Title: Edward L. Faunce
Dates: 1881-1922
Collection Number: 00092
Quantity: 54 images
Abstract: Family portraits and interior and exterior images of the Faunce stores and home.
Provenance: unknown
Property Rights: The State Historical Society of North Dakota owns the property rights to this collection.
Copyrights: Copyrights to this collection remain with the donor, publisher, author, or author's heirs. Researchers should consult the 1976 Copyright Act, Public Law 94-533, Title 17 U.S. Code and an archivist at this repository if clarification of copyrights is needed.
Access: This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite collection title, collection number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnotes and bibliographic references.
HISTORICAL SKETCH
From the Bismarck Tribune, Saturday December 21, 1940
E. L. Faunce, 85, pioneer carpenter and businessman of Bismarck, died in a local hospital Saturday of heart disease. He suffered an attack at his home, 800 First St., three days ago.
His death follows, by a little more than a month, that of his wife, who died Nov. 14, also of a heart ailment. They had celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary last February 12. His own 85th birthday occurred last Sunday.
Mr. Faunce stopped off at Bismarck in 1880 to visit his sister. At the time he was en route to San Francisco, where he expected to take passage on a ship in pursuit of his calling, which was that of a ship’s carpenter.
But the lure of virgin prairies and of the new country proved stronger than the sea and he had lived here ever since.
Because of his skill with tools he easily found work. In later years he recalled that he had helped build the old Burleigh County courthouse. While working there he fell from the top of the structure but a scaffolding broke his fall and he escaped with a broken leg.
His marriage to Hattie Bentley, daughter of Dr. W. A. Bentley, pioneer physician, was an event of 1882. They had no children.
The original home of Mr. Faunce was New Bedford, Mass., famous port for whaling vessels. As a boy, in the days of wooden ships and iron men, Mr. Faunce went often to the waterfront, where ships docked after voyages to the far parts of the world.
He was apprenticed to a relative, who taught him the carpenter trade and, when opportunity offered, sailed as a ship’s carpenter in a whaling vessel which was commanded by an old friend of the family.
That voyage lasted three years and took him around the world. For months at a time the ship was out of sight of land as it pursued its hunt for the monsters of the deep.
Taken ill with a skin disease, Mr. Faunce was put ashore on an island near New Zealand where he lived for months with a man, who was alone there with thousands of sheep. Only the wool was of value and after shearing the old sheep would sometimes be driven over a cliff and into the sea.
He was suffering from a skin ailment and the sheepherder treated it with a crude oil preparation, smearing it all over the patient’s body. After he had recovered and while he was waiting for his ship to return, Mr. Faunce hunted wild boars on horseback, using a spear as a weapon. It was a dangerous and exciting sport.
When whales were sighted, Mr. Faunce recounted, the small boats would put off from the ship for the hunt. Once when he was in a small boat, a whole school of whales rose from beneath the water and the boat was caught between two of the giant mammals. They were so close on either side that he could have touched them by putting out his hand.
Several times, during the long voyage, ships were chartered to send the whale oil back to New Bedford. When his ship finally abandoned the Antarctic seas and set sail for home, it sailed across the Pacific Ocean, made the stormy passage around Cape Horn, and did not see land again until it reached New Bedford.
During his time at sea, Mr. Faunce made numerous tools from the ivory and bones of captured whales and acquired a collection of curios which he delighted to show to visitors and which he still had at the time of his death.
After a period as a carpenter, Mr. Faunce established a business in Bismarck for the sale of paint, glass and furniture and also became interested in real estate. He retired from business shortly after the close of the World war because of ill health.
The Faunces had no children and little could be learned immediately about his surviving relatives. He was a brother-in-law of Mrs. W. A. Falconer, 201 Avenue E, and Mrs. J. B. Belk, 710 Fourth St.
Hattie Fidelia Bentley was born February 12, 1860 to Emily A. (White) and William A. Bentley who came to Bismarck in 1877. Their five Bentley children were: Hattie F., Nellie S., Emma E. (married William A. Falconer), Charles A., and Miriam H. (married John B. Belk).
PHOTOGRAPHS INVENTORY
00092-00001 Hattie F. Bentley (Mrs. E. L.) Faunce circa 1885
00092-00002 Charles Addison Bentley circa 1895
00092-00003 Yong man circa 1890
00092-00004 Portrait of a man circa 1880
00092-00005 Woman XX
00092-00006 Young boy XX
00092-00007 Portrait of a woman XX
00092-00008 Edward and Hattie Faunce 02/11/1888
00092-00009 Lucretia (Mrs. Clement A.) Lounsberry circa 1880
00092-00010 Portrait of young boy circa 1885
00092-00011 Baby portrait circa 1885
00092-00012 Portrait of a young couple XX
00092-00013 Dr. William A. Bentley circa 1880
00092-00014 Frank Donnelly 1896
00092-00015 Miriam H. Bentley, 15 years old 1896
00092-00016 James Heugher XX
00092-00017 Portrait of a young woman XX
00092-00018 Portrait of a man 1880-1889
00092-00019 Hattie J. Brown XX
00092-00020 Portrait of a young man XX
00092-00021 Portrait of a woman XX
00092-00022 Portrait of a little girl XX
00092-00023 Bessie Goff, age 5 1884
00092-00024 Miriam H. Bentley, age 2 years, 5 months 05/1883
00092-00025 Portrait of young man XX
00092-00026 Portrait of a little girl XX
00092-00027 Abbie, granddaughter of William A. Bentley XX
00092-00028 Roger Weaver XX
00092-00029 Hattie Faunce circa 1895
00092-00030 Hattie Faunce 07/00/1881
00092-00031 Hattie Faunce circa 1885
00092-00032 A man in a fur coat XX
00092-00033 Dr. and Mrs. William Bentley's 25th Anniversary wedding gifts 12/11/1881
00092-00034 The Old Gang at Faunce’s home10/20/1922
00092-00035 Ed and Hattie Faunce home, South Dartmouth (Mass.) 1884
00092-00036 E. L. Faunce home interior 1884
00092-00037 Bay window in Faunce home 1884
00092-00038 E. L. Faunce sitting room 1884
00092-00039 Parlor, Ed and Hattie Faunce home, Bismarck (N.D.) 1884
00092-00040 Faunce and Bannerman Paint Shop, cor. 7th and Broadway, Bismarck (D.T.) 1884
00092-00041 Faunce and Brown Glass House, Broadway and 7th St., Bismarck (N.D.) 1890
00092-00042 E. L. Faunce Store interior, Bismarck (D.T.) 1884
00092-00043 E. L. Faunce Store exterior, Bismarck (D.T.) 1884
00092-00044 Barbecue, Bismarck Atheneum 1883
00092-00045 Governor Andrew Burke ca. 1891
00092-00046 Orlando Scott Goff 1873-1878
00092-00047 Laying of the cornerstone for the Territorial Capitol, Bismarck (D.T.) 09/05/1883
00092-00048 Dr. Henry R. Porter on bicycle ca. 1898
00092-00049 Mrs. Charles Williams in parlor XX
00092-00050 Methodist excursion on Undine to Fort Abraham Lincoln (D.T.) 08/21/1885
00092-00051 Curley ca. 1880
00092-00052 Dr. William A. Bentley residence, Bismarck (D.T.) circa 1887
00092-00053 Dr. William A. Bentley and daughter, Miriam 8/1889
00092-00054 Dr. William A. Bentley XX
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