Butte County
Biographies
DR. PERRY FRANKLIN BULLINGTON
DR. PERRY FRANKLIN BULLINGTON.--A
distinguished member of the medical profession, who finds time to contribute of
his valuable experience and talents to the cause of popular education, and who
has thus rendered valuable service as a progressive member of the Chico board
of education, Dr. Perry Franklin Bullington, who was born in Vandalia, Ill., on
December 16, 1860, and first came to Butte County in the fall of 1885. His
father was Josiah Bullington, who was born in Pittsylvania
County, Va., on January 5,
1828. His grandfather, John Bullington, also lived in Virginia,
and an ancestor, named John Bullington, served in the Revolutionary War, as a
Private in a Virginia regiment.
The earliest Bullington in Virginia of whom there appears to be recorded came
from England and settled at Jamestown.
Josiah Bullington settled in Fayette County, Ill.,
as a farmer, and alternately raised tobacco and made bricks. He not only raised
tobacco, but he bought it from other farmers and shipped it to F. P. Childs and
Son, commission merchants, in St. Louis.
He was familiarly known as “Si” by his neighbors, who had a real affection for
him. He was one of the Old Schools”; he would journey to St.
Louis, get sugar, coffee, spices, calico and other
necessaries, bring them home and distribute them to the War widows, without
money and without price. After the war, he came out “broke”, but he had the
true American enterprise, and still made good, later on. When he died, on July
30, 1876, his was the largest funeral seen in that section for many a day. He
was active in educational work, and served as a school trustee at Bullington,
for the school now known as Brush College.
Josiah Bullington was a Methodist, and a consistent class leader.
The
wife of Josiah Bullington had been Miss Matilda Devore, and was a native of Ohio,
where she was born on March 5, 1834. She died on October 20, 1889, deeply
beloved by all who knew her, the mother of ten children, four of whom are still
living: Susan, who lives in Brownstown, Ill.;
Henry, who resides at Danville, Ill.,
and is a personal friend of Uncle Joe Cannon; Rhoda, who dwells near
Brownstown; and Perry Franklin, the subject of this sketch.
Brought
up on a farm and attended the grammar school and then the Vandalia Ill, high
school, from which he graduated, Perry F. Bullington taught school for three
years, in order to earn money with which to continue his studies; and in the
middle eighties he graduated, from the Valparaiso University. Leaving that
institution in June 1885 he came immediately to California
and arrived at Marysville on August 28, 1885. On September 1, he moved to Biggs
and there took special courses under Professor J. E. Hennessey, and the following
June he received a first grade teacher’s certificate. He taught school at Wyandotte
and next at Mountain House.
In
1889, Mr. Bullington went east to Cincinnati
and entered the Eclectic Medical College of Ohio, where he took four terms and
graduated in June, 1892, with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He returned to California,
and on the fist of September of that year he began to practice at Bangor.
There he remained until the mines were shut down. Then in June 1896, he
relocated at Gridley and continued his practice. Two years later, he was
elected coroner and public administrator of Butte
County and had the distinction of
receiving the highest number of votes cast for an officer in the two precincts
of Gridley at that time.
Dr.
Bullington lived in Gridley, continuing his practice
there and traveling back and forth on his official duties, but the district
attorney would not allow him mileage, so in November, 1899, he located at the county
seat. He practiced Medicine at Oroville and vicinity, and had a team of Silver
Kings to carry him over the roads. He held the office of coroner until January,
1903. He then went back to Lima, Ohio,
were he took a course in electro-therapy in the National College of
Electrotherapeutics; and having again graduated, he returned to California.
His residence in Chico, for some
years the scene of his greatest successes, dates from September, 1904; and
there he has practiced medicine ever since. In August, 1907, however he closed
his office for awhile to attend the Cooper Medical
College, now the medical department of Stanford
University; and having graduated from that
institution on May 6, 1908; he resumed his practice in Chico.
At
Wyandotte, on Christmas Day, 1892,
Dr. Bullington and Miss Martha M. Thatcher were married. The bride was born on
December 22, 1857, the daughter of Amos and Nancy (McCurdy) Thatcher, born in New
York and Ohio, respectively, who crossed
the plains by ox team in 1852 and settled for awhile at Wyandotte,
were Mr. Thatcher was busy mining. Growing up at Wyandotte,
Mrs. Bullington, before her marriage, was deputy postmaster at that place for
seven years under William Dunstone. Two children have blessed this union: Alta
May and Eva Pearl, both of whom are graduates from the Chico High school and
from the Chico State Normal, and each
one has received a special diploma from the latter institution; Alta May for
Domestic Science, and Eva Pearl, for Industrial Arts.
Dr.
Bullington is a member of the California State
Medical Society. He served one term as health officer of Chico,
and as a member and President of the Chico Board of Education he has rendered
very efficient service. He was made a Mason in Oroville Lodge, No. 103, F.
& A. M., of which he is still a member; he also belongs to the Oroville
Lodge, No 59, I. O. O. F., in which he is a Past Grand; he also belongs to
Pride of Butte Lodge, No 69, K. of P. of Chico. The Doctor, his wife and
daughters are members of Josephine Chapter, No. 104, O. E. S., and of the
Rebekahs, of Chico.
Transcribed
by Kim Buck.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 769-770, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Kim
Buck.
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