Alfred Ryors Bunger

In giving the life record in part of the subject of this sketch, no attempt shall be made to give extravagant praise, but simply to note a few of the more important events in the career of one who has at all times and all circumstances endeavored to do his full part in all lines of activity in which he has been a participant. His has been a true, useful and honorable life--a life characterized by perseverance, energy, broad charity and well defined purpose, and he has justly won the unstinted esteem of his neighbors and friends by thus always "keeping the even tenor of his way."

Alfred Ryors Bunger resides on and cultivates a fine farm in section 18, Smith township, Greene county, but Monroe is the county of his birth, which occurred January 24, 1847, the son of Joseph and Magdalene (Walker) Bunger, the father of the former having been a native of Germany, who settled in Virginia in an early day, later moving to Kentucky, where he farmed for six years, when he moved to Monroe county, Indiana, in 1824, entering land on which he spent the remainder of his life, having married a Miss House. He died March 8, 1850. His wife died September 21, 1834. The early life of the father of the subject was spent in Virginia, and in Kentucky, on a farm until his father, Jacob Bunger, moved to Indianapolis, returning to Virginia he became stage driver from Lewisburg to White Sulphur Springs, later coming to Indiana in about 1833, where he took up farming in Monroe county, remaining there until 1848, when he traded his first farm for another in the same neighborhood, on which he spent the rest of his life, leaving the farm as an estate which is now owned partly by William M. Bunger, a brother of the subject of this sketch, and James W. Bunger, a nephew of the subject.

The father of the subject was married to Magdalene (Harvey) Walker March 20, 1834. Both he and his wife were earnest church members, he being an elder. Joseph Bunger died when almost eighty-six years old, January 27, 1896, and his faithful life companion passed away at the age of seventy-three years, February 25, 1880. Nine children were born to them, four of whom are now living.

Michael E., a brother of the subject, was a soldier in the Civil war, having enlisted in Company F, Eighty-Second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, serving from 1862 to the close of the war, having been mustered in as a sergeant, but when he was discharged he ranked as first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment. John W., another brother, was a member of Company D, Fiftieth Regiment, of this state, having enlisted in September, 1861, and was discharged on account of illness contracted while in line of duty before his term of enlistment expired. Joseph T. now resides at Midland, Indiana.

The early life of Alfred Bunger, our subject, was spent in Monroe county, on his father's farm, and attending the public schools in which he applied himself most assiduously, and later entered the State University for two years. He taught three terms of school in Greene county, and also taught subscription and public schools in Arkansas, where he spent a year and six months, being successful in all his school teaching. After returning home, he came to Greene county, in the spring of 1869, settling on the place where he now resides, his father having purchased this farm just previous. In 1871 he purchased in part, the farm jointly with his brother, Joseph T., and later William Muir, father of Mrs. Bunger, purchased the interest of Joseph T., and gave the same to his daughter, and thus our subject and wife became the sole owners of this one hundred and sixty acre tract, a part of which had been given to them by Joseph Bunger, and to which they have added forty-one acres. The land is mostly prairie, other parts being cleared, it is all now under cultivation but about thirty acres. An excellent system of tile drainage is being installed, which the owner hopes will render clover growing more satisfactory; as it is, the farm will now produce crops of all kinds equal to the time when Mr. Bunger assumed management of it, which fact certainly speaks well of his ability as an agriculturist, in fact, he has spared no pains to place the farm in a high state of efficiency. Corn is brought and fed on the place, together with what the farm produces, to cattle and hogs which he prepares for market. He is a breeder of Polled Durham cattle and Jersey Red hogs, sound judgment always being exercised by the subject in the handling of stock of all kinds, as well as in the management of his farm.

Mr. Bunger was married to Sarah Muir, May 8, 1873, the daughter of William and Mary A. (Warman) Muir, the father a native of Ayershire, Scotland, where he was born in 1818, and came to America when eighteen years old, settling in Indianapolis, when, in 1845, he married Mary A. Warman, a native of Bartholomew county, Indiana, but her family settled in Indianapolis when she was eleven years old. He was a weaver of great skill, and an extraordinary fine coverlet woven by him in 1853 is in possession of the family, said to be a rare piece of workmanship in both design and color, by all who have seen it. But he finally gave up his trade and engaged in market gardening on ground that is now within the corporate limits of Indianapolis. Moving to Clay county in 1864, he remained there on a farm until his death, June 22, 1888, at the age of seventy years, leaving a widow and three children, the mother surviving only a few months.

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Bunger has been made happy by the birth of six children as follows: Viola May, the wife of James E. Stahl, a farmer of Greene county, who has two children, Frances E. and Alfred L.; Joseph Leroy is in the United States mail service, living in Terre Haute, married and the father of two children, Paul R. and Alfred R.; William Ervin, who is married and engaged in the real estate business in Terre Haute; Alfred Theodore, who died at the age of sixteen years in 1897; Mary Clarenda, who is single and living at home, now (1908) a student at Brown's Business College, Terre Haute; Estella died in infancy. The children of the subject and wife as they grew up took their place as Sabbath school worker, in fact, this is a characteristic of the family.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Bunger are active members of the Presbyterian church, the former having been an elder for thirty-two years, and both diligent workers for many years in the Sunday school, although the church of their membership was four and one-half miles from their home. In politics Mr. Bunger is independent. He was trustee of his township for one term. No people are better known or more highly respected in the community than the Bunger family.

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"Biographical Memoirs of Greene County, Ind. with Reminiscences of Pioneer Days", B.F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, IN, 1908, pages 968-972.

Last updated 8.11.2009