of the citizens of constructive ability and of many influential connections with Arkansas City from early times until recently was the late Daniel Bunnell, who died at Arkansas City, June 30, 1915. He founded a real estate business and acquired large holdings of property both in Southern Kansas, and in Northern Oklahoma. Much of that business is now managed by his son William and his widow, Mrs. Maude A. Bunnell, has also proved her capacity as a business woman by handling with unusual shrewdness and foresight the various interests left her by her husband.

The late Daniel Bunnell was born at Morrillton, Arkansas, March 21, 1853, and was only sixty-two years of age when he died. He grew up in Morrillton, married his first wife there, and while living in Arkansas was a farmer and stock dealer. In 1880 he came to Arkansas City, farmed for a time and then entered the real estate loan and investment business. He gave that the best energies of his life for twenty-six years. The business which he founded is one of the pioneer loan enterprises of the town. For a time Mr. Bunnell was also a merchant at Arkansas City. He did much to develop property, building many residences, sold and exchanged large quantities of city real estate and numerous farms in Cowley County, and later his business dealings extended to Oklahoma, especially in Kay, Noble and Pawnee counties.

Daniel Bunnell was a democrat in politics. In the early days he served as a member of the police force in Arkansas City and helped keep order there when it was a turbulent community. He was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was affiliated with Inaugural Camp No. 867, Modern Woodmen of America, with the Sons and Daughters of Justice and the Tribe of Ben Hur.

In 1879; at Morrillton, Arkansas, Mr. Bunnell married Sarah C. Outlaw. All of Mr. Bunnell's children were by this marriage five in number, namely: William, referred to below; James, who is a traveling salesman for the Charter Oak Wagon Company, living at Arkansas City; Daniel, Jr., an oil operator at Tulsa, Oklahoma; Abednego, in the freight department of the Santa Fe Railroad at Arkansas City; and Shadrach, in the oil business at El Dorado, Kansas.

William Bunnell, son of the late Daniel Bunnell, was born in Cowley County, Kansas, May 22, 1880. He attended the Arkansas City public schools but left off his books and studies at the age of fifteen to make his own way in the world. For two years he clerked in a drug store, another two years in a grocery store, and, having gained experience and sharpened his wits by varied contact with men and affairs, he turned to the business of dealing in horses and live stock. He followed that until 1908 and then became vice president of the Traders State Bank of Arkansas City. Selling his interest in the bank in 1914, William Bunnell organized the William Bunnell Loan & Investment Company and has since given all his time to the prosecution of its large and extensive activities. William Bunnell owns a large amount of valuable real estate in Arkansas City, including his home at 711 South Summit Street, also has 12,000 acres of land in Kay, Noble and Pawnee counties, Oklahoma, and an equity in his father's estate. He is a democrat, a member of the Presbyterian Church and is affiliated with Inaugural Camp No. 867, Modern Woodmen of America, and Arkansas City Lodge No. 89, Ancient Order United Workmen.

On April 16, 1902, at Arkansas City, William Bunnell married Mrs. Bertha (Krebs) LaFarge, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Krebs, who were pioneer settlers in Arkansas City. William Krebs was a stone mason. The four step-children of William Bunnell are: Maree, wife of R. L. Baker, a dentist at Arkansas City; Louis, a cigar salesman at Stockton, California; Arthur, with the Sperry Milling Company at Stockton, California; and Virgil, a student in the Arkansas City High School.

On April 11, 1901, at Arkansas City, Daniel Bunnell married Miss Maude A. Faubion. Mrs. Bunnell was born at Oskaloosa, Kansas, February 7, 1879. Her father, the late Rev. J. W. Faubion, was born in Clay County, Missouri, in 1848, and was descended from some of the original French stock that laid the foundations of pioneer Missouri and Virginia. Rev. Mr. Faubion grew up in Clay County, came to Kansas in 1865, and homesteaded in Jefferson County. Later he became a minister of the Southern Methodist Church, did his first preaching in Jefferson County and attained prominence in his church, filling every office except that of bishop. He was a missionary, a circuit rider and did much of the heavy and arduous work of the ministry in the early days. On October 11, 1895, he located at Arkansas City, where he lived until his death on February 19, 1900. He was a democrat in politics. Rev. Mr. Faubion married Julia Meredith, of pioneer Virginia family. She is still living in Arkansas City. She was born in Clay County, Missouri, February 21, 1845. Mr. and Mrs. Faubion had eight children: James W., a banker at Anthony, Kansas; Josephine, wife of C. C. Straughan, owner of the Imperial Bath House at San Antonio, Texas; Laura, wife of George Sloop, an extensive farmer and stock raiser living at Winchester, Kansas; John B., a carpenter at Arkansas City; Ida Marie, who died at Osawatomie, Kansas, the wife of George W. Palmer, an oil operator living at Augusta in Butler County, Kansas; Mrs. Bunnell, who was the sixth in her parents' family; Keener, living at Terry, Montana, where he operates a dry cleaning establishment; and Grace, wife of C. B. Kinslow, connected with the Overland Motor Car Company at Arkansas City.

Mrs. Bunnell was educated in the public schools of Kansas, completed the course of the Arkansas City High School in 1897 and is a woman of many intellectual and cultural interests and associations. She is a member and one of the chief supporters of the Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Bunnell owns her home at 303 South Second Street, has much residence property in the city and owns farms located in Cowley County, Kansas, and in Kay, Noble and Pawnee counties, Oklahoma.

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