Richard Fish works in an office next to the museum in  downtown Coquille. He runs Ameriprise Financial Services  where originally George Taylor's Service Station was situated.  Bob Taylor donated the museum space where he had  Taylor's Sporting Goods store before he retired and closed  it.

(Not related to me). One could almost jokingly say that  Rich was one of the museum pieces, not because of his age,  but because of the history of his family.

Not only does Rich  sit next to the museum at work, but you could almost say he  lives in one out on Rink Creek. In 1995, Rich and his wife  Peggi (Dunn) returned to Coquille and began restoring the  old Charles Bunch house. Rich's mother was the daughter  of Lois (Hermann) Bunch and Levi Bunch, son of Charles  Bunch. Charles and Nina Bunch, Rich's great-grandparents  were the first to live in the house.

 It originally had a turret,  but Rich decided the old one had leaked too much to consider  restoring that. The old picture was so faded that it  required some outline help.

Charles Bunch home

It was probably built with lumber from the saw and grist  mill which J.C. Bunch started in about 1880 assisted by  son-in-law J.D. Bennett and Bunch's two sons, William  (Ham) and Charles.H. (which was sold to Binger Hermann.)  William H. Bunch built the 7th Day Academy which later  became a hospital and then an apartment complex. Frank  Bunch another son, was teacher and principal. J.C. Bunch,  the father, was the founder of the 7th Day Adventist churches 
in Coquille and possibly the first in Coos County He  came to Coos county in the spring of 1879 settling at  Fishtrap and then moved across the river.

He established  about three churches in various places in the county.  William Hamilton (Ham) Bunch and brother Franthought  Fairview was a better location and less enticing for students  to get into trouble. After 7 years as the Coquille Academy, it  was sold and operated about two more years. Drs. Culin and  Richmond started a hospital in the building. In 1911,  according to Boyd Stone, it became a school again until  1926 when Ben and Belle Knife bought it for an apartment  house enlarging it, adding porches for access to the apartments.  Many people reading this will remember living  there. It has been called a number of different names. The  name I remember best is the Hollingstad Apartments. It's on  north Dean street. Rich told me a story about his greatgrandfather  Charles Bunch. He said that John Gilman who  killed the Eitenhovers and was being hanged for it supposedly  said that he regretted missing killing Charles Bunch  and George Sell out on Glen Aiken Road. Rich hasn't any  idea what the problem was!

BUNCH ACADEMY OF 1891

There were a number of Bunch dentists, Dr. James  Bunch was my dentist for a long time. Dr. Bunch and his  wife Louise had a daughter, Phyllis, who married a dentist,  Dr. Paul Harmon. Dr. Bunch eventually turned over the  business to Dr. Harmon. Not too long after that, Dr. Bunch  was up on his steep roof repairing it, here in Coquille, and  fell from it to his death. Dr. Harmon and his wife Phyllis  had two children, a daughter and a son, who is a contractor  in the area, Harmon construction. They are all deceased  except for Harmon's two children. Rich's mother Dorothy  appears in the 1936 directory as an assistant to Dr. James  Bunch.