CRAWFORD COUNTY OHIO - ADAM SHUNK, bio, 1912

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John E. Hopley, HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY, OHIO AND REPRESENTATIVE 
CITIZENS, Richmond=96Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, 1912.

pp. 682-683: ADAM SHUNK, deceased, was one of the best known and most 
highly respected citizens of Bucyrus, O., for many years. He was the 
founder of one of the large manufacturing houses here, the plow company 
which bears his name, and he was also a citizen whose sterling worth 
could not fail of being appreciated. He was born in Somerset county, 
Pa., March 23, 1797, grew to the age of 21 years on his father's farm, 
developed into a man of great usefulness to his family, community and 
generation and died October 30, 1892.

As a youth Adam Shunk had no educational opportunities. He dutifully 
performed the labors assigned him on the farm as long as he remained at 
home, but, when the age of maturity set him free, he devoted himself to 
work as a carpenter, having constructed his own tools. He was deft of 
hand from childhood and it is said of him that a wagon, perfect in all 
its parts, was made by his boyish fingers, when he was not more than 
eight years of age. He never served an apprenticeship to any mechanical 
trade, his aptness in the use of tools being a natural facility. His 
work of 21 years, in his native section, compared favorably with that of 
other carpenters, but this work did not entirely satisfy himself and a 
part of his time and all his leisure was given to experimenting. In 1843 
he purchased a patent right to manufacture a certain kind of plow. In 
the following spring he opened his plow plant at Xenia, O., and while 
engaged there he also conducted a grocery store and for a time he worked 
at Canal Fulton. In the fall of 1854 Mr. Shunk came to Bucyrus, and with 
the capital he had at command built a brick shop and started into the 
manufacture of plows. There are yet business men of Bucyrus who recall 
the beginning of this enterprise and other who know of its expansion, 
while the active business men of today point with pride to the Shunk 
Plow Company as an example of the commercial importance of this city as 
a successful manufacturing center. In his day Mr. Shunk made all the 
different patterns of plows that he manufactured. The business has been 
developed until not only the Shunk New Model Steel Plow is manufactured 
but the plant also turns out: the Handy Steel Farm Wagons, steel plows, 
combination plows, contractors' plows, single shovel plows, potato 
diggers, steel plow shapes and steel plow beams made to pattern, gas 
engine trucks, steel scraper blades, corn harvesters and other steel 
implements.

Mr. Shunk was twice married, first, in 1816, to Miss Mary Banfort, of 
Somerset county, who died in 1844, and second, in 1845, to Miss 
Catherine Bauch, of Springfield, O. Children were born to both unions, 
the survivors of the second being: Francis, Nelson F., Isaac, John Q. 
and Katie. The Shunk Plow Company is owned and operated by Nelson F. and 
John Q. Shunk, the former of whom lives at No. 421 Mansfield Street, and 
the latter at No. 603 Renselaer Street. They are men of business 
enterprise and are worthy citizens. Should they claim the honor, they 
are entitled to membership in that organization, Sons of the American 
Revolution, their grandfather having served under General Washington. In 
many ways Adam Shunk was a very remarkable man and his fellow citizens 
of a younger generation remember his wonderful activity in business even 
into old age. From the age of seventeen years he had been a faithful 
member until death of the English Lutheran church.