Our Ancestral Heritage through Hector and Mina Bunker By Ferren Bunker - Aug. 16, 1997
We rejoice as we gather together in memory of our parents and grandparents of the many generations, which we call our ancestors. Hector and Mina Wittwer Bunker brought with them a legacy of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which was handed down through their parents and grandparents. It is important that we reflect upon their lives so that we can more fully appreciate the marvelous contribution they have made to our lives. When we read from their histories, biographies, tributes and other genealogical records, we learn much about our origins. They came on the scene in the drama of life at a most momentous and challenging time. They were among those early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who received a witness that the Church was true. Their membership in the Church was their most important consideration.
Think of the Wittwers and the Toblers who sold their homes and farms and left relatives and friends in their native land of Switzerland because they knew their newly found religion was true and they wanted to be with the Saints in America. Think of our Bunker ancestors with roots in England. It was not the Gospel of Jesus Christ that brought them to America, but a freedom which made possible the restoration of the true Church. Our ancestor, Edward Bunker, left the security of his home in Maine as a young man and learned of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Ohio where he joined the Church and went to be with the Saints in Nauvoo. The McQuarries came from Scotland. They left all they had after joining the Church so they could be with the Saints in America.
Little did any of our ancestors know what their membership in the true Church would cost them. They were among the early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who individually and separately embraced the Gospel. Their commitments to the truth required much more than they expected. They were among those early pioneers who gave their all in sacrifice, challenges and complete dedication in a cause of truth and righteousness. They were of the character, which made them equal to all of what was to come. They did not retreat from their sacred covenants. Membership in the Church was to them a great privilege and blessing. Much of my motivation to do better as a member of the Church comes from what I have learned about all of those who have prepared the way for me to enjoy the blessings of the Gospel. I appreciate the great heritage we all enjoy because of our ancestors. What kind of faith it must have taken for Grandpa Samuel Wittwer as a boy of seventeen years to answer the call of Brigham Young, the prophet, to make four trips to the Missouri River to bring Saints to Utah with a team and wagon, to enter into the covenants of plural marriage and then leave his wives with their nine children to care for while he served a mission in the North Central States for two years. Can we imagine the great faith and love of the Gospel that his wives, which included our grandmother Bertha Tobler Wittwer, had? Their love of the Gospel caused them to serve the Lord with true dedication and raise a family of faithful sons and daughters.
Let us remember our roots and be grateful for the legacy we have through the life of Edward Bunker. Edward’s devotion was tested in the giving of time and energy to help in the construction of the Nauvoo temple, to leave his wife and become a soldier in the “Army in a long and tedious march of the Mormon Battalion, to assist the Saints in their migration West, first as a captain of ten and then as the captain of 320 Welsh converts in a handcart company. His challenge was increased with a call to serve as a missionary for three years in England and being separated from his wives and families during that time, and to accept calls to colonize areas and serve as bishop on three different occasions. It was his challenge to take three wives and be a father to 28 children. These and many other challenges were accepted by Grandfather Edward Bunker as his opporatunity to prove himself a worthy member of the Church.
Mary McQuarrie’s challenge was no less. It was membership in the Church that brought her to the United States from Scotland and her love for the Gospel that compelled her to make the long journey to the west walking most of the way. She and Edward were married while she was in her sixteenth year, becoming his third wife, because she had a deep and abiding faith in the gospel and in the principle of plural marriage. She loved her husband and sustained and supported him in his work and callings. She taught her children to obey their father and to love his other wives and their children. She earned the love and respect of all the family. She was the mother often children, two of which died at the time of birth. She met the challenge of being a servant to the communities in which she lived as a midwife to help provide for her family while she raised them to be faithful members of the Church. She was taken in a lingering and painful illness, but never complained nor lost faith. It was not easy to meet the demands of moving her family to each new settlement and endure the toil and hardships of this pioneer life, but Grandmother Mary was undaunted in her determination to be a devoted wife, a capable homemaker, a loving mother, and a faithful servant of the Lord.
Times have changed. The scenery is different. Our Grandfather’s and Grandmother’s families have multiplied into thousands. As they look upon us, they seem to be saying: “Your challenges are great and important, too. They will require great faith in the Lord, ability to endure and sacrifice regardless of what comes, and strength to stay on course by keeping the commandments and serving the Lord. Please do not betray us. Keep the faith for which we lived and gave our lives.”
It is our time now. It is a time for us to honor our parents and all those who have become our ancestors. It is our time to dedicate our lives unto the Lord and be faithful to the trust and heritage that is ours.
We would memorialize the lives of Hector and Mina Wittwer Bunker, our parents and grandparents because of the heritage they left us. Hector and Mina Bunker gave their posterity (which now numbers in excess of 300) a heritage which is structured in the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As they preside over their family in their heavenly place, they are no doubt pleased that we did formally organize their family here so that we could fulfill their dreams which started when they were married in the St. George temple May 21, 1908. They wanted their family to be a family forever.
Some of us who are here will recall that the formal organization of this their family took place July 17, 1977 (Hector’s birthday) at which time we were determined to do all we could to help them attain their greatest hope. They wanted their family to be an eternal family. It makes them happy when we meet to strengthen our ties and foster a spirit of love, unity and friendship. It was their desire that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will forever remain as the dominant motivation for each member of their family. Nothing could bring them greater rejoicing as they preside in the heavens over their family than to see their posterity honoring their birthright by being folly dedicated to the work and purposes of the Lord.
We should reflect upon the promises of the Lord that our parents or grandparents received through their patriarchal blessings. To our Mother (or Grandmother as the case may be) the promise was given “that the blessings of the Lord will be poured out upon you and your household because of your untiring faith and devotion to the gospel. . . you will have wisdom and understanding given you of the Lord to train and direct your children in the paths of truth and virtue and they will grow up with a strong faith in the Gospel, capable and valiant, true to the covenants they have made with the Lord.” She was further promised, “You will rejoice in your posterity for they will be among the chosen of the Lord when He makes up His jewels as spoken by the Prophet Malachi.”
The Lord further promised her that, “light and understanding will be given unto you to comprehend the deep things of the Gospel so that you can teach them to your children who will hand it down to your posterity from generation to generation … As the doves from heaven, so shall the spirit of God descend upon your household …You shall see your posterity coming along and receiving their blessings and none of them shall be lost.”
Our father, Hector Bunker, was told in his patriarchal blessing; “I bless you that you shall have a numerous posterity in the earth, that your lineage may be perpetuated for your exaltation and glory,” and that he would be given “power and influence for good wherever your labor calls you and especially with your household and your father’s household.”
What a great opportunity and blessing is ours! We have the privilege to be participants in these prophetic declarations. However we must remember that all promises of the Lord are conditional. For us to partake of these blessings we must enter into the new and everlasting covenants of the gospel and manifest our love for our parents (grandparents) and for the Lord through our faithfulness.
I am the fifth child in their family of eight children. Violet and I have felt it very important to do our part to add a family unit to each of the other children’s families of their posterity wherein “the hearts of the children are turned to their fathers” (parents), We have been honored and blessed with a family of 51 (including spouses) and we look forward to a growing family in faith and diligence. We rejoice in the legacy of being part of the posterity from parents or grandparents who set a standard for us, which was conditioned by their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our father and your grandfather according to your generation was a man with a special spiritual gift. His answers to prayers came in dreams and their interpretation, through the voice of the Spirit, and visions revealing what he must do. If only he had recorded all of these great manifestations of the Spirit, we could enjoy volumes of faith promoting experiences. I shall only relate one personal to me. It was while we were living in Lovelock that my father came out to the garden where I was working and said, “I have had a dream that has a meaning for you and Violet. I don’t know its meaning yet, but when it is revealed to me I will tell you.”
Later in the day he told me the dream and its interpretation. His dream was about his glasses, which needed repair and what he had to go through to have them repaired. The interpretation revealed Violet’s condition in her pregnancy indicating our need to take her to a specialist for the birth of our daughter, Janet. As I look back I found that his dream revealed exactly what happened. Father also handed down to us a work ethic. The work on a farm is like a woman’s work; it is never done. We were taught what and how to do it and it was always to be done well. You will remember the saying, “When a task is once begun, never finish until I it is done,” That was father. He taught honesty and integrity. His example was “if in doubt, pay more rather than less than is required. His tithing settlement was a time that we witnessed this.
Mother was the heart of our home. She had a greater than usual ability to teach, to love, to help and to serve. Her example was her best mode of teaching, but I will not forget how she taught me that swearing and smoking were bad. I was playing basketball with my friends at our homemade basketball hoop. A certain word slipped out of my mouth.
Mother quietly called me over to the step where she was sitting to watch. She explained that the word was very bad, and that if I said it again, I would have to come and sit by her. Well, it happened again and I sat by her and watched the other boys play. The lesson was effective.
I had watched the older boys puff smoke on punk wood and ivy. I tried the ivy. I was fortunate. Mother saw me and as we sat on a log she told me the evils of smoking. I never tried smoking again. I watched Mother as she served in the organizations of the Church. Our older cousins who visited our home said, “If there was ever an angel here on earth, it was your mother.”
It is wonderful to be a member of a family of brothers and sisters who have and continue to honor their parents and are leaving a great legacy of lives well lived according to the truths found in the gospel. We want our children and our children’s children to treasure their heritage and face their challenges with a strength and commitment in the gospel that will qualify them to continue the traditions and the faith in the Lord which will make the gospel the most important consideration of their lives.
I leave my witness that the gospel for which our ancestors dedicated their lives is true and the only way to true happiness and I do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. I like this Poem and Think you will Too.
HEAVEN’S GATE
Feeling drawn toward the temple
And with an eager pace,
Many faithful saints seem impelled
To seek that holy place.
The temples breath solemnity,
And those who labor there
Perform their sacred duties
With humble, giacious air
The spirit world, a prison is
For many who must wait,
And temple, work helps them prepare
To enter Heaven’s Gate.
Earthlife, a most important part
Of all eternity gives man a
Chance with heaven’s help
To choose what he will be.
The gospel is for everyone,
The living and the dead.
In heaven as upon the earth
Its living truths are spread
The atonement brought salvation
From the graves of hopeless state
But exaltation one must earn
To pass through Heaven’s Gate.
A temple marriage is of God
And lovers feel for sure,
Eternity is none too long
For marriage to endure
Together forever couples
Eternal children gain,
And family lines are sealed to form
A patriarchal chain.
Temple blessings are eternal
And they are truly great
They give each one the keys
That he’ll need to open
Heaven’s Gate.
By Willis A. Potter
Source:Brent Bunker