Buntyn-Ramsey House: The Start of East Buntyn Neighborhood & the Goodwyn Institute

487 Goodwyn Memphis, TN 

Circa  between 1850-55. 2 story home red brick with several porches

Photo from Memphis Heritage

Geraldus O. Buntyn (1791-1865) and Ann Eliza "Nancy" Carraway Buntyn (1796-1866) lived on Adams Ave. They built the Goodwyn St. home between 1850-55 and used it as a rural/ country home. They wed in 1819. 

After the War of 1812, Buntyn received a land grant of 160 acres east of the newly founded town of Memphis and moved his family there in the 1830s. The new home was located along the new Memphis & Charleston Railroad and the area became known as Buntyn's Station. He helped found the first University of Memphis (1846) and First Baptist Church (1845). The family vastly increased the plantation in size to about 40,000 acres. After Buntyn (in 1865) and his wife (1866) died, the plantation was subdivided. Parcels of land became Audubon Park and Memphis Country Club.

The executors were their son Dr. (Geraldus) Oscar Buntyn (1830-1880) and son-in-law Amos Bell (A. B.) Haynes (1831-1877). Haynes had wed Mildred Elizabeth "Lizzie" Buntyn Rogers Haynes (1836-1901). Haynes was a Memphis lawyer, but after marriage, became a very prosperous farmer. After Haynes death, Lizzie remarried to Spencer Clack Rogers. The will gave fifty percent of the land to the kids and 520 acres. Dr. Buntyn and Adaline Cherrie Odom Buntyn (1835-1856) built a home that still stands. Their sister Sally Ann Buntyn Goodwyn (1831-1897) married Robert Dinwiddie Goodwyn (1828-1896) in 1854. The home continued in the family through Harriett R. Goodwyn, the wife of their son William A. Goodwyn (1824-1898). The estate included the establishment of the Goodwyn Institute of Memphis (1907-1962). Tracts of land were sold to become dairy farms - enough that an area of Chickasaw Garden was known as "Buttermilk Town."

The Buntyn-Ramsey House was sold to Henry Ashton Ramsey, Jr. (1862-1944) and Amanda Vick Woolfolk Ramsey (1875-1963). He was a successful cotton factor and secretary/ treasurer of the Stewart-Gwynn Cotton Co. Later he became president until 1939. The estate basically established the neighborhood of East Buntyn. Goodwyn St. is named for Robert D. Goodwyn. 

Sources:

https://www.facebook.com/ElmwoodCemetery/posts/geraldus-buntyn-was-born-in-north-carolina-served-in-the-war-of-1812-and-then-se/10158479603226257/

https://www.memphisheritage.org/goodwyn-street-historic-district/