Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

FUNK, George J.,
Head of Important Business.
Furniture is a business highly special-
ized in the Funk family, George J. Funk,
of Bristol, Connecticut, president of C.
Funk & Son, Incorporated, of that city,
now the head of a business founded by
his grandfather, Christian F. Funck, and
developed by his father, Augustus Henry
Funck. The business is a prosperous one,
and for thirty years has been conducted
in the four story brick building on Pros-
pect street, opposite the railroad station,
a building erected in 1890 by the firm, C.
Funck & Sons, Incorporated. The business
is the most important of the kind in the
city, and its founding, development and
management has always been in the Funk
family.
The head of the family in the United
States, Christian F. Funck, was born April
9, 1810, in Neuhaus, Hanover, Germany,
and died in Bristol, Connecticut, November
14, 1888. He learned the cabinet-
maker's trade in Germany, there married
in 1831, and in 1846 came to the United
States with his family. He located in
Bristol, Connecticut, in 1849, an & soon
afterward secured employment at his
trade with Brewster & Ingraham, clock
makers. He was an expert worker in
wood and capable of doing the finest
work, a fact which led him later to begin
the manufacture of furniture under his
own name. He began in a small way, and
in 1865 was joined by his son, Augustus
H. Funck, who had been wounded in battle,
but had fully recovered. They began
business as furniture manufacturers and
undertakers, opening their first place of
business on Doolittle's corner of the
Northside, but moving in 1867 to the cor-
ner of South Elm and Main streets. Pros-
perity attended the business, and in the
spring of 1868 it was moved to the town
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
384
hall and there was a fixture for twenty
year, when the senior member of the firm
of C. Funck & Son passed away. He was
a man of industry and ability, a member
of the Episcopal church, and thoroughly
respected as business man and citizen.
Christian F. Funck married, in Germany,
Johanna Stamm, born in Hamburg,
Germany, died in Bristol, Connecticut, in
June, 1873. They were the parents of
six children, all born in Germany: t.
Dora, born February 3, 1833, married
Conrad Haupt, of St. Paul, Minnesota. 2.
William F., born in April, 1834, married
Margaret Rathburn, and died in Man-
kato, Minnesota, in November, 1892. 3.
Augustus Henry, of further mention. 4.
Sophia, married George W. Schubert, of
Bristol. 5. Charles Christian, who moved
to Norwalk, Ohio. 6. Henry Jacob, born
in 1843, a soldier of Company K, Six-
teenth Regiment, Connecticut Troops,
captured and confined in a Confederate
prison at Florence, South Carolina, where
he died in February, 1865.
Augustus Henry Funck, son of Christian
F. and Johanna (Stamm) Funck, was
born in Germany, in 1836, and died in
Bristol, Connecticut, March 24, 191 1. He
attended school in Germany until the
family departure for the United States in
1846, and in this country also availed
himself of public school advantages during
the winter months. His first work
was on a farm, his next position being
in the Brewster & Ingraham clock fac-
tory. He left the clock works in 1855,
and in 1856 went to St. Paul, Minnesota,
where he worked with his brother, Wil-
liam F., at carpentering until i860. In
that year he returned to Bristol and was
in the employ of Edward Hall as journeyman
carpenter until July 22, 1862. On
that date he enlisted in Company K, Sixteenth
Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer
Infantry, and went to the front in support