HONORING VETERANS

This week our volunteers assembled books, pamphlets, posters, photos, and medals to include in a display case outside the Bullis Room. Here is one of the posters included:

(Lower caption reads: "Supplement to Engineering News Record, November 19, 1917."

As we worked on the display, we wondered about the history of this holiday, so we consulted Wikipedia's Veterans Day article and learned that November 11 "...is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world...."  The article also reminded us that on November 11, 1919,  President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Armistice Day as a holiday. President Calvin Coolidge issued another proclamation in 1926 that called for November 11 to be observed with appropriate ceremonies, and in 1938 Congress proclaimed November 11 a legal holiday, "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'." Finally, 

in 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe repair shop owner "had the idea to expand Armistice Day into 'All' Veterans Day...." With the help of U.S. Representative Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. "President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954. Congres amended the act on June 1, 1954, replacing 'Armistice" with 'Veterans,' and it has been known as Veterans Day since."

On this November 11 as you celebrate in your own way, whatever that might be, we suggest you also stop by the library and look at our display. The case's contents are only a small part of similar items in the collection. If you'd like to see more, please feel free to stop by.

LEGENDS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

This week, our heads swimming with facts and dates of Bullis history, we decided to take a break from that research and spend some more time with the books in this collection. And since it's been 236 years this week since General George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts, we focused on him.

 Many books have been written about General Washington and the Revolutionary War. (A search of one online seller produced 4,447 results of books on that subject.) However, we think we found a unique volume on the Bullis Room shelves, one that we'd overlooked in the past.

Titled Washington and his generals, or Legends of the American revolution, the book was written by George Lippard and published about 1847.  A series of historical pictures make up the contents of the book. Some of the chapter titles are:

Retreat - Washington's Agony

The Legend of General Agnew

Valley Forge

Andre the Spy

Nathan Hale

Anthony Wayne at Brandywine

Romance of the Revolution

The soldier Returning Home

The Memory of Alice

An Old Mansion in the Dark Dell

The Last Kiss

The Declaration: its source; its action upon mankind

The Message of the Bell to the World

We think you'll find a lot of good reading in this book. And you can access it online...and then stop by the Bullis Room to see the real thing.  

HONORING VETERANS

Again, we remember Bullis family members who have served their country through military service.

Philip Bullis, born circa 1630 in England. Philip was a mariner who immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts. He served in Major Savage's Company under Lieut. Gillam from 1675 to 1676 on the Connecticut River during King Philip's War.

Son of John Bullis, born circa 1695 in Dutchess County, New York. John married and had eight sons who grew up on the Bullis Homestead in Dutchess County. One of these sons was a general in the French and Indian War.

Charles Bullis, born 1723 in Greenwich, Connecticut. He later moved to Manchester, Vermont. He served in the Revolutionary War in Captain Gideon Brownson's Company, Warner Regiment, Vermont Militia.

John Lapham Bullis, born 1841 in Macedon, New York. In 1862, he enlisted in the Volunteer Army and was commissioned in 1864, seeing extensive service during the Civil War. He continued his military service in Texas and Mexico with the Buffalo Soldiers, served in the Phillipines and Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and ended his career after President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him Brigadier General in 1904.

Charles R. Bullis, born 1891 in Macedon, New York. He enlisted in the Army on September 26, 1917 and was discharged on December 11, 1918. He served as a Private in the 20^th Company, 157 Depot Brigade during World War I. He was stationed at Camp McClellan, Alabama, for part of that time.

To these Bullis men and to all the men and women who have served and are serving in our Armed Forces, we once again say a sincere “Thank You

THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

We all know that our perspective of a particular situation quite often changes over the years. That's one reason Bullis Room volunteers enjoy the books in this collection--they give us different perspectives on the past.

Author John Fiske's THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (copyright, 1889) looks back on this war over a hundred years later and allows us to form our own perspective from his perspective. Neat,hunh?

Fiske states in his preface: "When I was as boy I should have been glad to get hold of a brief account of the War for Independence that would have suggested answers to some of the questions that used to vex me." Then he lists the questions, which he answers in his book.

1. Was the conduct of the British government, in driving the Americans into rebellion, merely wanton aggression, or was it not rather a bungling attempt to solve a political problem which really needed to be solved?

2. Why were New Jersey and the Hudson river so important?

3. Why did the British armies make South Carolina their chief objective point after New York?

4. How did Cornwallis happen to be at Yorktown when Washington made such a long leap and pounced upon him there?

Fiske states that old-fashioned textbooks not only did not try to answer these questons, they did not even recognize their existence. Therefore he offers to boys and girls "this little book, not as a rival but as an aid to the ordinary textbook."

Chapter titles include The Colonies in 1750, The Stamp Act, The French Alliance, Birth of a Nation.


Illustrations include Paul Revere's Ride, The Boston Tea Party, Invasion of Canada, Signing of the Declaration of Independence, Burgoyne's Campaign, and Washington Crossing the Delaware. You can find it on shelf V-4.

THE BULLIS FATHERS

This week we honor Nettie's father (Abraham Rogers Bullis III) and her Bullis grandfathers.

1. Philip Bullis, born circa 1630 in England. Philip was a mariner who immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts. He served in Major Savage's Company under Lieut. Gillam from 1675 to 1676 on the Connecticut River, during King Philip's War.

2. Thomas Bullis, born 1671. Thomas was granted parcels of land in Greenwich, Connecticut. He deeded this land to his sons.

3. John Bullis, born circa 1695. John married and had eight sons. Some of his sons went to Canada, some stayed on the Bullis Homestead in Dutchess County, New York, and one went to England. One of these sons was a general in the French and Indian War.

4. Charles Bullis, born 1723 in Greenwich, Connecticut. He later moved to Manchester, Vermont. Charles served in the Revolutionary War in Captain Gideon Brownson's Company, Warner Regiment, Vermont Militia. Charles and his son Henry helped organize the First Episcopal Church in Manchester.

5. Henry Bullis, born 1749 in Amenia, New York. Henry was an invalid, a condition caused by a dog bite. Henry and his wife Hannah Purdy Bullis had ten children.

6. Charles Henry Bullis, born 1786 in Manchester, Vermont. Charles, his wife Eleanor Carbone (Rogers), and their two children Abraham Rogers Bullis and Amy (aka Emma) Bullis moved to Macedon, New York in 1837.

6. Abraham Rogers Bullis, born 1815 in Greenwich, New York. Abraham attended Geneva Medical College, Geneva, New York and became one of Macedon's first medical doctors. He also maintained offices in Farmington, Ontario County. Abraham married Lydia Porter Lapham and they had seven children.

7. Abraham Rogers Bullis, III, born 1854 in Farmington, New York. His mother died when he was eight years old and he went to live with his Grandfather Bullis at the family homestead in Macedon. He attended Cornell University and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1881. He worked as a surveyor in Wayne County, New York and married Josephine Breese in 1884. They had two children, Charles Rogers Bullis (born 1891) and Jeannette Aurelia Bullis (1893), our Nettie.