MARY MATHIESON McQUARRIE BUNKER
Born August 23, 1846 Died November 2, 1906 Married Edward Bunker April 20, 1861 Third wife of Edward Bunker
There was a woman and her name was Mary, and she was the mother of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And also in our family our Mary, the mother of this family group, was as the mother of our Lord- - pure and without guile, full of faith and all the virtues of the other Mary.
She was a “Florence Nightingale” within her group and time. Her entire family group is patterned in her virtues.
In Bunkerville there were many Marys. Our Mary of this sketch was Aunt Mary. There was Mary Josephine (Stephen Bunker’s Mary), Mary Hen (Henry Leavitt’s wife). Mary Ellen (wife of Orange Leavitt), Mary Abb (Albert Leavitt’s wife), Mary Liz (Mary E. Bowen), Mary Dud (wife of Dudley Leavitt, Jr.), Mary Jane (Abbott) (Aunt Mary Leavitt, wife of Dudley Leavitt, Sr.) Mary Ezra (wife of Ezra Bunker). Perhaps there were others, but in Bunkerville names, it was a good name; the name of good women.
Aunt Emily Bunker Steele in speaking of Aunt Mary said, “She was my father’s wife, I Father’s daughter. But being near the same age, we enjoyed companionship as though we were two sisters. Once she helped me run away from a beau I didn’t want to go out with. She took her baby boy, Martin, and we climbed out the back window and made our way to the dance without the fellow waiting for me in the front room. I loved her as a sister.”
My memory places her in her adobe home with the Oleander by the door. Her home facing on the west. The Relief Society lot with its adobe grainery and orchard of almonds. In her lot, the row of pomegranites on the north and the vineyard in the back lot, through which a little path let through to the Edward Bunker Jr. lot—oft used by the family because Edward Bunker Jr. was as a father to this group.
Her late years of suffering were sustained in faith and humility. The highest tribute I could pay her would be to say “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall be called the children of God.”
Most Sincerely Josie
Source:Brent Bunker