OBITUARIES

Submitted by:  Janie Healer Davis

MRS. G. BUNTON SUCCUMBS TODAY

(The Sweetwater Reporter, Monday, March 24, 1958)

A pioneer resident of Sweetwater, Mrs. G. H. Bunton, died this morning at 10 o’clock in a Merkel Rest Home.  She had been in failing health for the past three years and was 92 years of age at her death.

Funeral Services for Mrs. Bunton will be conducted at 10:30 o’clock Tuesday in the Patterson Funeral Home Chapel.  Rev. A.L. Patterson, pastor of the Fundamental Baptist Church here, will officiate.

Pallbearers will be Jim Dulaney, John Cox, Sr., Ace Forgay, John Patterson, Raymond Bishop and John Perry.  Burial will be in Sweetwater Cemetery with Patterson Funeral Home in charge.

Mrs. Bunton was a native of Texas and was born in Lee County March 6, 1866.  She moved to Sweetwater as a child and had spent the remainder of her life in this area.

She was married to the late G.H. Bunton on December 14, 1884 in Sweetwater. The family home here is 401 East Third.  Prior to her marriage, she was Miss Minta West.

G.H. BUNTON BURIED TUESDAY

(The Sweetwater Reporter, April 8, 1925)

Another Aged Pioneer Dies at His Residence Monday Night After Illness Several Months

G.H. Bunton died at the family residence at 410 N. 3^rd St. Monday night at 12:30 o’clock following an illness of several months.

In the passing of Mr. Bunton Sweetwater has lost another of her fast-disappearing pioneer settlers.  He came to West Texas from Hays County near Austin in 1876 and lived in Coleman County until 1879 when he came to this section and with his brother, Joe Bunton, father of Mrs. Will Hubbard, settled on Sweetwater Creek east of Sweetwater where the Gypsum Company’s property now stands.  The Bunton brothers had a large herd of cattle and horses which they had driven from Coleman County and soon after they had established their camp a band of Indians robbed them and drove off all their horses but two and stole a lot of their cattle. At that time buffalo roamed at will over this whole country and Indian raids on the buffalo hunters camps and the scattered settlers were of frequent occurrence.

That was two years or more before Nolan or any of the western counties were organized and Sweetwater was not yet dreamed of, though railroad surveying parties who were here at that time mapping out a route from Fort Worth to El Paso .  Of the old buffalo hunters who were here at that time, I.S. Focht and Ben Jones are the only two left now who became permanent residents.  The Bunton brothers and Richie Howe who died last year were the other three that constituted the original settlers of Sweetwater.

After disposing of his ranch holdings on Sweetwater creek, he moved his cattle to an upper ranch on Salt Creek, about nine miles north of the here in Fisher County , which is still owned.

In 1884 he was married to Miss Minta West and they took their bridal trip on the T. & P. which was still a novelty.  He took her to the new home he had built for her on E. N. 3^rd St . , where their present residence now stands.  At that time, Sweetwater was a village of 250 or 300 people.

Mr. Bunton was a man of great vision and high ideals.  He had been a member of the Missionary Baptist Church for years.

He is survived by his wife, and one daughter, Mrs. Buckner Barry of Abilene .  Mr. Barry and son, Buckner Bunton, Mrs. Bunton’s sisters, Mrs. A. S. Lipscomb of Fort Worth and Mrs. Burrell Aycock of Midland , and their husbands, and her father, G. R. West, are here to attend the funeral services, which were held this afternoon at 4 o’clock at the Baptist church.  Dr. L.G. Moroney conducted the services with interment following in the city cemetery.