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Bullen Family Papers, 1893-1992

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Bullen family.
Title
Bullen Family Papers
Dates
1893-1992 (inclusive)
Quantity
103 boxes, (51.5 linear feet)
Collection Number
UUS_COLL MSS 378
Summary
This collections contains the papers of Herschel Bullen, Jr. Reed Bullen, and Jonathan Bullen.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Herschel Bullen was born November 13, 1870 to Herschel Sr. and Emma Boston Gibbs Bullen in Richmond, Utah. In 1890, he graduated with a teaching degree from the University of Deseret (now University of Utah). In 1894, he married Mary Hendricks with whom he had five children: Herschel Keith, Lavona, Helen, Reed and Thurlow (Tad). After serving a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he taught at the Brigham Young College of Logan, Utah and served on the Board of Trustees for the college until 1909. Herschel was also involved in local and state politics, serving as state senator in the Utah General Assemblies of 1907 and 1909, and aiding congressman Joseph Howell in political campaigns. As an affiliate to the Republican Party, he purchased the Logan Republican with Preston Nibley in 1910.

The Logan Republican was the later rendition of the Logan Nation, a Republican newspaper founded in 1891 that soon became politically independent. Frustrated with the lack of political representation, local Republicans wished to create a newspaper that could compete with the Logan Journal, which was the Democratic and more prominent newspaper at the time. The Republican’s first issue came out on September 10, 1902 and was soon purchased by the Logan Newspapers Company, of which Herschel Bullen was the Secretary/Treasurer. In 1910 he and Preston Nibley purchased the lease from Fred Turner and over the next 14 years, Herschel assumed various positions such as president, editor, secretary and manager of the newspaper. In 1924, Bullen sold the paper to the Logan Journal due to heavy financial losses on the part of stockholders.

In addition to the newspaper, Herschel was involved in several real estate and insurance businesses, and served as a founder of the Promontory Curlew Land Company, and director of the first Federal Savings and Loan Corporation. In 1938, Herschel helped his son Reed purchase the Cache Valley Broadcasting Company, which managed KVNU Radio. Herschel Bullen died in 1966 at age 96 (see Herschel Bullen, Jr. Papers: COLL MSS 178).

Reed Bullen, son of Herschel Bullen and Mary Hendricks, was born November 17, 1906 in Logan, Utah. He attended Utah State Agricultural College, and graduated in 1929 with a degree in business. He then attended Stanford Law School for two years.

Upon his return from school, Reed worked as a salesman for his father’s realty business, and later became the secretary/treasurer/director of Stewart-Bullen Motor Company until 1938. That same year, Reed became the first general manager of KVNU, a radio station started by the Cache Valley Broadcasting Corporation with L.R Jensen, J.M. Reeder and J.R. Reeder as directors in 1935. It was difficult for the corporation to obtain a broadcasting license from the Federal Communications Commission, which took nearly three years to approve KVNU, the seventh radio station on Utah. Soon after the station was inaugurated, the Bullen family purchased it, with Herschel and Reed as directors.

From the beginning, KVNU used mainly local talent to supply the broadcasts, including the music and drama departments of Utah State University. Every day at 12:15 p.m., Reed conducted a live broadcast outside of S.E. Jewelers entitled, “Man on the Street”, where anyone could speak his thoughts into the microphone. Among the many other entertainers was a drama club of local actors that broadcasted their original plays, as well as Dr. Roy and Johana Harris, who conducted a program called, “Music with Our Neighbors” which included piano, vocal music and discussion with guests, all performed in the Harris living room.

Reed continued to manage the radio, becoming the director of the Intermountain Network in Salt Lake City in 1950. In 1955 he was elected as a Republican to the Utah Senate. He was elected to six terms, serving in several leadership positions such as Senate president, whip, majority leader, and chairman of the Higher Education Committee.

Just two years after leaving the Utah Senate in 1976, he was called by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to act as President of the Logan Temple. Prior to that time, Bullen had also served as a bishop, stake president of the Utah State University Student Stake, and patriarch of the University First Stake. Reed held the position of Temple President until 1984.

In 1971, Reed founded Northern Utah Community TV (NUCTV) with the financial support of Bonneville International Corporation, the broadcasting company belonging to the LDS Church. First managed by Kent Gardner, the company charged $5.95 for basic cable, which included a local channel that rebroadcast Aggie football games, KUTV, KBYU, KSL and more as the company continued to expand. While originally only serving cable to Logan inhabitants, by 1979 NUCTV was spreading to North Logan and River Heights, and would eventually reach Providence, Mendon, Melville, Nibley, Hyde Park, Wellsville and Hyrum, Utah. In 1980, the company hired Jonathan Bullen as General Manager of NUCTV, and in 1984, Bonneville International sold its share in the company to Reed Bullen, after which NUCTV was renamed The Cable Company.

In 1985, Reed was inducted into the Utah Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame, and in 1986 he retired at age 80, selling his interest in Cache Valley Broadcasting and The Cable Company to Jonathan Bullen. After retirement he continued to participate in radio broadcasting for several years prior to his death on Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005, in Logan at age 99.

Jonathan Bullen was born in Logan, Utah, to Reed and Katherine Bullen. Growing up, he worked as a janitor for his father’s station and later as a disc jockey and sales manager. In 1978, he graduated from Utah State University with a bachelor’s degree in business, and in the same year completed the NAB Management Seminar at Harvard.

After becoming the General Manager of NUCTV, he helped the company to expand throughout Cache Valley. When Jonathan purchased the Cable Company and CVBC from his father 1986, he renamed it the JWB Cable Company and added franchise locations such as Clarkston, Newton, and Paradise.

In 1989, Jonathan sold his company’s interest in the cable television to Sonic Cable and kept the radio assets. After that, he invested in real estate as a stock holder of assets managed by Wasatch Property Management and later became involved in higher education as a President and CEO of Eagle Gate College Group in 1992. While continuing his role with the College, he has also been occupied in several other positions, including Executive Director of Capitol Arts Alliance, board member of Mormon Historic Sites Foundation, president of Colmena Capital, and member of the National Finance Committee for the 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

He is married to Julie Harris, with whom he has four children. He currently lives in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

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Content Description

This collection contains business, personal and political files from the Bullen Family and is divided into three series: the Herschel Bullen files, Reed Bullen files and Jonathan W. Bullen files. As these members of the Bullen family were particularly influential community leaders and business men, largely responsible for the progression of media business in Cache Valley, their collection contains materials that are beneficial to anyone researching business, media, and local politics in Northern Utah and local politics from 1921 to 1989.

The Herschel Bullen files consists of correspondence concerning the USAC board of trustees (of which Herschel was a member for several years), as well as business correspondence and ledgers from the Utah Idaho Land and Water Company, Promontory Curlew Land Company, the Logan Republican, and the Mexican Citrus Fruit Company.

Series II, the Reed Bullen files, begin with materials from his study at Stanford Law School and files from the Bonneville Sylvan Company as well as other personal and minor business files. Also included are advertisements and data from KVNU Radio which Reed managed and directed for several years. A large portion of the series contains records from Bullen’s time as a Utah State Senator from 1955 to 1966 and his service on Higher Education Committee. Worthy of note, the correspondence section contains letters from constituents dealing with pivotal bills from Utah history, such as the Equal Rights Amendment and the “Right to Work” bill (Series II, Box 29). There are also several files of relating to Reed’s positions in the LDS Church including Utah State University Student Stake correspondence, talks and dedications given by Reed Bullen and other files. The last boxes of the series carry reel to reel tapes that were used or recorded by KVNU radio (Series II Boxes 41-45). These tapes have all been digitized and may be used on request.

Series III consists of materials from Jonathan W. Bullen, most of which contains scrapbooks, binders, board of directors meetings, correspondence, financial statements, reports and related information from NUCTV, The Cable Company, Cache Valley Broadcasting Company and later JWB Cable. Also included are the network, station and affiliate agreements for the cable company from 1983 to 1990 (Series III, Boxes 19-21) and legal files from Cache Valley Broadcasting Company (Series III, Boxes 22-25). Boxes 29 through 31 specifically contain the agreements and transaction documents of sale between JWB Cable Company and Sonic cable. The information from this section illustrates much of the growth of the company as it stretched out to the nethermost parts of Cache Valley.

The last series of the collection, Series IV, consists of one box of oversized files. Folders referring to the contents of the items in this box have been placed in their appropriate order throughout the collection. The folders that indicate the oversize items include the label, “See Oversize: Series IV, Box 1, Fd [ ]”.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Permission to publish material from the Bullen Family Papers must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator and/or the Special Collections Department Head.

Preferred Citation

Initial Citation: Bullen Family Papers USU_COLL MSS 378, Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. Logan, Utah.

Following Citations:USU_COLL MSS 378, USUSCA.

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Administrative Information

Processing Note

Processed in June of 2014

Acquisition Information

The Herschel Bullen and Reed Bullen files of this collection (see Series I and II) were donated to Special Collections and Archives by Reed Bullen in 1992. Some records concerning the Cache Valley Broadcasting Company were donated by Jonathan Bullen in 2000. Jonathan Bullen also donated his records from the JWB Cable Company and related business files (see Series III) in 2008.

Related Materials

Coll Mss 178, Herschel Bullen, Jr. Papers; Coll Mss 182, Herschel Bullen Sr. Papers; P0018, Bullen Family Photograph Collection

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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Subject Terms

  • Cable television--Cache Valley (Utah and Idaho)
  • Education, Higher--Utah.
  • Radio stations--Cache Valley (Utah and Idaho)
  • Radio--Cache Valley (Utah and Idaho)

Personal Names

  • Bullen, Herschel, 1870-1966.
  • Bullen, Jonathan W.
  • Bullen, Reed, 1906-2005.

Corporate Names

  • Bonneville Sylvan Company.
  • Cable Company.
  • Cache Valley Broadcasting Company (Logan, Utah)
  • JWB Cable Company.
  • KVNU (Radio Station : Logan, Utah)
  • Mexican Citrus Fruit Company.
  • Northern Utah Community Television.
  • Promontory-Curlew Land Company.
  • Sonic Cable Company.
  • Utah-Idaho Land and Water Company.
  • Utah.--Legislature.
  • Warner Capital Corporation.

Titles within the Collection

  • Logan republican (Logan, Utah)

Finding aid/Register created by Elisabeth Cropper and Clint Pumphrey
2014

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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