Robert Franklin Bunting (1828-1891), a Presbyterian minister and Confederate Army chaplain, was born in 1828 in Pennsylvania. At age nineteen Bunting was admitted to the junior class of Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1849. At his mother’s urging, Bunting decided to devote his life to the ministry. Bunting entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1849 and graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1851.
After preaching around Pennsylvania for a year, Bunting was ordained an “evangelist to Texas” at his own request. Bunting’s childhood fantasies about the wild west and a plea issued at Princeton Seminary by Dr. Daniel Baker for preachers in Texas fueled Bunting’s decision to become a Texan. After arriving in Houston and spending some time there, Bunting’s first mission circuit was performed in the Colorado Valley in 1852. In 1856 Bunting went to San Antonio where he, in conjunction with Rev. John C. McCullough and Dr. Daniel Baker, revitalized the small congregation there and established a church in spite of the dangerous living conditions and strong opposition from the Roman Catholics. Bunting served as pastor at this church, the First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio, for several years, until he received the call to be a chaplain in the Confederate Army in the American Civil War. As a chaplain Bunting served the 8th Texas Calvary, commonly known as “Terry’s Texas Rangers.”
After the war Bunting remained very active in the church, serving as Moderator and Stated Clerk of the Synod of Texas, Commissioner to General Assemblies, on the board of Daniel Baker College, helping to found The Texas Presbyterian, the first Presbyterian newspaper in Texas, in addition to serving as an amateur historian of Presbyterianism in Texas. Bunting was married twice and had five children with his second wife. Robert Franklin Bunting died September 19, 1891.
From the guide to the Robert Franklin Bunting collection 2007-009., 1846-1947, (Austin Seminary Archives, Stitt Library, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.)
