William Bullen was born in
Clinton, Oneida County, New York, in 1805, and was raised in New York. In December 1834, he joined a meeting of friends at the home of his brother,
John Bullen Jr., in
Hannibal, New York, to discuss the prospect of emigrating west to the new territories. A subsequent meeting was held in February 1835, in which the Bullens and others agreed to form the "Western Emigration Company" to fund a project to travel west and purchase land. They sold stock in the company at $10 per share and ultimately raised $4,000—shares became a popular commodity in the area with less wealthy individuals buying stock to obtain a share of the return on the wealth of the new land. In March 1835, a committee was sent west to explore land for possible settlement on the western shore of
Lake Michigan. The committee initially attempted to establish a purchase at the mouth of the
Root River—at the site of the present city of
Racine, Wisconsin—but were unable to come to terms with the current inhabitants of the area, led by
Gilbert Knapp. During the Winter of 1835–1836, the Bullen brothers returned to
Oswego County, New York, and purchased a 100-ton schooner—the
Martin Van Buren—and loaded it with seeds, provisions, and tools, to return to their settlement. On their return, John went to Chicago and purchased a herd of cattle and drove them north to their claim. At the first elections held after the creation of Racine County, William Bullen was chosen as one of the county's two representatives on the Council (upper house) in the
2nd Wisconsin Territorial Assembly. He was selected by the members as the president of the council for the first session of that term and was subsequently elected to the
3rd Wisconsin Territorial Assembly. He also served on the Racine County board of supervisors, was the first chairman of the board of supervisors in 1843, and was the 2nd village president of Southport. William Bullen died in Southport in 1846. ==Personal life and family==