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History of Granville (in Bradford County PA)
By Ruth Kinney
Retyped by Linda Selub & Christine Keel
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Chapter XII
William Bunyan History
William Bunyan was born April 17, 1804 in Newton, Scotland and learned the trade of a carpenter in that country. He moved to Montour Falls, N. Y. (then Havana, N.Y.) and in 1832 married Rosetta Marie Fitzgerald. They were happy living in the heart of the wilderness although it was in a single shanty while preparing the beautiful home in which he died. When he began hewing out his home in the forest his means were quite limited, but by preserverance and economy he succeeded until he made the wilderness bud and blossom as a rose. In 1871 he was elected County Treasurer of Bradford County.
Selling shingles was the only available way of obtaining money to pay for his home. These shingles were made of straight grained pine. After felling the trees, they were sawed in shingle length, split and made into shingles with a draw shave, each separately, packed into bundles by means of sticks and wooden pins. He sold the shingles in Towanda, making the trip every other day, twenty miles each way. Bunyan Hill was named for him.
Mr. and Mrs. Bunyan were parents of eleven children. He died in April of 1882, leaving eight children and his aged wife, who survived him for twenty years. The children were Mary (Mrs. John Jackson), Ann (Mrs. S. Wright), William, Silas, who was killed at the Battle of Fort Johnson in 1863, Andrew, Frank, Margaret (Mrs. Newton Landon), Jeanette (Mrs Omeara Shepard), Effie (Mrs. John Duart), George and Alice (Mrs. Dayton Saxton).
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Published On Tri-Counties Site On 10/30/99
By Joyce M. Tice
Email: JoyceTice@aol.com
