January 17, 1874: Chang and Eng Bunker, “the Original Siamese Twins,” die within hours of each other in Mount Airy, North Carolina. They were 62, and would be the longest-lived conjoined twins until 2012.
Chang Bunker and Eng Bunker were born on May 11, 1811 in Meklong, in Samut Songkhram Province, in what was then the Kingdom of Siam. The country's name was changed to Thailand in 1939. Their father was Chinese, and their Thai mother said their birth was no more difficult than those of her previous children.
The brothers were fully-formed, nearly fully-separated, but joined by a band of flesh at the chest. Most physicians who met the twins recommended against surgery for separation, as, with medical technology at the time, it would have been a fatal procedure. Contemporary medical literature strongly suggests that the twins could have been easily separated today.
They were brought to the United States in 1829. Physicians inspected them as they became known to American and European audiences in "freak shows." Ever since, conjoined twins have been known as "Siamese Twins," and Chang and Eng are known as "The Original Siamese Twins." The phenomenon had already been known, but they were the first pair to be widely known.
Newspapers and the public were initially sympathetic to them, and within 3 years, they left the control of their managers, who they thought were cheating them, and toured on their own. In early exhibitions, they were exoticized and displayed their athleticism; they later held conversations in English in a more dignified parlor setting.
In 1839, after a decade of financial success, the twins quit touring, and settled near Mount Airy, North Carolina. It is hard to believe, but Chang and Eng Bunker lived in the same town that would later produce entertainer Andy Griffith.
They became American citizens, and, on April 13, 1843, married a pair of local sisters Chang married Adelaide Yates, and Eng married Sarah Yates. Chang (on the left in most pictures) became the father of 10 children; Eng, 11. Chang and Eng's respective families lived in separate houses, where the twins took alternating three-day stays -- meaning, I suppose, that one brother had to watch while the other had sex.
On the 10th Anniversary of their marriages, and approaching their 42nd birthdays, a newspaper, the Raleigh Register, published a profile of them, claiming:
They have lost every vestige of their native tongue. In fact, they speak English fluently, and almost without foreign accent. A few words seem to be impracticable, but they are chatty and communicative, and hence their perfection in our language. They are altogether American in feeling.
Sadly, the twins, as rich people in the South, became slaveholders. After the American Civil War, the emancipation of their slaves left them financially ruined. They chose to resume touring, taking their wives and children, now old enough, with them. As former slaveholders, they were not well-received in the North. They were better-received in Europe, which was unaffected by the American conflict. However, in 1870, the boarded a ship for home to avoid the coming Franco-Prussian War. Aboard the ship, Chang suffered a stroke, and was paralyzed on the right side, ending any further chance of touring.
In January 1874, with the brothers being 62 years old, Chang developed bronchitis. On January 15, the brothers traveled through cold weather to Eng's house. On Chang's urging, the brothers slept sitting upright on a chair, in front of a fireplace. Eng was healthy physically, yet weary from spending the past week with a seriously ill Chang, so he asked to move to their bed after hours of drifting in and out of sleep.
Early in the morning of January 17, one of Eng's sons checked on the sleeping twins. "Uncle Chang is dead," the boy reportedly said to Eng, who responded, "Then I am going!" The family doctor was quickly sent for, but Eng soon died, reportedly just over 2 hours after his brother's death.
The bodies were preserved for two weeks by the cold weather, and then an express train delivered them to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, where the autopsy was performed. It was determined that Chang had most likely died of a cerebral blood clot. The cause of Eng's death was left unclear. However, it was determined that the connecting band connected their livers, and Eng was no longer receiving blood through it. Still, popular imagination says that Eng "died of fright" upon seeing his dead brother.
Sarah, Mrs. Eng Bunker, lived on until 1892; Adelaide, Mrs. Chang Bunker, until 1917. As of 2006, descendants of Chang and Eng's 21 children numbered about 1,500, including 11 sets of twins -- none of them conjoined. Much of the extended family still lives in western North Carolina, and the family has hosted annual get-togethers since the 1980s, usually on the last Saturday of June.
Chang's descendants include grandson Major General Caleb V. Haynes of the U.S. Air Force, and his son, archaeologist Vance Haynes; great-granddaughter Alex Sink, former Chief Financial Officer of Florida and the 2010 Democratic nominee for Governor; and great-great-granddaughter Caroline Shaw, a composer who won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for music. Eng's descendants include grandson George F. Ashby, president of the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1940s.
The Bunkers had the longest known lifespan of any conjoined twins in history until 2014, when their record was surpassed by Ronnie and Donnie Galyon of Dayton, Ohio. Born in 1951, and joined at the abdomen and sharing a single body from there on down including just 2 legs, they died at the same time in 2020, not from COVID but from congestive heart failure.
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January 17, 1874 was a Friday. There were no scores on this historic day: Baseball and football were out of season, and basketball and hockey hadn't been invented yet.
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