Bullis Room volunteers
continue to focus on Nettie's uncle, John Lapham Bulls, and his military
career. This week we read again an article in the PRESERVATION FORT SAME
HOUSTON publication titled, "A Visit to Macedon, NY, hometown of BG John
Bullis." Here's what it said:
"While in New York for
a family wedding, Capt. (Ret) Richard Whynot visited the hometown of General
John Lapham Bullis, Macedon, NY and the Bullis Collection at the Macedon Pubic
Library. Dick says to understand why a native of a small town in upstate New
York became a hero of the Texas Frontier, we need to go back to the 1650's when
the Bullis family emigrated from England to the Boston area and then some of
the family to Manchester, VT. The Northwest Ordinance in 1797 opened land in
western New York and the wealthy and educated bought land in this area, funding
cities such as Syracuse, Rochester, and Macedon.
"In 1823, the Erie
Canal opened for canal traffic and changed the economy and population of
upstate New York. Though the canal was designed to bring raw materials and
agricultural products to the eastern markets, upstate New Yorkers soon realized
that they could do the manufacturing, and many factories sprang up in the Erie
Canal towns. An example is the roll top desk used by BG Bullis, which was made
by Standard Furniture Company of Herkimer, NY, located on the Erie Canal. With
a ready supply of wood from the local forests, Standard Furniture Company
became the largest manufacturer of wooden desks and furniture in the United
States. The Hammond typewriter, invented in 1884 and used by Bullis as early
as 1889, is another upstate New York product that benefitted from the canal.
Other major manufacturing firms that began in the area were Kodak, Xerox and
IBM.
"Charles H. Bullis,
his wife Eleanor, and their two children left Vermont in November 1837, heading
for Ohio and a promised land grant. They went by Erie Canal boat from Troy NY
and stopped in Macedon to visit family. After several weeks in Macedon, Charles
decided they would stay in the area. He bought 60 acres of land next to lock 61
on the canals. Charles raised wheat, corn and cattle and shipped the harvests
to market on the canal. He built a large house with cobblestones collected from
his fields. Dick believes that the expert stone masons who had built the canal
between 1817 and 1823 stayed and built the Bullis home and many others.
"Abram, one of
Charles' sons, became a doctor and married Lydia Porter Lapham, member of
another prominent family that had emigrated from England to Rhode Island in
1635, and from there to Macedon. The Laphams built a large brick home in the center
of town and called it Waverly Manor after their home estate in England. The
children of Dr. Bullis, including John Lapham Bullis, attended Macedon Academy.
The academy building is now the headquarters for the Macedon Historical
Association.
"Several months before Dick Whynot's visit,
the Bullis Estate attorney presented a number of boxes of Bullis data to the
Macedon Library Bullis Room. Among these were photos of BG Bullis and his first
wife Alice probably taken at the time of their marriage in 1871. The photo was
taken by Kuhn Company, Main Plaza, San Antonio, TX. Alice died in 1887.
Another significant find were two letters from
Josephine Withers Bullis to John Bullis’ aunt Emma. The first was written in
1890 before their marriage. The second was written in 1898, when they lived in
Quarters 2, Fort Sam Houston. In it, Josephine does make clear that she does
not support her husband’s deployment to Cuba during the Spanish American War.
He left the paymaster job at Fort Sam Houston to fight in the war.
An interesting item in the letter is the
reference to Marie de Jesus Olivarri Rodriguez as the Major’s mother-in-law,
Alice’s mother. Dick Whynot says this lends credence to his long-held belief that the Withers and
Rodriguez families, both Canary Island families, were related and visited each
other often.
Dick Whynot’s talk gave us a more personal and
intimate understanding of the man for whom Camp Bullis was named.”
