Preceded by Thomas D. Arnold Service/branch Tennessee militia Succeeded by Abraham McClellan Political party Whig Name Samuel Bunch Battles and wars Creek War | Spouse(s) Amanda Anderson Bunch Role Politician Rank Captain Profession farmer, soldier Party Whig Party | |
Resting place Bunch Family Farm
Rutledge, Tennessee Died September 5, 1849, Rutledge, Tennessee, United States Similar People John Coffee, Andrew Jackson, Menawa, William McIntosh, William Weatherford | ||
Samuel Bunch (December 4, 1786 – December 4, 1849) was an American politician who represented Tennessee's 2nd district in the United States House of Representatives from 1833 to 1837.
Life and career
Bunch was born in what is now Grainger County, Tennessee, the son of John and Mary (Asher) Bunch. He attended the public schools and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He married Amanda Anderson, daughter of Joseph M. and Mary Cocke Anderson about 1806 in Granger County.
Bunch served in the Creek War as captain of a company of mounted riflemen under General Andrew Jackson and participated in the attack on the main Hillabee town on November 18, 1813, and later participated in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814. He was sheriff of Grainger County for several years. From 1819 to 1823, he represented Campbell, Claiborne, and Grainger counties in the Tennessee Senate. In 1820, he voted against the bill establishing the Bank of Tennessee.
Elected was elected to Congress in 1833, defeating former 2nd district representative John Cocke, 4,319 votes to 1,815 (the incumbent, Thomas D. Arnold, moved to the 1st district). He was reelected by a similar margin in 1835. Bunch served as a Jacksonian in the Twenty-third Congress and as an Anti-Jacksonian in the Twenty-fourth Congress, and subsequently joined the Whig Party. In 1837, he was defeated in his reelection effort by the Democratic candidate, Abraham McClellan, 3,228 votes to 2,741.
His son, McDonough J. Bunch, was the principal clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives during 1845-46. He served as major of the 4th Regiment Tennessee Volunteers in the Mexican War. In May 1850, he led the skeleton Mississippi Regiment in the Narciso Lopez invasion of Cuba.
Samuel Bunch resumed agricultural pursuits and died on his farm near Rutledge, Tennessee on September 5, 1849 (age 62 years, 275 days). He is interred at a private cemetery on his farm.