HISTORY OF HECTOR BUNKER
I was born July 17, 1885, in Bunkerville, Clark County, Nevada. I was the eighth child of Mary Mathieson McQuarrie and Edward Bunker, Sr. My mother had a hard time to raise me because of the heat and the difficulty she had of getting food to agree with me.
The first thing I remember was the death of my baby brother, Israel. The first time I remember my father was when I ran a race from the gate to the house with him on my sixth birthday. That is also the first time I can remember my father eating at my mother’s table.
Mother was gone a great deal to nurse the sick; many times when she felt as sick as the folks she nursed. Being the baby of the family, she took me with her to St. George, Utah, and to the Moapa Valley whenever she went to nurse the sick. I remember she took me when she took care of Fammie, her son Martin’s wife. On these trips, though small, I would investigate every part of town. Sometimes failing to come home until late, I caused my mother much anxiety.
The first part of my life I spent helping at home, doing dishes and house work. I started to milk cows at an early age job I had to do, Feeding pigs was the hardest and one I hated.
I started to school when I was six years old. I was given tokens for good attendance and being puntual, both in school and at church. Some of my school teachers were Martha Cox, my sister Viola Earl, Lois Jones, and Joseph Wittwer. They taught me in the flag school house. Mr. Holt taught me in the new rock school house. That was a year lost, because we couldn’t understand each other. Clarence Jarvis was one of the best teachers I ever had. I loved him and I learned a lot that year.
While young, I loved Primary and I hardly ever missed. I went until I started carrying mail to St. Thomas. Religion Class, also, appealed to me. Some of my teachers I remember at Church were Hattie Earl, Viola Earl, and Rena Earl. I was baptized in the big ditch near the old Grist Mill by J. I. Earl, and confirmed by my brother, Bishop Edward Bunker, Jr. The first money I remember of earning was the dollar I received for driving cattle for my brother, Edward Bunker, Jr. I used this money to buy my first new pair of overalls. All of my clothes had been hand-me-downs. I did a lot of work for him without pay, because he was so good to our family. When I was fifteen years old, I started to school with Albert Bunker as my teacher. Because of Mother being sick, I stopped school and went with her to Dr. Higgins in St. George. We stayed with my mother’s brother, Hector McQuarrie, I stayed in St. George until July, when I started working for my brother John, who had the contract for driving mail from St. Thomas to St. George. I carried mail from St. Thomas to Bunkerville and my brother Robert, from Littlefield to St. George. They hired Herbert Waite to bring the mail to Littlefield from Bunkerville. I had driven the mail for just one month when I contacted Malaria Fever. The folks sent me to St. George in the mail buggy. I got as far as Littlefield, when I became so very sick. We stopped, and I was only able to continue the trip after I had been administered to. All the month of August I stayed there getting over this fever.
All the while I carried mail, I stayed in St. Thomas one night and at home another. The night I stayed at home, I slept by Mother’s side to administo her wants. My mother’s sickness stands out in my mind because of the many she had. One night while real young, sixteen or seventeen, I was lying by Mother and she cried out with pain. I asked her if she wanted me to go wake our neighbors to have them administer to her. She said, “No. just wake Robert, and you two boys administer to me.” Robert annointed her and I sealed the annointing. Mother went to sleep, and slept peacefully until morning.
Another time, it seemed to ease the pain in Mother’s back if I put my hands on it. I felt like my head would burst, so I got up, went outside and I told the Lord that if it was right for me to take care of my mother, to please remove my terrible headache. The pain left like a flash, and I spent the rest of the night with Mother, easing her pain and taking care of her.
One night, Hyrum G. Smith and Brother Woodruff were going through to Mexico. They visited with my mother and found her feeling bad. However, she sant two beautiful hymns—one of them was the “Wayfaring Man”. Brother Smith said, “Angels couldn’t sing more beautifully.” They gave her a wonderful blessing. Mother was relieved at the time, but the Lord didn’t see fit to cure her.
Brother Lemuel Leavitt had great faith for mother. One day he came from Santa Clara and said, “Mary, I have come to ask the Lord to make you whole, but when I walked through the door, the Lord told me I didn’t have the right to make you whole.” For a long time they talked and he gave Mother much hope and comfort.
The experience of caring for Mother and carrying the mail were very valuable to me. I prayed very earnestly for Mother to be relieved, to be out from under sorrow and distress. Our family had a three day fast. In this fast service, each one of the family expressed himself. Though the Lord didn’t heal her, she was given temporary relief. This service was very effective for each one of the family.
Mother, when young, didn’t know her strength, and lifted too heavy things. She first felt her sickness come on when Ezra was a baby. But she was actually almost helpless for five to six years. Mother had such a desire to get well, that she wouldn’t give up, until one night Father visited her in a dream. He said to her, “Mary, I have come for you.” She said, “No, you should get Aunt Emily first.” He told her, “No, you are to come. The Lord is ready to release you.” After this dream, Mother was making herself ready to go. However, it was about a month before she died.
I had many faith promoting experiences while carrying the mail. One time, I left St. Thomas just as the morning star came up. I found after I had been traveling awhile I had a sick horse. I had two big sacks of mail. I was confronted with the problem of getting the mail to Bunkerville with this sick horse. As I put the mail on the pony and went through Overton and Stringtown, it looked as if I couldn’t make it. I asked the Lord what to do. It came to me to walk and break a little willow off and prod the horse along. I got off and walked the full twenty-eight miles without food and water—a thing I had never been able to accomplish before. The Lord helped me to do this with ease, I reached Bunkerville an hour before schedule. When I got home I unsaddled the horse and turned her loose. She had a baby colt a few hours after.
Another experience I had with carrying mail was when the rivers were high. I had to cross the Virgin and Muddy Rivers before I could reach St. Thomas. I had neither food for me or my horses. I was carrying one sack of
I felt the responsibility very heavily. I asked in humility of the Lord what to do. After I got up, my pony whinnied and the impression came for me to ride this pony. I tied the mail sack on my shoulders with a piece of baling wire. I tied the other horse in a safe place and plunged into the river. The little horse could hardly keep her head above the water, but I arrived safely with the mail.
While carrying mail, I was thrown with such rough people, drinking and all. One night I had such a big load of mail, also passengers. The passengers were so drunk that I had to tie the men on the wagon. I fed them a can of oysters which sobered them up.
Although I was thrown in with such rough people, and would sometimes cook for them, I never partook of drinks or gambling. One time a big guy tried to force me to drink and I grabbed the bottle and would have hurt him if another man hadn’t come between us.
While waiting on my mother, I had no time to go with girls and seek a good time. I asked Mother to pick out a mate for me. She told me she had no right to do this for me, that I should take ray problem to the Lord. One day when coming from feeding my cattle, I met Willamina Wittwer, daughter of Samuel and Bertha Tobler Wittwer. She was always called Mina. I asked her if the sidewalk was big enough for both of us to walk, and she said she guessed I could walk if I wanted to. I met her another night about the same way. Then the first night I asked her to date, she ran away from two other fellows. That first night I dated her, I asked her hand in marriage. Because of carrying the mail and taking care of Mother, I didn’t have the time to spend courting Mina as I would like to have done. My courting days weren’t as happy as they could have been because of this.
After Mother died, I spent a year with my brother, John. I put up his hay and carried mail. All I received for that year’s work was ten dollars for which I bought a second hand suit. That was the first year I really did farm work. I left John’s place in September and went back to Bunkerville where I lived with my sister May and her husband, Edward Cox. Mina wanted that year to get ready to get married, so I went to school. I really enjoyed that winter being close to Mina. That year a good many boys went to college at Provo. At Christmas time, when they came home, they wanted to have sports. Thomas Leavitt, Jr. and Knewell Leavitt wanted to run a race. I could beat anyone in the valley in the long races, but I couldn’t win the short races.
We had the year to prepare for our marriage, yet when Mina said she was ready to get married, I had to shoe my horses and find a buggy. I got my horses ready in the worst wind storm that ever was. I had a very fine looking team, and I borrowed Bishop Edward Bunker’s white top buggy. Mina’s sister, Rhoda, went as far as Santa Clara with us. We were married May 21, 1908, in the St. George Temple by President Cannon. Rozella, Mina’s half-sister and Uncle Hector McQuarrie went through the Temple with us. We stayed for two days at Uncle Hector’s, and went to the Temple. Then we went to Washington where we stayed over night, after which we went to Santa Clara and stayed at her father’s till noon, and then we traveled home, sleeping out one night at the white rocks, or Castle Cliff Station.
When we got home, the women gave Mina a shower at her home. I gave Pidge Baxnum $2.50 to play the accordian for our wedding dance. He started at seven and never stopped until 12 o’clock.
My mother’s home was left to me, but as Ezra my brother, was living there at the time, Mina and I lived in a room at my sister May’s, We lived there until July of the next year, when Ezra and his family moved up to Terry’s ranch. Then we moved into our home. Our home was a prayerful home. Mina and I prayed and worked together.
Farming was so hard those days because of the water situation, and my land was so scattered. I was more interested in range cattle, so I bought and traded for them. While at May’s, we had our first child, Ardyce, who was born March 7, 1909. In eighteen months our second child, Wanda, was born. I moved my family to the Moapa Indian Reservation for one month. My main responsibility was to keep whiskey away from the Indians and to hold down contentions. I took seventeen bottles of whiskey away from them. For this months labor, I received one hundred and fifty dollars, which made us very happy.
When the Moapa Stake was organized, I was put in as the second counselor in the Sunday School in the Bunkerville Ward. I loved that work, but I got my feelings hurt and asked to be released. I have always served in the capacity of a Ward Teacher and now hold the position of High Priest in the Priesthoods
Reva and Merrill were both born in our old home. Then we moved to St. Thomas, where we lived for about eighteen months. While at St. Thomas, I ran my brother John’s farm and hauled ore from the Grand Gulch. At this time, Ardyce had rheumatism in her legs, and Mina and the children came back to Mother Wittwer’s. I helped William Wittwer with his hay and while taking the hay from the wagon to the barn with a large hay fork, the cable cut off my middle finger above the top knuckle on the right hand. I moved my family back to Bunkerville for school the year of 1918 when Ferren was born. That year I lost thirty head of cows that either just disappeared, were stolen, or lost in the quicksand. I was always trying to find a place for my cows. Tooley was a wonderful place, but there wasn’t enough water. I decided to move my cows on the Muddy Valley Wash. I took up 160 acres homestead and 160 acres Desert Act. The land was wonderful and I felt sure that I could get water if I moved out there. So I took my wife and family out to this ranch. I built a room out of ties and got a large tent for another room. The first year we cleared off brush and farmed. It was hard work and I had to haul water most of the time. We came back to Bunkerville for a few months for the birth of our daughter, Marva, who was born June 4, 1920. My brother, John, thought that this was good farm land and especially good for sheep. He bought about 500 sheep. I was never happy with the sheep business. Robert moved out to the ranch to help with the sheep. This venture didn’t prove too successful. Robert lost a lot of money by moving.
While on the ranch, my family was blessed with many special blessings. Wanda had a cancerous growth on her head. It was just like a large wart. Mina doctored it faithfully with egg and salt. Many times this was sore and struck by the comb, and it became very black. Many little lumps came up around this place. There were no doctors there, and it was very hard to find transportation to the doctor’s. I was very disturbed and worried and prayed to the Lord about it. One Sunday I asked my family to fast and pray concerning Wanda’s head. Late in the evening, I went to see about my horses, which were grazing near the foothills. As I reached the corral, the voice of inspiration said, “If you will do as I say, your child will be healed.” At first I wouldn’t heed. Three times this voice spoke. So I went back to the house and told Mina what I had heard and felt. She was afraid, but she said if I felt that way, to go ahead. So I took Wanda between my knees and placed a piece of cotton that had been saturated with consecrated oil, around the sore and put a lump of lye on the sore. It ate the sore down even with the rest of her head. Then I heard a voice say, “Stop that lye eating.” Then I put oil all over the sore. One day when I arrived home from riding, Wanda came running out with the sore on the bandage, with all the hair-like roots. The other small lumps cleared away. I have always praised the Lord for His help in this matter.
The only church services that we had while at the ranch, were what we held in our home. However, every Sunday we sang and read the scriptures.
We had been there almost five years when Mina needed to go home to Bunkerville to have a new baby. All during pregnancy she hadn’t been very well, and I was anxious to get her to Bunkerville. I got my light spring wagon and tried to fix it comfortable. When we got to Tooley it was late at night and I fixed camp. Mina became very alarmed at her condition; she was afraid that her baby would be born then. I petitioned the Lord in her behalf and He made her whole. She gave birth to a baby boy two weeks later. We named him Kent Edward. After Mina felt better, I went back to the ranch and picked a wonderful crop of melons, harvested my hay crop, sold my cattle and farm for $2,000. I paid Father Wittwer $1,000 down for his farm in Bunkerville. I had to pay the other $2,000 in payments. About five years after we came back to Bunkerville, Owen was born. He was a real blessing to all of us, as were all of our children. I was blessed with wonderful inspiration from the Lord in behalf of my family, as well as for my brothers.
On one of his trips into Bunkerville, John, my brother, said that he had an extra horse for me to use in my farm work. So I went to Rox to get the horse. While I was there, I became much concerned with John’s daughter, Margaret, and her condition. In retiring for the night, I asked the Lord concerning Margaret. That night my Mother came to me. I asked her what she was doing here. She said, “Who has a better right to come when my children need help?” I asked her about Margaret and she said, “Margaret is entitled to all the gifts and blessings of salvation and exaltion of a normal girl, but not in this life. I want you to help Margaret and tell her of the hereafter and ask her if she would come and live with me. The Lord has accepted of John’s and Eloise’s sacrifice and waiting on her in her affliction.” The thing that Mother wanted me to do was to encourage John and Eloise to let her live as a normal child, not holding on to her and making her afraid. Because of the responsibility they felt, I felt inadequate to approach John and Eloise to tell them of my dream. I started for home. When I had gone a short distance, a voice said, “You haven’t done what I asked.” I just couldn’t talke to them about it, so I went home. In a few weeks John and Eloise came after more grain. Eloise told Mina about Margaret and what a care she was, and that they were going to take her to a specialist. I came in while they were talking, so in humility I told them of my dream and what it meant to me. When they went home, I received a letter asking me to give in detail my dream concerning Margaret. I felt I couldn’t write it and that night I dreamed I was needed at John’s. I dreamed I must go to the schoolhouse and ride the school bus to Glendale. There I would see a black car in which I would ride to John’s place. The next morning I left my family, and I experienced everything I saw in the dream. I spent the day visiting with John and Eloise. In the evening I told John that I came to tell them the interpretation I had of my dream of Mother concerning Margaret. I also talked with Margaret. I told her she looked like her grandmother. Her voice was like hers too. Margaret said, “I don’t know my grandmother. I can’t leave my mother and father.” I talked to her for a long time telling her of her grandmother and the feeling I had of the conditions of where she would go. After chores and the evening meal were over, John called his family together for family prayers. He asked me to lead in prayer. I asked a special blessing that I could impart to this family the true message my mother had left and to give Margaret a special blessing of rest of the fits she was bothered with. After Prayers, we went to the living room where I gave the message. I was blessed with words to comfort and encourage this family beyond my own words. I also prophecied that night that John would be a speaker to a large congregation. I also told him it would be a request rather than recognition of the authorities. John said, “It would never be.” Every word I spoke that night came true. In two years time, Margaret died. She went quietly and seemed very happy at leaving.
The greatest blessings that come to any human being is family organization. I believe my companionship with my wife was one of the most wholesome relation¬ships, and will bring one of the most wonderful blessings I could ask for. No companion could have been more considerate, kind and thoughtful, than she was to me. With all of my mistakes, she tolerated them and helped me overcome my weaknesses and backed me up in my undertakings. Our little contentions were few and scattered. No one could have been more loyal. My hope and prayers and faith is that some day and time I can be in the same realm as she is in. I could sing her praises from now until I died and I couldn’t say enought nice things about her to do her justice.
From time to time, we had rebuilt the old home, but it was inadequate for our family, so in 1932, we added two bedrooms on. It made Mina very happy to get the old home fixed like a new modern home. She did so much work in the church, I was happy to have the home in better shape for her. The children were all trying for higher education and were scattered. Mina was not able to enjoy her home too long, for in the spring of 1935, she found a lump in her breast and under her arm. Our oldest son, Merrill, was on a mission; Wanda was in Reno with her husband; Ardyce was teaching school in Bunkerville; and Ferren and the other children were at home. Ardyce went with Mina to Salt Lake to Dr. Cowan. He operated on her and found the tumors to be cancerous. On the 10th of June her breast was amputated. It was especially terrible on her left arm. She took x-ray treatments. Much faith was exercised in Mina’s behalf, and she got on well for about four years. During this time, Mina and I worked in genealogy work.
During the summer of 1937, Mina was terribly sick.. It looked every day that she would pass away. Edward Cox and some of the brethren had administered to her at different times, but to no avail. I felt rebellious because of her suffering and leaving Kent and Owen. Kent was especially hard for me to understand. It looked as if Mina couldn’t live, so I sent for Merrill and Ferren. who were up to Elko. They returned home and Merrill and Bishop Donald Tobler gave Mina a blessing, and she started to recover. She put on weight and felt better than she had for a long time. Everything settled down to normal living, and the children went back. While Mina was sick the first time, I had a dream that she came walking down the path with her father. I argued with her that I had never stood in her way, but she must not go ahead of me, but she went on anyway with her father. I felt she wasn’t going to live with me long. The dream stayed with me. Then, in the early spring of 1938, I took very sick. It seemed like no one, not even the doctors could say what was the matter with me, only the shortness of breath. At the time I was the worst, I had a dream. I dreamed that I went to the spirit world. There I met a guide who set down a big book. It read, “Hector Bunker, called home,” I was so depressed; it was so dark. I said, “Is this my portion when I get to the spirit world? Is this all I have earned in this life probation?” Then I told the guide if he had anything to do with the Heaven, I would like twenty more years to try to redeem myself, even if it took taking care of my two boys and my wife leaving, and I would try to live up to the priesthood that I held. The messenger said, “You may return,” When I awoke, the folks were crying. I told them, “All will be well, but just as sure as I live, Mother will have to go.” The family thought I was delirious. The Lord was showing me that I wasn’t running His affairs. We, as weak mortals, shouldn’t try to dictate to the Lord what we are called to go through. I told them to write to the family in Las Vegas to have a prayer circle and I would be well. I got well very fast, but as the days went by, I could see a difference in Mina. She became weaker and full of pain, but because of the experience that I had gone through, I couldn’t muster faith to feel she could get well.
She suffered so very much.I was soon reconciled to her going, because I had been schooled in the duties I must perform. Marva stayed and took wonderful care of us for a year before she went to Las Vegas to work. She came and helped me every week-end. Ardyce and Fielding moved to Bunkerville, and they too, helped to keep our home happier. Reva came and” lived with us while her husband was serving in the Navy. Kent arid Owen helped on the farm, until they went to the Army and to the University. Merrill came home from the Army in 1945 and helped me run the farm, until I sold it to him in October, 1950. I then moved to St. George where I worked in the St. George Temple for two years, doing endowment work. I then went to Logan where I stayed with Kent and his wife and went to the Temple there for one year. When I came from the Logan Temple, the Temple President, George G. Nelson, sent me a lovely letter and told me besides the names I had done for endowment work, I had stood witness for 3,469 people being baptised, and expressed his appreciation for my work there. This gave me quite a wonderful feeling.
While I was in Logan, I dreamed that the ditch was washed out clear to the bridge. When I came home to Bunkerville, I had Merrill take me up to the headgate. I found the ditch was in terrible shape and needed work done. I had bought me a trailer house, planning to go to the St. George Temple and work there again, but after I had this dream, I decided to stay at Merrill’s, helping him so that he could spend more time on the ditch project. I have stayed on and have invested in SO acres of land and a few head of cattle.
I have had the pleasure of seeing all of my children married in the Temple, and they are all taking part in the church in a most creditable way. If there is anyone of God’s commandments that I hold above another, it is the law of tithing. If you are honest with the Lord, He will never go off and leave you. I have recommended this to my children, and I believe they are finding it true and are successful tithe payers.
I hope and pray my race isn’t ended yet, that I can still spend some enjoyable time in the Temple, working for the salvation of my dead.
May we, as his children, add a few words to Papa’s history, that we know he wouldn’t mention? There isn’t to be found a more generous man with his love, his time, and his money in helping his children in their time of need or in their troubles. Nor is there one more generous in his donations in furthering the work of the Lord. He was on the Finance Committee for the building of our beautiful chapel here in Bunkerville, and it was he who turned doubt into enthusiasm by giving the first and most generous contribution to the building fund, and faithfully contacted the members of the ward, thus helping to realize the dream of all generations of Bunkerville in having a chapel dedicated to the Lord. No father could show more interest in his children’s welfare, nor show greater Joy in their successes and their activity in furtherin the Lord’s work. No father could be loved more by his children.
Source:Brent Bunker