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Louis G. Bunnell (1837-1912) and Sarah Ann Lyon(s) Bunnell (1837-1925); Nannie Louise Bunnell (Farris) (1861-1891)

            Louis G.  Bunnell
Sally Ann Lyons Bunnell


 Louis G. Bunnell (1837-1912) and Sarah Ann Lyon(s) Bunnell (1837-1925); Nannie Louise Bunnell (Farris) (1861-1891)

Mom still may remember her “Grandma Bunnell” who died when Mom was four. The Bunnells were important in Mom’s mother’s [Mary Louis Farris (Warford)’s] life, as it was to their home in Salisbury Mary went in her teens.

Mom’s mother’s mother was Nannie Louise Bunnell (Farris) (1861-1891) who died when her youngest daughter of five (Mary Farris Warford) total was still a baby. Nannie Louise is more than a genetic bridge between generations, though she lived only about thirty years. Her daughter Mary constantly spoke of her mama to me, her granddaughter. The story most told was of the five little girls needing Easter dresses so their mama went out in the rain to purchase material, catching the pneumonia which killed her.

After Nannie Louise’s death, several relatives, but especially her parents, stepped in to help. Of the photos in baby daughter Mary’s worn velvet-covered photo album (long since gone), most prominent were the two photos of her mother.

There has been plenty of research done on the Bunnells by one or two of that surname. They have traced the Bunnel, Bunnell, Bunel, Bonnel, Bonnell, etc. families wherever they find them in the 19th century and prior. For that reason, I have done little research on the family before Louis. I feel like those interested can expand or disagree or whatever with that which has been done already.

There are DNA projects actively going on the Bunnells, so we should find out more. Suffice it say, there were many Bunnell families in Kentucky prior to dispersing to many states. I feel the research is probably solid to back before the Revolutionary War. I do not know, but suspect it was pension lands that Louis’ great-grandfather William migrated to in Kentucky.

That state was created out of Virginia in 1792, post-war. So, though it seems scores of people “migrated” from Virginia to Kentucky, many stayed in exactly the same spot. This tends to be confusing to neophytes. Like me.

The Bunnells, over three generations, slowly moved in a westerly direction in Kentucky. Louis G.’s grandfather Peter never did leave the state. But Louis’ father, William T., a blacksmith, left for Missouri where he settled in Randolph County. William T. invoked a strong sense of family, with at least four sons and a daughter settling close to one another. The family bonds carried down into the next three generations or more, as evidenced by their family reunions. At least one of these occurred at the farm of William Z. Farris, written about earlier, and memorialized by a large family photo.



Several families from central Kentucky migrated together to Randolph County, Missouri. Over the generations, these families intermarried frequently. Though Sarah Ann Lyon(s) Bunnell’s parents moved from Kentucky to Indiana to Illinois to Iowa, leaving her to marry a man who moved to Missouri, Sarah’s mother was Louisa Bunnell, daughter of Archibald Bunnell. I have not yet determined how her mother might be related to her husband.

Other intermarrying families from Kentucky who are in the family tree are the Farrises, the Erwins, and the Houks.

We are cousins with Marshallite Palmers (Shirley Palmer Kays) and the Parishes through the Bunnells. As to religion, I believe, but am not certain, the Bunnells were largely Presbyterian in the 19th Century.

It is an intangible, but whenever I research the Bunnell family, I feel warm inside. I get the strong sense of family, of helping each other, of making sure people take the time to gather together other than at a funeral.

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