Born in Richmond, Cache County, Utah on November 13, 1870 to Herchel Bullen and Emma Boston Gibbs, Herschel Bullen Jr. was raised on a farm near Richmond, Utah. He graduated from the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah) in 1890 and practiced farming and taught school in Richmond and Lewiston, Utah. In 1894 he served an LDS mission as a traveling elder in Sheffield, England. Returning to Logan in 1897, he worked for the Brigham Young College, serving both on the board of trustees and later as the head of the commercial department until 1909. In 1909 Bullen joined other prominent men of northern Utah to form the Promontory-Curlew Land Company which sought to sell as much as 400,000 acres of dryland in box Elder County, Utah and southern Idaho. He also served as a director in the Allendale Land Company and Panama Sugar Company.

Mr. Bullen's interests extended far beyond his work. He married Mary Hendricks on April 11, 1894 in the Logan Temple and the couple would have five children. He dabbled in journalism and politics. Bullen was active with the Republican Party and served as a State Senator from 1906 through 1908. He was also a chairman of the Cache County Republican City Committee and Cache County Republican Central Committee as well as a member of the State Central Committee. In 1903 he and other local political leaders formed the Logan Republican a regional political publication. Bullen found time to actively serve in the LDS Church as well as in the Logan Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club of Logan. He died in 1966.