BULLIS FAMILY SCHOLARSHIPS

Each year at graduation time,  Bullis scholarships awarded at local high schools remind us of the generosity of Nettie Bullis and her family.

A Bullis Room volunteer recently presented two scholarships to Gananda graduating seniors: The Abram R. Bullis Mathematical Scholarship and the Nettie Bullis Business Scholarship. And this coming year 141 graduates of Palmyra-Macedon High School will benefit from The Bullis Family Scholarship. The latter scholarship is renewable each spring and varies in amounts, depending on endowment earnings.

All of the Bullises valued education. Some were formally educated, others self-educated, but their books which make up the Bullis Collection is proof of the fact that they never stopped learning.

We too can continue to learn, and today we have so many more opportunities through the electronic media as well as printed books. Let's take advantage of these resources and, like the Bullises, never stop learning.

JOHN LAPHAM BULLIS AT STILWELL HOUSE

This week, we looked over the catalog of items in the John Lapham Bullis San Antonio exhibition, May 25-30, 2011.  Here's a partial list of those exhibits.


From the Collections of the Fort Sam Houston Museum, items that belonged to General Bullis:
 - Roll top desk, oak, made by Standard Furniture Company, Herkimer, New York, ca 1900
 - Hammond Typewriter, Model 12,  New York ca 1905
 - Chest, Records, Olive Drab, Wood, ca 1890s. "Standard Adjutant General wooden records chest used by Paymaster Bullis in Cuba and the Philippines 1901-1902."


Other items from the collections of the Fort Sam Houston Museum:
 - Oil portrait of General Bullis by S. Salomon, 1913 (shown in last week's posting)
 - Chevrons, Infantry Sergeant, Pattern of 1872


From the White Museum:
 - Gold Presentation Sword and Scabbard, made by Bent & Bush, Boston, 1881 "Presented by the people of Western Texas, for protecting their homes."
 - Silver Presentation Sword and Scabbard, made by Gaylord Manufacturing Company, Chicopee, MA, 1881. "Presented by the people of Kinney County, Texas as a token of their undying gratitude."
 - Saddle, Pattern of 1885 McClellan, Cavalry, ca 1890. "Bullis would have used this saddle while serving as a Captain until his retirement."


Those of you interested in Bullis family history will want to include a stop in San Antonio in future travel plans.  You won't be disappointed.

So who is this man?  A remarkable man, born in Macedon, raised in Farmington, served in the 126th Company H at the beginning of the Civil War, served as Captain over black troops at the end of the war and during Reconstruction, started a business of cutting wood for the steam boats on the Mississippi, went back to the military and led the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts for many years, became an Indian agent, served as Paymaster at Fort Sam Houston, served in both the Philippines and Cuba during the Spanish American War, and retired a Brigadier General.  
I have just returned from Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas.  The Fort Sam Houston Historical Society hosted this display  of memorabilia from General Bullis' life.  We contributed letters that he sent to his Aunt Emma, photos of his family and home, etc., to the display.  So much history and so little time to learn it!!!

NATURAL DISASTERS OF THE PAST

When we were looking through the shelves this past week, this title caught our attention (because of recent natural disasters around the world):

ITALY'S GREAT HORROR OF EARTHQUAKE AND TIDAL WAVE

compiled by Jay Henry Mowbray

(1909, publisher unnamed)

Forty-eight pages of plates as well as numerous illustrations enhance the description of the events that resulted in "immense loss of life" and left Messina and other beautiful cities in Southern Italy and Sicily in heaps of ruins on December 28, 1908. 

Volunteers found that reading this book was a sobering experience, but one that served to remind us of our need to be prepared for whatever nature brings to us.   We invite you to stop by the Bullis Room and find out more about this "unparalleled catastrophe" of a hundred years ago.