Samuel C. Bunting
( 1845 – 1872 )
Itinerant Tintypist
Samuel operated the American Bon-Ton Ferrotype Company along with his brother-in-law John T. Barry for only a short time in the spring and summer of 1872. Tragically, Samual was never able to share his love for photography with his son Clarence. Following his death that year, his infant son grew up and chose photography as his career, working from the 1890s until his death in 1944.
Samuel Bunting entered into the business of photography through his brother-in-law, John T. Barry. Bunting had spent his early life as a farmer, born on March 18, 1845 to Horatio and Mary Ann Bunting. His father had a farm in Lower Oxford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania and also during the 1870s operated a restaurant in Oxford.
Samuel Bunting married Adaline Barry, John Barry’s sister in 1869.[1] The two young men decided to go into the ferrotype business together in the spring of 1872. John Barry had apprenticed with Oxford’s photographer Alexander McCormick and knew the trade very well.
There is only one mention of his photographic career in the Oxford Press on March 13, 1872:
“J.T. Barry and S.C. Bunting, two young men of Oxford, have gone into the picture business, under the title and style of the American Bon-Ton Ferrotype Company.” They started this week on a trip through Berks County and up into the coal regions. Mr. Barry is a graduate of Mr. McCormick’s gallery, in this Borough, and is a good artist. They take four pictures for 25 cents. Success to them.”[2]
How much photography Samuel Bunting did during his short career is not known. Did he learn to make tintypes or did he just do the promotional work or help to finance it? We may never know.
Tragically, Samuel Bunting died on December 29, 1872, from typhoid pneumonia at the family farm in Lower Oxford.[3] He was only 27 years old and left his wife with the care of an infant son, Clarence. He was buried in the Oxford Cemetery.[4]
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The Jeffersonian, (West Chester, PA), 27 March 1869. ↑
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Oxford Press, (Oxford, PA), 13 March 1872. ↑
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American Republican, (West Chester, PA), 7 January 1873. ↑
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Samuel C. Bunting, findagrave.com Samuel C. Bunting (1845-1872) – Find a Grave Memorial ↑
