In the articles in Decoy Magazine on Charles Sumner Bunn and his work, Joe Jannsen and I have referenced the Martinez transcripts.
The Martinez transcripts were compiled from tape recordings made in the 1980's and 1990's by David Martine, Charles Bunn's great-grandson. These tapes were made in order to capture the memories of Charles Bunn's daughter, Mrs.Alice Martinez (1901-1992), Mrs. Martinez' son, David W. Martinez (1922-1987), and her daughter and David's mother Marjorie C. Martinez (1928-1998). Much of the transcripts were were used in David Martine's book on his family titled, Time And Memories Histories And Stories of A Shinnecock-Apache-Hungarian Family printed in 2013. Some of transcripts may not be accurate in all instances as memories are not always accurate, especially in your late 80's and early 90's. For instance, when Mrs.Martinez said she thought he used chestnut wood for his decoys, Bunn actually used native white cedar. But much of it is very accurate and is backed up with independent corroborating evidence, sometimes from multiple sources. I was given the transcript by David Martine at the beginning of my research into Bunn's life. They have been instrumental in our research.The photo of Bunn at the 1906 Sportsmen's Show at Madison Square Garden was not known of until 1993 when Charles Bunn's last surviving daughter, Helen Bunn Smith, passed away. The photo came into the possession of David Martine. But it wasn't until 1997 when John A. Strong published his book, The Algonquian Peoples of Long Island From Earliest Times to 1700. In the book John wrongly date the photo c.1920 and it would not be until 2002 when I discovered the book that the decoy collecting world learned of the photo and Charles Bunn.
The only reference to Bunn as carver prior to my research was Bob Gerard's Decoy Magazine May/ June 1997 "article", which was the reprinted chapter in Gaynell Stone's book on the Shinnecock people. However, Gerard did not, or could not, tie the Bunn stool to those that were being called Bowman's because the photo that would do so was not discovered until 2002.
The description of Charles Bunn's s booth at the old Madison Square Garden Sportsmen's Show undoubtedly came from family oral history and the now well known 1906 photo. In the transcripts she mentions her father having a "concession stand" at the annual Sportsmen's Show where he "sold all he brought (decoys) and took many orders."
In Bunn's last interview in April of 1952, he relates that he had been too sick to work but that "the sports are still after me and I could sell all I could make." The article also tells of his being famous for his decoys and that he had attended the Sportsmen's Show annually for many years.
In the transcripts are many references to Bunn as a professional hunting guide. We also learn the names of some of his clients and that he also gave hunting lessons to the sons of the wealthy "summer colonists". Bunn also taught them and their children to sail. The transcripts have been instrumental in connecting Bunn to other documented sources, as in the cases of the Munn, Edgar and Ives families.
In the transcripts, Mrs.Martinez spoke of Charles Bunn's grandfather, James Bunn (1810-1895), when she said, "My father learned all his hunting skills from his grandfather James Bunn." Among those hunting skills Charles Bunn learned would have been the making and use of bird decoys. For most of James Bunn's life, he would have hunted for his family and most likely for the market. It would only be in the last fifteen years of his life that new era of economic opportunities came to Southampton. Southampton had been a rustic backwater made up of baymen, farmers, whalers and shopkeepers. This all changed when the Long Island Railroad came to town.
As a boy, Charles Bunn would have been a witness to the laying of the tracks and the building of the first Southampton Railroad Station in 1871. The Southampton Station would be instrumental in Charles Bunn creating the very successful career that he enjoyed thoughtout his lifetime as a decoy maker, guide, farmer, and by giving hunting and sailing lessons. Charles Bunn was born at just the right time to ride the wave of the Gilded Age and develop into the greatest shorebird decoy carver in America.
Prior to the railroad coming to Southampton, Southampton would have been a long tiring ride by stagecoach or wagon. Boats were the only other option with its inherent hazards. The railroad brought quick access to Long Island's South Fork. Now the wealthy created what Mark Twain christened the "Gilded Age". The wealthy who came to Southampton were a combination of "old money" and "new money" just as it is today.
In 1877, the first "summer colonists", Dr, T. Gallard Thomas, a renowned surgeon, began building his "summer cottage" named "The Dunes"on what is now prestigious Gin Lane. Orson Munn Jr's. home, "The Arches", was also built on Gin Lane by his father around 1928. In 1877, when the first summer home was built, Charles Bunn would have been 14 years of age and in school. However, he would have alredy spent much of his life learning and working with his grandfather. He would have been learning from a very early age the skills that he would need to survive on the Shinnecock Reservation, as rural children did then and still do today.
The new summer colonists brought a windfall of cash to Southampton and to the Shinnecock Reservation. Many of the local Southampton people lived a subsistence lifestyle. They followed seasonal opportunities; fin-fishing, shell-fishing, farming, market gunning, whaling and mercantile interests. The new summer colonists needed servants, laborers, gardeners, hunting guides, sailing instructors and grocers. By 1890, The Shinnecock Hills Golf Club offered employment to many of the men living on the reservation. Charles Bunn's brother, Oscar Bunn, became a well-known golf pro there.
All these new sources of income on Long Island's East End were especially welcome in the face of a rapidly declining whaling industry. Many of Long Island's East Enders, including many from Shinnecock Reservation, sailed around the world on whaling ships, or found work supplying and servicing the whaling industry, which by 1870 was in steep decline. Whales were becoming scarce after their unrestrained slaughter, and whale oil lamps were being replaced by the emerging petroleum industry's kerosene lamps and gas light. Additionally, electricity in urban areas began to light America's dark nights.
Charles Bunn's grandfather James most likely made decoys. Being where he lived and his economic situation, it is doubtful that he would have bought decoys. He may have also used call ducks and geese as his grandson Charles Bunn did, but for snipe shooting, he would have used wooden and or cork stool.
Charles Bunns father, David Bunn (1829-1876), was a whaler and was said by Mrs. Martinez to have carved whale ivory. Whether or not he made gunning stool is unknown. As a whaler he was away from the reservation much of time, which is the reason Charles Bunn would have learned his hunting skills from his grandfather, and not his father who died when Charles Bunn was around 11 years old.
Most likely a carving tradition existed at the Shinnecock Reservation, spanning at least from the 19th and 20th centuries, and at least in the Bunn family. There may have also been other undocumented carvers present on the reservation. The Bunn family's artistic endeavors didn't end with Charles Bunn. His grandson, David Waukus Martinez (1922-1987), was a talented carver of decorative birds and wood sculptures. He never carved working decoys and he didn't hunt.
David Martine received an Art Degree from the University Oklahoma. He is best known for his large murals depicting Long Island's native peoples in their daily lives. At this time, he is the director/curator of the Shinnecock Museum and Cultural Center, a position he has held for many years.
What are the Charles Bunn Cork Decoys
We have both oral and documented history for Charles Bunn as a maker of cork stool, yet there have not been to my knowledge any cork stool that in the past were identified as by William (Bill) Bowman, or to my knowledge there have never been any cork birds offered for sale or exhibited as by Bowman.
In an interview with the late Orson Munn Jr., he told me when he wanted his own duck stool in the 1940's, so his father told him, "Go see Charley Bunn." Orson did just that and he said he "bought Charles Bunn's broadbill and black duck cork stool." None of the stool that he had bought from Bunn were still in his possession when I met him. In fact, I sold his last working rig and other old stool he had when he quit gunning in the 1990's.
In the 1952 News Review article on Bunn, it mentions that, "Charles Bunn makes decoys or 'stool' that Long Islanders call the wood and cork replicas of game birds which they attempt to entice the wild variety into gun range." I know of no cork stool that resemble the classic 1906 floating stool formerly called William (Bill) Bowman decoys.
So what would Bunn's cork stool look like?
