T. J. Bunn (1832-1916)

            Thomas Jefferson (T.J.) Bunn was born on August 29, 1832 in Xenia, Green County, Ohio. His parents were Lewis and Margery Haines Bunn. The Bunn family came to McLean County in 1833, when T.J. was only six months old, and settled in a log cabin in what is now downtown Bloomington. In 1833, Bloomington was still an untamed “western” town with a population of a mere 150 inhabitants, mostly of Southern heritage and descent. Throughout the course of his life, Bunn would have a strong influence on the growing town and watch it grow and develop over the next 74 years of his life.

            He attended a local public school until his adolescence, when he began to learn the blacksmith trade. His father, Lewis Bunn, was a successful plow maker in his 18-year partnership with Oliver Ellsworth. At the time, it was tradition for young men to carry on the trades and occupations of their fathers, but a serious eye injury caused by a dropped splinter of iron caused young T.J. Bunn to reconsider his vocation. He then began learning the printer’s trade.

            The 1855 City Directory listed Bunn as working for Baker and Edgar as a clerk. Then, in 1872, he was a broker and loan agent for the Central Illinois Loan Agency, whose office was located at 115 N. Center Street. In 1875, he partnered with Lucius L. Holmes and opened a bank at 113 N. Center Street. T.J. Bunn and Co. Bank was very prosperous and eventually merged with the Third National Bank by 1882.

            Bunn married Mary E. Hutchinson of Concord, Christian County, Kentucky, on May 4, 1854. They had four children, Frank L., Harry C., Fannie L., and another daughter whose name is not known. The family resided at 702 W.Washington Street and hosted lavish parties for their fellow members of society. Accounts of these parties were often featured in the pages of the local newspaper, The Daily Pantagraph.

            In addition to his banking, Bunn was also known as a prominent local politician and a staunch Democrat. Ironically though, when he ran for the office of Township Collector in 1859, he was listed under the Republican ticket. Perhaps the reason for this is that around the time of the Civil War, many loyal Northern Democrats were lumped together with “Copperheads,” or Democrats who believed that the Confederacy could not be defeated and opposed Union war policy. Bunn may have ran as a Republican in order to separate himself from the extremely unpopular Copperheads and give himself a better chance at being elected.

            In 1863, Bunn announced his candidacy for the office of City Treasurer. An article in The Daily Pantagraph endorsed him, saying that “Tom is a good man, being Union to the core and as such will be worth a thousand Copperheads.” He was elected City Treasurer on April 6, 1863.

            On November 22, 1870, The Daily Pantagraph printed a petition bearing a long list of Bloomington citizens urging Bunn to run for mayor. He followed their advice and was elected later that year. In 1877, he was reelected for a second term. By 1877, Bloomington was a city of 25,000 people, and it still had no paved roads. Under Mayor Bunn, Bloomington laid its first pavement from North Center Street to Chestnut, then west to the old Chicago-Alton station. Later, a pine block pavement was installed at the north side of the downtown square railroad. His obituary called him the “father of Bloomington pavements.” Bunn used his second inaugural address as mayor to praise the fire and police departments and expressed his wish to continue developing the city water works system. Bunn also served as Postmaster of the City of Bloomington twice, once during President James Buchanan’s administration and again during President Grover Cleveland’s administration.

            However, despite the successes of his public career, he managed to find himself embroiled in controversy. On May 12, 1888, Bunn took legal action to support his claim that the Board of Education owed him $16,000 as a commission from the twelve years he spent as treasurer of the city board. During that time, he handled $800,000 worth of the board’s funds. The position did not have a salary attached to it, but when Bunn discovered a clause in the city charter entitling him to 2% of the money he handled, he hired an attorney to back up his right to the money. During the time leading up to his trial, he became a very controversial figure. An article was printed on May 21, 1888, questioning whether or not it was ethical for the postmaster to serve on the Board of Education, and the prosecuting attorney questioned Bunn’s entitlement to the money since he had waited several years to demand compensation. The trial was held on April 30, 1889, nearly a year after Bunn’s initial claim. At the trial, the court ruled against Bunn because the position was intended as an honorary one and the previous treasurer claimed no commission. They ruled that he was no longer eligible for reelection and required him to pay back the rest of the money. However, they allowed him to keep $1,200—the commission he earned the year before.

            After a long, honorable career of service to the community, T.J. Bunn died on October 20, 1916. He had remained active until only a few days before, when he developed a slight cold that caused him to gradually decline over the next few days. His obituary also noted that he had suffered a serious accident the year before when he fell into the elevator shaft at the Corn Belt Bank building and never quite recovered. He was buried in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.