Alva and Mary's third child, Frank, is my blood-line ancestor. We know a little of his early life in Vermillion, SD, and that he, along with his younger sister, Mary, lived for a year or two with his uncle Trumbull Goold and his father's sister, Ellen in New Windsor, IL until approximately 1880 when his aunt died. He then returned to live with his father and stepmother in Shenandoah, IA, until after his father's death in 1884. At that time, we know that his father's younger brother, Rolla became the guardian of Alva's children, and we assume that Frank and his brother and sisters moved to live with his uncle and aunt in the Chelsea, MI area. However, we know little of Frank's whereabouts for the next ten years.
* On the left is Edna and Frank Armstrong with daughter-in-law Arlin and grandson Dennis
Did he live for a time with his uncle in Michigan, or did he move back with his uncle Trumbull who was now married to his father's younger sister, Olive Melissa, who moved to Howard, SD in 1884 (as suspected by Virginia Armstrong). Unfortunately, with the loss of the 1890 U.S. Census and no state censuses taken in Michigan or South Dakota during the 1890s, I have been able to locate no record as to his whereabouts during this period. A review of the 1900 U.S. Census also failed to reveal where Frank resided.
From a first cousin, Tim Armstrong (my father's older brother's son), I got the following bit of family folklore - Frank was said to have been a confirmed bachelor who did not marry until his late 20s. In fact, it was related that he did not even tell his friends when he married and that they only found out when someone noted women's induments hanging on his clothes line!
Frank and Edna's first daughter, Merle Marie (Bloom) Armstrong, was born on May 11, 1905 in Watertown, South Dakota. If the baby was full-term, Edna probably conceived in August or September of 1904, leading one to surmise that they were probably married during the first half of 1904. However, I have located no record of Frank and Edna's marriage in Pipestone or Wright Counties, MN or in Codington County, SD in the 1904 to 1906 timeframe. The only known family members living in South Dakota at the time were Trumbull and Olive in the town of Howard, several miles south of Watertown. If the above folklore is true, it would appear that he had lived in the South Dakota area for some time, and lends some credence to the theory that he may have lived for a time with the Goold's.
Apparently, Frank had kept in touch with his father's older brother Jerome, as a family source (Merle (Bloom) Armstrong), related that Frank and Edna's second daughter, Verna Gertrude was born and died the same day in Blanchard, IA in 1906 (located south of Shenandoah). This would mean that Frank would have moved from South Dakota to southern Iowa in late 1905 or early 1906. Recordkeeping in the midwest during this period was abysmal, to say the least, and no record of her birth or death is available from Page County records available for this period.
Several years ago, my father gave me a copy of a Waranty Deed for a cemetary plot purchased by Frank in Coin, IA on March 5, 1907. Subsequently, I verified the purchase with Mrs. Margory Henning, who keeps the cemetary books for Elmwood Cemetary, in Coin. However, there is no record of whether anyone is buried in the plot. The deed shows that Frank resided in Page County, IA at the time. My father related that Frank supposedly purchased six such plots. However, I was unable to verify that the other plots actually exist. Frank's uncle Jerome is said to have owned a harness shop in Coin and several farms in the area--is it possible that he worked for his uncle during his stay in Iowa? The town of Blanchard, IA is located right on the Missouri border, and has a current population of only about 100 citizens. When Frank lived in the area, it was probably not much larger. Coin is only about 5 or 10 miles north, and Shenandoah another 10 or 15 miles to the northwest.
Although I have no record of Frank's activities or location over the next three years, I assume that Frank, Edna and their family continued to reside in the Blanchard/Coin area of southern Page County. Apparently, he did not find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that his uncle had found, as Hennepin County Probate Court records in Frank's Senility Hearing on October 4, 1949, showed that Frank and his family first moved to Minnesota in 1910. The 1910 Federal Census taken on April 19, 1910, shows that Frank and Edna were living with Edna's parents (Willis and Lillian Bulen - see Family Photo Theatre) in the township of Otsego, Wright Co., MN. As a result, it is clear that they migrated from Iowa to Minnesota early in 1910. The Census also indicates that they had been married five years and that they had two children (Merle M., age four, and Olive L., age two. This further verifies that Edna had given birth to three children but that only two were alive. Frank's occupation is shown as general farming and his birth place as SD. If you can believe they had been married only five years, (which is likely as not incorrect), this further complicates fixing the actual date as it may have been at some point after Edna conceived, or perhaps even after her first child was born. The 1905 South Dakota State Census shows both Edna and her younger sister Ethel living with their parents (Willis and Lillian) in Watertown. Both sisters are shown as being married, but neither husband is shown as a member of the household, or appear on their own in the census. As Ethel was married toward the end of October, it is probable that the census was taken shortly thereafter.
Over the next six years two more children arrived--a son, Alva David Armstrong, born on March 18, 1913 (named, of course after his grandfather), and another daughter -- Nora Luverne (Richardson) Armstrong -- born on November 1, 1916. Both were born in Monticello, Wright County, MN.
Per the 1920 Federal Census taken on February 16, 1920, Frank, Edna, and their four children were still in Monticello Township, his occupation is shown as farmer, and he owned his home free of mortgage.
Some time during this year they once again followed Edna's parents (who had departed the area five years earlier), this time moving to the town of Hilman, Morrison County, approximately 40 miles due north of Monticello and 60 miles north and slightly east of Minneapolis. Edna was prenant again, and their last child, Wayne Leroy Armstrong (my father) was born on December 25, 1920 at Edna's parent's home, about 15-20 miles away in Wahkon, MN. My father's birth certificate shows his father's post office address as Hilman, MN and his occupation as farmer. Edna shows her post office address as Wahkon, MN (Mille Lacs County) and occupation as housewife. An article in the Wahkon Enterprise on December 30, 1920, page 3, reads that a 12- pound boy was born on Christmas Day at the W. I. Bulen home in this village, to Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Armstrong of Hilman.
This area of central Minnesota played a big part in the history of Frank and Edna's family over the next several years. For example, the next mention of Hilman in the family history, emerges just over five years later when Frank and Edna's oldest daughter, Merle, gives birth to her first child in November 1925 in Hilman. Merle, and her husband, Elmer Bloom had three more children while living in the Hilman area between 1925 and 1934.
A few miles northeast of Hilman, and across the border into Mille Lacs County, is the town of Onamia, MN. Nora Luverne Armstrong, Frank and Edna's youngest daughter, lived here with her husband, Marvin Richardson, in the 1930s, and her daughter Vada was born here in 1936. Nora died in Onamia in 1986, and is buried there. Her daughter, Vada, and husband, A. Lee Berhow, still lived there when I last talked to them in 1994.
A few miles northeast from Onamia is the village of Wahkon, MN. Willis and Lillian Bulen moved into their son Leo's house on a nearby farm in 1915, to a nearby farm in 1916, and finally into Wahkon itself in 1917. This is also where my father was born on Christmas day in 1920. My great-great grandmother, Mary Eliza (Wicks) Odekirk, died here in 1923, Willis and Lillian Bulen are also buried here, and H. Fay Bulen married Leo J. McGraw here in 1919. Interestingly, Frank and Edna moved to the Wahkon area in the early 1930's, where they purchased a farm which adjoined ones owned by Leo and Fay, and Leo Bulen (Edna's oldest brother), his wife Bertha, and their family. This is where my father and one of Leo's sons -- Robert Odekirk Bulen-- met and became friends.
According to family sources, Frank had always been a hard worker, but never seemed to be able to make any money. When he got too old to farm, he moved to Hennepin county in 1942 where he worked for a time at the Heffelfinger Estate in Wayzata, MN as a caretaker. He apparantly got the job through his daughter Merle, whose brother-in- law, George Bloom, worked there in a position of authority. Merle is also supposed to have worked there for a period in some domestic capacity.
In late 1946 (after my birth in Nov.) or early 1947, Frank and Edna moved to a house built for them by Elmer and Merle Bloom in Long Lake, Orono Township, MN which was located approximately 100 yards from Merle and Elmer's house. Their oldest son, Alva, who worked for a time as a carpenter, helped build the house.
On April 13, 1949, Frank suffered a cerebral accident (stroke) and was hospitalized. For a period thereafter, he was confused, disoriented, delusional and experienced halucinations. In September 19, 1949, a probate court hearing was convened and he was found by the court to be senile. A supplemental report of examination dated November 18, 1994 finds him improved and able to return to his home where his wife agrees to care for him. The following information is included in this record:
- Edna M. Armstrong's address - Maple Plain, Route #2, MN
- Merle Bloom's address - Maple Plain, Route #2, MN
- Alva D. Armstrong's address - 1510 1/2 North 5th. Street, Mankato, MN
- Nora Richardson's address - Wahkon, Route #1, MN
- Wayne Armstrong's address - 2003 Mason Road, Burlington, IA
- Frank' education - grade school
- Married - about 45 years.
- Religion - Protestant
- At the time he suffered from a severe arthretic condition as well as hemiplegia.Edna Armstrong had suffered from diabetes for years, and finally died at Abbott Hospital in Minneapolis, MN on June 12, 1950. P.O. address shown as Maple Plain, MN township of Orono. She was buried on June 14, 1950 in the American Legion Cemetery (also known as the Summit Park Cemetary) in Wayzata, MN.
Upon her death, Frank moved to the Woodrest Home (now the Beverly Nursing Home), where his health continued to decline until his death on December 28, 1950. Usual residence shown as Orono Township, Maple Plain, MN. He was buried on December 31, 1950 at the American Legion Cemetery in Wayzata, MN. Death certificate indicates that Frank never served in the Armed Forces and never had a social security number.
The January 4, 1951 obituary for George F. Armstrong of Stubbs Bay which appears in the Wayzata, Minnesota Minnetonka Hearld on page 5, shows that he is survived by two sisters and one brother (neither names or residences are provided, but - I assume that these are Lillian, Rolla and Mary).
My grandfather and grandmother Armstrong died when I was about four years old, and unfortunately, I have no memory of them. However, my father and other relatives have told me the following about them:
Frank's personality may have been affected as a result of the early death of his parents and the upheaval and instability of his youth. Two of Merle's sons remembered described him as being a hard worker, very authoritarian, grumpy, full of anger, somewhat difficult to get along with, and as the undisputed king of the household. One of them, however, also said that he had a heart of gold. My father did not take well to authority, so it was probably inevitable that he and his father were never close.
While Edna definitely catered to Frank, my father recalls that Frank never touched her or abused her in any way. He also recalls that Frank had several strokes the last couple of years before he died and that shortly before his death he got religion. Frank was apparently between 5 foot 5 inches and 5 foot 10 inches, and is recalled by two of his grandchildren as being bald and wearing a beard.
My father apparently has fond memories of his mother who he describes as having been rather quiet. He also recalled that when his father was not around she would do little little things for him to show her affection. Both of Merle's sons remember her as being somewhat chunky, while one remembers her as being very nice and as always cooking up a storm. The other son remembers her somewhat less warmly and described her as being demanding and somewhat caddy. My father recalls that his mother suffered greatly from diabetes and took shots for several years. She also had kidney problems and ultimately had to have an operation. Apparently, she did not heal well after the operation and she had to have it drained several times. They attempted to operate again, but while on the operating table, she had a blood clot and died.
THE BULEN ANCESTORS - ORIGIN OF THE NAME - By Robert Odekirk Bulen
Until about 1840 there were few, if any, people with the name Bulen. Any attempt to trace our family by that name will prove futile. The name in all early English/American historical and biographical sketches is spelled Bullen, or any of twenty or so variations, but there was never a Bulen of early record.
Bullen is an Anglo-French surname of local origin. It was assumed by its first bearers because of their residence at Boulogne, on the north coast of France. The English pronunciation at that time was Bullen. The name was taken into England by the Normans, probably in the eleventh century, and it is frequently found in the ancient records with the French prefix de meaning of.
According to family historians, the family was introduced into England by Sir Thomas De Boulogne, one of the knights in the Service of William the Conqueror, 1066 A.D. One of the earliest records of the family in England is that of Gilebert de Boolon, who was living in Northumberland in 1168. Other fragmentary records include a John de Boloyne, a Thomas Boloyne, a Pharamund de Boloynne, and a John de Boleyn in the 1270's. And a Robert Bolen in 1524. These families, in order to have their names forever enrolled in the archives, had to have been of the landed gentry or the nobility of Great Britain.
Our ancestors, who all came from the Devonshire area of England, never indicated a village or town. The only reference to a village was in a marriage announcement in the early 1600's. Nicholas Frost, gent., married Mary Bollen (Bullen) of Monekleigh. Researchers believe that points to the home area of the family at that time.
There is little doubt that Anne Boleyn is a member of our ancestry. An early record is of Sir Geoffrey Bullen (sometimes spelled Boleyn) who purchased Hever Castle, south of London, in 1462. His great grand-daughter was Anne Boleyn and she was courted by Henry VIII at that castle in the 1520's. The castle still exists and was owned by William Waldorf Astor in 1903 and was sold in 1982 for $23.7 million.
The Boleyn family was noble, without being ivy-clad or moss grown with the nobility. Thomas Boleyn was the father of Anne. It was held against him that his grandfather had made his living in wool and silk. This gentleman who then spelled his name Bullen, had made a fortune as a mercer and became Lord Mayor of London. He married a daughter of Lord Hoo and they had a son. He, too, became a wealthy man and married an Irish girl, a daughter of the Earl of Ormond. So Thomas Boleyn, Anne's father, could almost be reckoned as an aristocrat. The Sir Thomas Boleyn family owned four palatial homes: Blickling in Norfolk, Hever in Kent, and the Hoo Mansion in Middlesex, as well as a place in London. Blickling Hall was also owned for a time by Geoffrey Boleyn (Bullen). Anne was born there in 1507.
Thomas Boleyn's wife, Elizabeth Howard, had a tragic life. They had three children: Mary, Anne and George. She looked kindly on Henry when he was the Prince of Wales and very much approved the marriage to Anne later, when he was King. George was made Viscount of Rochford and was one of the most favored noblemen of his day. Mary had been sent, along with a group of girls, to accompany Mary Tudor to the dazzling French Court - to learn them manners and accomplishments. She was accepted by the young French queen as la petite Boullain. Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII were married at Royal Court in 1533. When he tired of Anne he no longer had to face the prohibition of divorce and also nothing could prevent him from becoming a widower. He had already incurred the wrath of the Catholic Church when he divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, so he could marry Anne. In building a case against Anne, Henry VIII had been convinced by members of his court that, among other things, Anne and her brother George were having an incestual relationship. Many in the royal inner circle hated Anne and wanted her out, as well as the Bullens who were becoming too visible in the power structure. So both Anne and George were committed to the Tower and beheaded in 1536. Henry and Anne had one daughter who became Elizabeth I.
Henry VIII had so depleted the peerages that the succeeding Tudors in effect raised up a new nobility. All the Tudors were sparing in their creation of peers, Elizabeth I especially so. Most of the peers were men of outstanding abilities who, in one way or another, had served their sovereign conspicuously. Some were of distinguished ancestry or of ancient if minor stock, but a few sprang from wealthy families, such as Bullen and others, and a few were of obscure origin and wholly self made. Most of these new peers, or their sons or grandsons, took wives from old baronial or at least knightly families, so that there was no breach of genealogical continuity between the medieval and the modern nobility.
Anne's brother, George Boleyn, was married to Jane Parker and left no descendants according to some historians. Others say he is the ancestor of the first Samuel Bullen in America in 1634 (see rf. ). Samuel Bullen, is said to be the ancestor of all of the colonial families of this surname in this country. He was born in England and is said to have come as early as 1634 to Dedham, Massachusetts. He was a proprietor of that town in 1640. It is accepted by researchers and historians that Samuel did indeed trace to the Boleyn family and it is through his lineage that all of the Bullen families early America do.
Samuel Bullen married Mary Morse, daughter of Samuel Morse, who came to America in 1635 with his wife, Elizabeth, and seven children, Mary being the youngest. Mary and Samuel Bullen married in 1641 and had ten children. And ever since all the extended families of their descendants have fully subscribed to the Biblical pronouncement in Genesis 2:18.
In researching the Bullen family in New York records it seems that every third household was headed by John, making it very hard to sift and winnow. For the benefit of any David C.'s in our line we can offer this. No proof in this whatsoever, only conjecture. We found a David Bullen married in Medway, Mass., in 1718. He was the father of nine children and the eighth one was David. Giving a two year span between marriage and each child it would have him born about 1734. Then using averages of generations he could have had a son about 1760 and then, using the same guidelines, we could end up with our David C. in 1792.
The early recorded Bullens in America are these:
- Sylvester Bullen, age 28. In Virginia, a servant, 1624.
- Samuel Bullen in Dedham, Mass., in 1634. A claimant to the Anne Boleyn lineage.
- Samuel and John Bullen took land grants in Mass., in 1636.
- Joseph Bullen and Mary were in Maine in 1648. They had 3 sons: Thomas, Samuel and Joseph; and 5 daughters, names unknown.
- John Bullen and Sarah were living in Medfield, Mass., 1664. They had 6 children: Abiel and Martha (twins), John, Joseph, Nathaniel and Samuel.
- Benjamin Bullen and Martha in Medfield, Mass. in 1672. They had a daughter, Hannah.
- Captain James Bullen was Secretary to the Governor of New Jersey (colony) in 1679.
- Issac Bullen and Martha lived in New Jersey in 1697.
In the early 1700's, England experienced a great exodus of many thousands of its people to the colonies. Among them, of course, were many Bullen families. These latter ones settled mostly in New York state. Of all these, the first Samuel Bullen had the most influence, and he and his family were very important people in the Medfield and Dedham areas. These are now close suburbs of Boston.
With that background information on people with our original surname, we will continue with the biographical sketches of members of our direct line.
The most information on our family comes from a cousin's line. John Bullen, Jr., who was born in Clinton, Oneida County, NY on 5/16/1803. His father was born in Ware, MA in 1783. John, Sr., was a Brig. General in the War of 1812 at the age of 29. His father, also John, was a farmer. And his father came from England, year unknown. David C. Bullen is our oldest know direct ancestor. The best research we have done has been unable to prove his relationship to the John Bullen line except that he is a cousin to either Gen. John, or John, Jr. Most probably the General because they would be close to the same age and their lives and travels parallel each other very closely. No birth date has been found for David, and may never be, because few official records were ever kept in those days. The family Bible was the chief receptacle for important dates, and it is lost. David's family Bible was last known to be in the hands of his grandson, Elmer, and no trace has been found. We know that David lived in Oswego County in New York state. We have to estimate the date of his birth by records we do have. In the 1830 census in Oswego County it shows David C. Bullen as head of household but no age given. Family member were husband and wife and two males between 1 - 5. In a barely legible 1870 census in Rochester, MN it shows that name with the age as 78, at least as we read it. That would be about right and if so would have him born in 1792 (Robert Bulen latter changed this as follows - The David in the Rochester census in 1870 is wrong. It actually shows some other David Bullen as a fuzzy 18. The wrong David was born in 1788 and ours in 1791. David married a woman named Waty Whipple. It was pronounced as Waity because in one court instrument it was spelled that way. She signed everything with an X. They were the parents of eleven children. Orpheus was born in 1820, Alpheus in 1822, John in 1831, and Morgan in 1835. The known life and times of our family in New York state is very limited. At least a generation was born, lived, married, raised their families, and died in Oswego County, in the north central area of the state, near Lake Ontario. David Jr. was born in Genesee county in western NY and moved to New Haven with his parents as a child. He later married and lived for years in Mexicoville. Where he spent the years between is not known. The John Bullen family lived the most years in the New Haven and Hannibal area. All of these villages are only a few miles apart).
The places and faces do not begin to clear much until about 1835. Back east the urge to emigrate west became compulsive. Nearly everyone were farmers and even the shopkeepers kept a little livestock in a shed behing the store. The soil was very poor and after many years of one crop farming, the land had become non-productive. In the winter of 1834-35 a group of men in Hannibal met to form a Western Emigration Company. The most instrumental in this was John Bullen, Jr. He was the postmaster of Hannibal and in partnership with Orrin Hart in a general store. (This Orrin Hart shows up again in 1868 in Rochester, MN where he buys a piece of land from Austin C. Odekirk whose daughter, eleven years later, marries into the Bulen family. Small world!) John, Jr. was elected Executive Secretary of the Company and was its prime mover. He was 32 years of age, tall, powerful and with great qualities of leadership. After all the legal work of the Company was completed and shares sold, a small group of men, called explorers, were selected to make the first trip to Wisconsin Territory to find land suitable for a settlement. They went by boat to Detroit, and overland to the growing settlement of Chicago, which by then had fourteen permanent homes. They outfitted themselves for a trip up Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, a struggling new town of eight families, including Solomon Juneau. They tried to negotiate with the leaders there to settle with them and buy land, but they were rebuffed in their efforts. Being discouraged they went back to Chicago to ponder their next move, for which they had made no plans and were not empowered to make. In the meantime, John Bullen, Jr. had settled his affairs in Hannibal and with a few other men had gone west to join them. They took one horse and wagon and an Indian named Wilmot, and went up the west shore looking for a good site. Somewhere just west of what is now Racine, they let the Indian go back with the horses and proceeded to search on foot. On June 12, 1835, he stood at the mouth of a large creek that flowed into Lake Michigan, believed it to be deep enough for large lake vessels, and immediately make plans to stake out this area for the Company. He was the first white man ever to have set foot on the new land.
Late that summer, a few hardy souls came and threw up make-shift cabins. John, Jr. had by then secured about eight hundred acres from the Territory and set surveyors to work establishing boundaries. Fifteen families from Hannibal came during the summer, but seven returned east for the winter. John had gone back to Hannibal for the winter but before leaving Chicago he bought ten barrels of flour and other supplies with his own money and had it sent up to the new settlement. Without these supplies, they would not have survived the winter. Back in Hannibal, he and his brother William bought a schooner, the Martin Van Buren;, about 100 ton capacity, and loaded it with seeds and provisions. As soon as it was dispatched, John went to southern Illinois and bought a drove of cattle. He and the cattle and the schooner all arrived at the new location on May 8, 1836. He sold $7000 worth of cattle for cash and more on time. A steady flow of livestock was already filling the needs of the new west, Ohio and Indiana.
This new community was about fifty miles north of Chicago and is now the city of Kenosha. It was names Pike Creek at first, then for a few years was named Southport and then later to Kenosha. The Indian name for pike is kenozia. There is a large monument in the city commemorating John Bullen, Jr., as the founder of the community. There is also a high school named after him. He lived there with his large family for many years and was a leader in civic affairs until he moved to Elba, MN and opened a hardward store. As we shall see later, all the Bulens and Bullens moved to Minnosota about the same time. One of John's brothers, Lathrop, was also influential in Kenosha. He added an e to his name and his line has been Bullene ever since. Some of his kin were living in the Minneapolis area in the 1980's. Another brother, William, was a Wisconsin Territorial judge at age thirty-one.
In the spring of 1836, David C. Bullen and General John Bullen came to Kenosha, but went on inland about twenty miles and bought land. The General started a store and tavern and David farmed. John named the new settlement Salem and with his own money built a bridge known as Bullen's Bridge there. The bridge lasted nearly 100 years until automobile traffic demanded better roads. The General, who was no longer active in the military, was re- commissioned to head a division of the Wisconsin Militia. It is very likely that General John and David left New York with the same group that came on the Martin Van Buren. In trying to make logic out of this, we would guess that Gen. John became a temporary sailor and stayed with the boat and David went with John Jr., to go to buy the cattle in Illinois. (Robert Bulen later discovered that the David C. Bullen referenced in this portion of the history was not actually his ancestor, although he was very likely as close a relative to the John Bullen, Jr. and Sr. as our David was).
They found a very beautiful and productive area there in the southeast section of Wisconsin but times were very difficult. The Panic of 1837 broke every bank in the state of Wisconsin and, consequently, hurt every citizen. David C. Bullen lived at Salem until 1848 when he moved to West Bend. He bought a 160 acre piece of land there. His wife, Waty, never came to Wisconsin. It may be that they were divorced or separated because in a land sale document in New York there is an appendage that Waty Bullen signed of her own free will and without fear of her husband (as we will see later in Robert Bulen's addendum, we will find that David and Waty were not divorced but continued to live together in New York--the David C. Bullen spoken of here is probably a cousin). So it seems that David left his four young sons with their mother while he took off for the new land to seek his fortune. By that time Wisconsin was being rapidly settled. By 1850, Wisconsin had 305,000 people, nearly a third of them from New York state. Many settlements were booming in the 1840's. Farming and logging developed rapidly in a beautiful state. All the towns along the lake and navigable rivers flourished. Sometime about 1844, David's two oldest sons came to Wisconsin and settled in the township of Lisbon in Waukesha County. There will be more of these two men's lives in separate chapters. In 1848, when David C. moved from Salem to West Bend, his two sons, Orpheus and Alpheus, also moved there. The two brothers bought adjoining 40 acre farms from the U. S. government for $1.25 per acre. James K. Polk was president.
And this is the first time the name is spelled Bulen. When Orpheus and Alpheus bought their land they signed the deeds in that manner. (Robert Bulen later found that the spelling of the name as Bulen may have started in our family as far back as David, Sr.). Within the next few years many other relatives came to the West Bend area. Most remained Bullen but some changed at that time to Bulen. Our ancestors all moved to the Rochester, MN area in the late 1850's. David sold his farm at West Bend in 1857 but we can find no land records for him in Minnesota. At his advanced age, he probably lived with one of his sons until he died. We can find no death record for him in either Minnesota, Wisconsin or New York. He was listed in the Olmsted County in Minnesota in 1870 and that is the last mention of him that we can find (see the addendum for the latter years of the life of our ancestor David, Jr.)
David and Waty's second son, Alpheus is our direct ancestor and we wish there was more information on his life. Nothing is known of his childhood, only a little of his years in Wisconsin, and little of his life in Minnesota except what can be learned from his military records.
He died of typhoid fever and pneumonia during his service in the Civil War. He is buried in the National Cemetery at Little Rock, AR. He married Eliza Jane Brown at West Bend, WI on 6/18/1848. Eliza Jane was born 10/19/1832 and was 16 years of age when she married Alpheus, and he was 26.
As with all the others, we have to start with his arrival in the west. He and Orpheus came to Wisconsin in 1844 and settled first in Waukesha County. There are no official land records before 1860 but a local researcher has drawn what he feels to be an accurate map of Lisbon township showing the original owners of all the land therein. The covers a period of settlement from about 1839 to 1847 and was still Wisconsin Territory. It shows a parcel owned by F. Bulin in what is now the village of Sussex. The village hall is now on that piece of land. At the time, there was a sawmill adjacent to it. A small creek runs through the village and this property would have been the best site for the mill. Penmanship being what it was in those days, an A could have been read as almost anything, and as clerks usually spelled names as they sounded, Bulen was occasionally spelled Bulin.
An Isaac Brown family lived there also at that time but were not listed as original landowners. But wherever Isaac Brown lived, Alpheus had found his daughter, Eliza Jane. The Browns moved to West Bend in 1848, the same year Alpheus and Orpheus did. The love affair between Alpheus and Eliza must have already been in full bloom because they were married very soon after moving there. David C. Bullen had just made his move up from Salem, so it was a family reunion in the making. Alpheus and Orpheus and their wives lived on adjoining farms and worked together to clear the land. their day was only two or three miles away and Isaac Brown was only a mile away. They lived near West Bend until 1858 when the Bulen families started their next chapter - in Minnesota. These two brothers must have been very close as a move of one always meant a move for the other.
Alpheus and Eliza had three children born to them during the years lived at West Bend: Alitha, Aliza and Charles. Their fourth, Willis Isaac (our ancestor), was born near Rochester, MN. They had hardly got a farm underway before the Civil War started. The fact that all four Bulen men enlisted leads us to believe that it was not without considerable pressure. Why would all these men, two of them well past the age of a good soldier, and all with family responsibilities, be caught up in such a wave of patriotism?
Alpheus was enlisted at Fort Snelling near Minneapolis on 10/11/1864 for three years. His recruiting officer declared on his enlistment papers that, I have minutely examined the recruit and have found him completely sober. He was shown to be 5' 8 1/2 inches tall, black hair and blue/grey eyes; an exact description of his grandson-to-be, Leo Jay Bulen.
Company K of the Third Minnesota Regiment was mustered 11/14/1861 and was composed largely of Olmsted County men. In that same month, the Regiment was sent to Louisville, KY and while there measles became epidemic and several men died. After doing provost duty (guarding the fort) at Nashville, they were sent to Murfreesborough, TN. In July, 1862, the unfortunate surrender of the Regiment took place. There were many letters and sworn statements from other officers in the area that the commanding officewr of the Third Regiment had acted in a cowardly manner, and surrendered his troops even before an encounter. Up until 1863, under a wartime system of exchange and parole, captive from both sides were traded. Men of equal rank were traded even and officers were worth up to twenty or thirty enlisted men. After this surrender, the officers were first taken south and the lower grades of enlisted were sent to McMinnville, TN and paroled. The Regiment, after its return to St. Louis and re-organization, was engaged in the protection of the frontier against the Sioux in Minnesota and the Dakotas. The third was ordered south in November of 1863 and was in active service until the end of the war in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas, and served creditably. Twenty men of the Third Regiment from Olmsted County died in the service. Alpheus caught his fatal illness in Arkansas in the late summer and fall of 1964, and died in the Army hospital at Pine Bluff, AR. His final papers showed that he wa Entitled to Discharge by Reason of Death!!! Probably the understatement of all time.
Eliza Jane Bulen applied for widow's pension and received $8 per month plus $2 per month for each child until they reached 16 years of age. By that time, their oldest daughter was 16 and married. Eliza Jane remarried(?) to Martin H. Brown in August 1866 and they had a daughter, Minnie. Eliza died of cancer in January 1871, at age 38.
We (Robert Bulen) drove out of Rochester in 1988 looking for Alpheus' farm. Having found its location at the County Historical Society, we had no trouble driving right to it. Robert Southwick, in his 70's, lived on it and he was the third generation of his family to have lived there. His grandfather bought it back in the 1880's. The house was old and small but had three additions since the early 1900's. It sat exactly where Alpheus' original had sat. There was a huge tree in the yard about three feet in diameter and we wondered if Willis Isaac might not have climbed that tree as a boy. We drove out into the fields and it was a beautiful farm, high with a beautiful view. Nearly 120 acres out of the 160 were under cultivation.
Willis Isaac Bulen was less than two years old when his father, Alpheus, went to the Civil War. Alpheus died when Willis was only 6 years old. His mother, Eliza Jane, married again two years later and had a daughter named Minnie. Willis was about 12 and Minnie 3 or 4 when Eliza died. They were raised to adulthood by their oldest sister, Mrs. Snow. (End of portion written by Robert Odekirk Bulen).
When Willis was 20 he married Lillie Jane Odekirk at Rochester but soon moved to Pipestone where they bought a farm in Eden Township, 1/4 mile from South Dakota. Leo Jay Bulen was their first child and only son. Willis and Lillie had 3 daughters at Pipestone: Edna, Ethel, and Hazel. The family lived at Pipestone for 20 years before moving to Albertville, MN, a small town near Monticello. Edna Bulen was pregnant at that time and she had a baby girl named Faye who was raised as a fourth sister. Phyllis (Heim) says she has found no proof of this but Leo Bulen (Robert's father), had assured him that this was true. Leo had gone to Montana in hopes of striking it rich and spent about 5 or 6 years there. This was 1909-1915. When he returned to Minnesota he went up to Wahkon and bought a 40 acre farm and his parents, Willis and Lillian, moved up there to live. When Leo moved up in 1917 his folks moved into town and lived there for 34 years. Grandma Odekirk lived with them until she died and Willis and Lillian lived alone until Lillian died. At that time, Willis went to live with Faye until he died. All three are buried in Foster Cemetery near Wahkon.
Two additional rewrites/addendums were received from Robert Bulen--one in April and another in August 1995, and shows how geneological errors can so easily occur:
Nearly everthing we had ever found in our search for our heritage led to this other family. We had a haunting feeling that something was wrong so we went back to the New York records and found David and Waty Bullen living happily ever after back in Mexico, NY., and not with four children but with eleven. They had never left New York. But most records seemed to point to the wrong one. Although a sentence in a land record indicated that David and Waty may have been divorced it was only a legal sentence put in to protect both parties.
Nearly every census showed a David and Waty as well as a David and Jane. The men were most likely some kin. The wrong David was three years older and lived in Hannibal while our David lived in Mexico (Mexicoville), not too far away and in the same county. The John Bullen saga of the emigration to Wisconsin Territory started in Hannibal so it seems logical that the other David would be the one to join the group in 1836. The early census in Wisconsin did not list a Jane or a family. It seemed plausible that it would be David without Waty. When Jane showed up at West Bend, WI, in 1848 we thought - second wife with a bunch of kids.
David and Jane did move to Rochester, MN, in 1858 with a stop along the way at Lake City, MN. We now feel that some of their children moved to Minnesota, maybe some stayed in Wisconsin and some may have gone back to New York, but the old folks may have found the new frontier a little too rough and moved back east somewhere.
If you are not confused yet, consider this. The 1860 Olmsted County, MN, census records have a David, 62, David, 45, David, 18, and David 4. Without ages gived in land records it is easy to get lost. At this point our David was 59 and in Oswego County, NY, raising a bunch of daughters and a little boy. Olmsted County was by now the home of 26 Bulens, and 16 of them were us.
We will leave the original history of our family alone as it is accurate in most details and does show the migration of the period. Appendages will be made to correct errors that have been discovered since.
THE ORIGIN OF THE BULLENS IN AMERICA - from the Genealogical and Family History of Northern New York. A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Mking of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. Compiled by William Cutter and published in 1910.
Samuel Bullen, ancestor of all of the colonial families of this surname in this country, was born in England and came as early as 1634 to Dedham, Massachusetts. He was a proprietor of that town in 1640. It is accepted by reseachers and historians that Samuel did indeed trace to the Boleyn family and it is through his lineage that all of the Bullen families of early America do. And so we stake our claim. Samuel Bullen married Mary Morse, daughter of Samuel Morse, who came to America in 1635 with his wife, Elizabeth, and seven children, Mary being the youngest. Mary and Samuel Bullen married in 1641 and had ten children. And ever since, all the extended families of their descendants have fully subscribed to the Biblical pronouncement in Genesis 2:18.
John Bullen is probably the earliest record of our family that we will ever find. The first U.S. Census was in 1790 and most information before that is either unreliable or nonexistant. From the International Genealogical Index - Bullen: John and Abigail Green, married 4-12-1738 at Brimfield, Hampden County, are shown to have had six children, the first, a daughter named Sarah was born less than a month after their marriage, and their youngest--David--is our direct line ancestor. John, Abigail and family moved to Genesse County, NY about 1786/1787.
David C. Bullen, Senior, was born in 1750, at Brimfield, MA. His wife, Elizabeth Hovey, was born in 1760, and they were married at South Brimfield, MA. In the 1820 census of New Haven township, Oswego County, NY, the David Bullen family was listed as three males between 10 - 26 and one male over 26. No females of any age were listed. David, Jr. was 29 and married and on his own so he must have had at least three younger brothers at home. Elizabeth Hovey died on 18 June 1851 at age 90.
David Bullen, Sr., was one of the men instrumental in the settling and organizing of Kirkland, NY, in Oneida County. The settlement began in 1787 with the emigration of eight families from Brimfield, MA. The John Bullen, Sr. family was one of them. At the time the area was divided into districts which comprised several townships. David, Sr., also came at about that time, as in the first town meeting in 1791 he was elected Town Clerk. That was the same year David, Jr. was born.
From the Records of the Society of Clinton, a Congregational Church in the town of Kirkland, Oneida Co., NY 1788 - 1846 - the church was formed with eight families in March 1787. Included among them were Cap't John Bullen and wife Mary, David Bullen, Sr. and wife Elizabeth, and Solomon Hovey and Wife Lucy. All were from Brimfield, MA. (Solomon Hovey was the uncle-in-law of David Bullen.
David C. Bullen (Bulen), Jr. was born in Genesee County, NY in 1791 (about fifty miles east of Buffalo and Niagara Falls). He died on 2 February 1875 at 84 years of age. He married Waty Whipple, who was born on 13 January 1799 and died on the 27th. of July, 1873.
David and Waty Bulen are buried in Daysville Cemetery in Richland Township, jut east of the Mexico township line, where they lived all their married lives. The name on the stone is Bulen, although in all legal and land documents it is spelled Bullen.
In the 1865 census it shows that they were the parents of eleven children, and we had thought only four. We have now been able to account for nine. Perhaps two died as babies.
Males:
Orpheus 1820
Alpheus 1822
Morgan 1831
John 1835
Benjamin 1839Females:
Urilla ?, 1832
Usebe Soles, ?
? Blout, ?
? CrossThe fifth son, Benjamin Franklin Bulen, was born in 1839 and died in 1899 at 60 years of age. His wife's name was Helen S. Chappel and she was born in 1830 and died in 1896. Apparently, they had no children of their own, although the 1880 census shows an adopted daughter, Mary, age 13.
Benjamin enlisted in the Navy in 1864 and was discharged in 1865. He was named administrator of his mother's estate by the Surrogate Court of Oswego County, NY. At the time, her estate was listed as property worth $1800. Benjamin was not listed as an heir but he certainly must have received his share plus a fee as administrator. The list of heirs is as follows:
John Bulen, son, Dexter, MN
B. F. Bulen, gr.son, Rochester, MN (Orpheus' son)
Alitha Gibson, gr,dau., Rochester, MN (Alpheus' dau.)
Alida Snow, gr.dau., Rochester, MN, (Alpheus' dau.)
Charles Bulen, gr.son, Rochester, MN, (Alpheus' son)
Willis Bulen, gr.son, Rochester, MN, Alpheus' son)
Marcellius Blount, gr.son, Mexico, NY (? daughter's son)
Merton Blount, gr.son, Mexico, NY (? daughter's son)
Maude Blount, gr.dau., Mexico, NY (? daughter's dau.)
Marilla Blount Rose, gr.dau., Mexico, NY (? daughter's dau.)
David Bulen, gr.son, ? Dakota, (Morgan's son)
Francis Bulen, gr.son, Rochester, MN, (Morgan's son)
Waty Cross, gr. dau., ? Wisconsin (? daughter's dau.)
Frank Soule (or Soles), gr.son, Wisconsin, (Useve's son)Historical Note: Frank Rose married Marilla Blount. When she died in 1925 he married her sister Maude, who had never married. (End of Robert Okekirk's narrative).
At this juncture, I would like to add a bit more about Frank, Edna and their families. More than one family source has said that my grandfather Frank intensely disliked Edna's sister (daughter) Faye. This tends to lend additional credence to Faye having been Edna's daughter, not her mother Lillian's. Family sources have also stated that the Bulens and my grandfather, Frank, did not get along very well; perhaps partially because of the above? My father also recalls that the last name of Faye's father was Bloom. This could also explain Frank's apparent dislike of Merle's husband and family--was it only the surname he disliked or was Faye's father actually a member of Charles' family? Regardless, Frank seemed to have carried a terrible burden of bitterness and hate with him throughout his life.
The 1905 South Dakota State Census shows Willis I. and Lillie J. Bulen living in Ward 1, 113 N. Elm, Watertown, Codington, South Dakota. Their four daughters are also shown with both Edna and Ethel listed under their maiden names but shown as married. Neither husband is listed. At the time of the census, the family is shown as having lived in South Dakota for one year.
Edna's next youngest sister, Ethel May, was married October 22, 1905-- also in Watertown, SD. It is probable that my grandfather, Frank, may have been living in the area at the time and met Edna when she and her family moved there. Fred Middleton and Ethel Bulen, both age 20, filed for a marriage license in the Codington Circuit County Court in Watertown, South Dakota, on October 21, 1905. An interesting side note -- Fred was not yet 21 and his father, Matt Middleton, also had to sign the application and give his consent before the license could be issued and the young couple married.
The 1910 South Dakota Federal Census shows Fred and Ethel Middleton, both age 24, renting a house in Watertown, Codington County, SD. They are shown as being married four years and have three children - a daughter, Genevieve, age 3, a son Leo, age 2, and another daughter, Hazel, 2 months old (Census was taken on April 27, 1910).
Fred and Ethel (Bulen) Middleton appear again in the 1920 South Dakota Federal Census, still living in Watertown, SD. Their daughter Genevieve is now 14, their only son, Leo, is twelve, and their third child, Hazel, is now 10. While the U.S. went to war and headed towards an economic crisis, Fred and Ethel continue to make babies. Now appearing is a fourth child, Lorena, 8 years old, Opal, age 5, and what appears to be (the Census is barely legible) a set of 2-month (?) old twins named Howard and Eleanor. All of the children were born in South Dakota and the four oldest kids are shown to be attending school. Fred is also shown to be employed by a transfer company as a truck driver. A further check of the census reveals no trace of Fred's father Matt. However, Fred's father and mother are both shown as having been born in Canada.
I have extremely limited information of a personal nature about Will and Lillie Bulen, although I know that Will was extremely tall--probably about 6'4 inches while Lillie was probably slightly over 5' tall. Will apparently had a fondness for chewing tabacco and my father recalls that he used to raise the lid on the old stove and spit tabacco into the orifice. Apparently his accuracy was sometimes less than perfect and my father remembers that his wife used to say Will you're an old hog! A final interesting bit of information relates to Lillie Jane, who apparently contracted stomach cancer in her middle 40's. Treatment during this era was to burn out the cancer with radium, which was an extremely painful process. Although Lillie's treatment was successful, in the process she became addicted to morphium which she was thereafter supplied for the rest of her life.
