History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

426 HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
They liad four childi'en, of whom three still survive. Mr. and
Mrs. Bunger have become the parents of four children, Etta M.,
Gretchen K., Edith H. and William F. The parents are mem-
bers of the Lutheran church, and Mr. Bunger gives his political
allegiance to the democratic party. His success is largely the
result of his own energy and enterprise, and these qualities have
made him widely and favorably known in the community.
J. E. LEWIS.
J. E. Lewis, engaged in the practice of law in Amboy since
1877, occupying a suite of rooms in the postoffice building, was
born December 21, 1847, in the city which is still his home and is
the oldest native resident in his part of the county. His parents
were Joseph and Rachel (Cargill) Lewis. The Lewis family is
of Welsh origin and was established in America long prior to the
Revolutionary war. The great-grandfather of our subject was
wagon master for General Putnam during the struggle for independence.
Our subject's grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Cole, wife of
Nathaniel Cole, was a niece of Pickering, the naturalist, who
traveled extensively over the globe with Commodore Perry.
Joseph, father of our subject, came to Lee county in the spring
of 1845 from Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. He found here
a district which was largely wild prairie, and he settled upon a
tract which he converted into rich tields, leading a busy life as an
enterpi'ising agriculturist. In politics he was a republican. His
death oecuii'ed in 1882 when he was seventy-six 3"ears of age and
his wife passed away some years later at the advanced age of
ninety years. They were laid to rest in Oakridge cemetery near
Anil;)o,v. One of their sons, James C. died while serving in Company
C, Eighty-ninth Regiment of Illinois Infantry, meeting
death at Chattanooga. Two other sons, John and Andrew, died
while monihers of the Thirty-ninth Illinois Infantry, known as
the Yates Phalanx.
J. E. Lewis, whose name introduces this review, acquired his
education in the Amboy high school and in the Moimt Morris
seminary, from which he was gradiiated in 1868. He afterward
began reading law imder the direction of Norman H. Ryan and
later taught school as principal for some years in Rockton, Hlinois.
Another year was spent upon the home farm, and in 1877