Charles R. Bullis
"The tall, lean man wearing a long overcoat and tall rubber boots was a familiar sight as he made his daily trek from Canandaigua Road to the village of Macedon. Charlie Bulls was considered eccentric but pleasant by his friends and acquaintances. They regarded him as another of the talented Bullis'.
"Charles Rogers Bullis was born in the cobblestone house in 1891 and lived there all of his life except for the time he served in World War I. Following graduation from Macedon High School, he taught at District #2 school in the Town of Walworth. In 1913, Charles made application to Cornell University, passing the entrance examination, but never attending the university.
"Mr. Bullis became a renowned botanist by extensive self study, reading, and experimentation. His expertise was respected and his advice sought by other botanists throughout North America. His urge to share knowledge with others is evident in the contributions Charles R. Bullis made to horticulture bulletins and journals. One of these papers is respectfully referred to by a Canadian forest-tree geneticist in material gathered around the Bullis House and its prolific flowers.
"Frugality is the adjective often used and thought of in regard to Charlie Bulls. A man of simple tastes, he favored peanut butter and brown sugar sandwiches. His habit of making the rounds of Rochester bakeries for stale breads and pastries was well known. These items, soaked in warm water, were made good as new. Dry cereal was another favorite food and the empty boxes were recycled into filing boxes for business purposes. Charles Rogers Bullis inherited the New England thriftiness of his ancestors. He lived by the old Yankee adage, 'Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.' Thrift was a source of pride to Charlie, who once remarked innocently to friends that one year he was able to live on only forty-five dollars.
"It may have been the heavy financial losses Mr. Bullis suffered in the 1929 Crash that further increased his closeness. He shared the information that he was all but wiped out financially in 1929, but what he was able to salvage, he put right back to work in the stock market. He enjoyed the wheeling and dealing of the market activity, watching with interest as his fortunes turned back to the plus side. The study and gambling seemed more important to Charlie than the actual dollar value. Money rarely left Charlie's pocketbook if he could barter with something else. On an occasion when he was presenting one of his horticultural papers, he needed the services of a typist and found one among his neighbors. When the paper was typed and sent off to the journal, Mr. Bullis paid for the clerical work with some of his prized tulip bulbs. He was known to share the bounty of his flowers with those who admiringly requested a bouquet. Charlie Bullis charged ten cents for a handful of glorious blooms.
"As the years progressed, Charles Bullis became more solitary minded. His father, Abraham Rogers Bullis died in 1928, his sister was employed in Rochester, and his mother spent more and more of her time at the home of her semi-invalid sister. The Bullis house began to show signs of loneliness and neglect. Improvements were not ongoing. Vines and trees began to shroud the elegant lines of the cobblestone house until finally it became almost impossible to determine whether or not the house was occupied. This appearance must have appealed to the murderer who dumped a body in Charlie Bullis' woodpile one cold January night. The body remained under the snow for about two weeks until Charlie, going out to rearrange his woodpile, discovered the frozen man. His shaken phone call to the chief of police was probably as emotionally excited as anyone ever knew him to be.
" Charles Bullis enjoyed the companionship of an old and cherished schoolmate and was always welcomed when he visited the home of Judge and Beth Rodenberger Loomis. Beth had attended school with Charlie and was one of the few remaining members of old Macedon society. Dr. Rodenberger, Beth's father, owned the lovely Main Street mansion which is now known as the Bickford House. The gardens which surrounded the house were especially lovely and the flowers and shrubs in them knew the gentle, knowing hand of Charles Bullis, He visited and dined with the Loomis' three or four times a week and Beth always sent him home with plenty of leftovers.
"Procrastination was a characteristic of Charles Bullis' personality. It seemed that he had many great starts but difficulty seeing them through to completion. Examples of this included teaching school briefly and not attending Cornell University. The car anecdote is yet another instance of this trait. Charlie decided in the late 1940's that he should learn to drive. Putting the cart before the horse, he purchased a car from a local dealer and had it delivered to his home, where it was left parked under an apple tree. Charlie never got around to learning to drive and so the car remained under the apple tree until it was junked many years later. The same kind of procrastination seemed to present itself when Charlie thought it best to protect himself, his books, and flower bulbs against the possibility of nuclear war by building a bomb shelter. The hole was dug and cement poured, but no stairs were ever completed. It remains today the way he left it, unfinished.
"The sporadic presence of his sister, Nettie, in the home did little to change the style of living that Charlie Bullis had established for himself. One light was illumination enough. To sit over a heat register, with a large cardboard box cut out to allow him to sit within the box, thereby conserving heat, was comfortable enough. Water could come out of a pump as readily as a faucet. The only extravagance Charlie Bullis could ever be accused of indulging in was producing the beautiful, showy flowers which brought pleasure to everyone who saw them.
"Charles Rogers Bullis remained in the Bullis House until his death in 1974. The legacy of his flowers is more of a monument to him than his cemetery headstone."
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