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A Guide to their Papers at the Indiana University Archives

Electronic finding aid encoded by Kristen R. Walker

Summary Information

Repository
Indiana University Archives
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Email: archives@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives

Creator
Dunn family.

Title
Dunn family collection, 1851-1974,  bulk 1851-1955

Collection No.
C97

Extent
.6 cubic feet

Language
Materials are in English.

Abstract
A prominent family in the Bloomington community, Indiana University purchased land from the Dunn family in order to relocate the university to its current site after the devastating fire of 1883 at the Seminary Square location. Family members represented in this collection include George Grundy Dunn Sr., Moses Fell Dunn, and William McKee Dunn. The collection includes correspondence, writings, deeds and other real estate documents, insurance contracts, miscellaneous receipts, cemetery drawings and plot plans for Dunn Cemetery, located on the I.U. Bloomington campus, and family photos.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Advance notice is required.

Biographical Note

Elizabeth Grundy Dunn, the daughter of George and Eleanor Grundy, was born in Kentucky in 1778. She married Samuel Dunn, Jr. in 1812 and they moved their family to Indiana because Samuel did not want to raise his children in a slave state. They had eight children together and slowly moved there way up to Bloomington, Indiana, where they settled in 1823 and established a large farm that was on the land that makes much of the current Indiana University campus.

George Grundy Dunn, Sr., the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Grundy Dunn, was born in Washington Co., Kentucky, on Dec. 20, 1812. His family moved to Monroe Co., Indiana, in 1823 where Dunn attended Indiana Seminary (now Indiana University) in Bloomington, Indiana. Due to a dispute with a professor, Dunn left the school in his third year. In 1833, he moved to Switzerland Co., Indiana, to teach school, and later moved to Bedford to study law. Dunn was admitted to the bar in 1835 and partnered with Col. R. W. Thompson to practice law in Bedford. In 1841, George Grundy Dunn, Sr. married Julia Fell, and the next year he became the prosecuting attorney in Lawrence County, Indiana. Dunn served in several political offices, including as a U.S. Congressman from 1847-1849 and 1855-1857 and as a State senator from 1850-1852. He was well-known for his passionate oratory skills, which served him well as a congressman. George Grundy Dunn, Sr. died in 1857, shortly after his second term in the U.S. Congress ended, and was buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Bedford, Indiana.

Moses Fell Dunn was born Apr. 26, 1842 in Bedford, Indiana, the son of George Grundy Dunn, Sr. Moses graduated from Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana, in 1862, and moved on to study French and German at Harvard University. He was fluent in several languages and traveled the world extensively. He practiced law with his brother George Grundy Dunn, Jr. and served in the state legislature from 1867-1869. Between 1895 and 1905, Indiana University approached Moses Fell Dunn to purchase parts of the Dunn family farm to be used for the campus. About twenty acres were eventually secured, including what are now Dunn Meadow and the Dunn family cemetery. A dispute over this transaction, however, caused him to become disenfranchised with the university. Moses Dunn never married and had no children, so, upon his death in 1915, he left large amounts of land to Purdue University and to Bedford’s Masonic Order. Bedford renamed their city hospital Dunn Hospital in honor of Moses Fell Dunn.

Felix Clelland Dunn, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth Grundy Dunn, was born in Kentucky, April 14, 1818. He married Mary Slocum and they had two children, Elizabeth (Legg) and Samuel G., and lived in Bloomington, Indiana. He spent most of his life as farmer, but also spent some time in the mercantile business in Bloomington. Felix Dunn died in 1885.

Samuel G. Dunn is the son of Felix C. Dunn. He married Mary E. Dunn, and had a daughter Mabel.

William McKee Dunn was born in 1814 in Hanover, Indiana, to Williamson Dunn, a founder of Hanover College. He is the nephew of Samuel Dunn, Jr., and cousin to George Grundy Dunn. Dunn graduated from Indiana State College (now Indiana University) in 1832, and became a professor of mathematics at Hanover College. In 1835, he received an A.M. from Yale University, and later studied law and started a practice in Madison, Indiana. Dunn was elected a member of the Indiana State Legislature in 1848, and later served two terms in the U.S. Congress, 1859-1863. During the Civil War, William McKee Dunn served in many active roles, including volunteer aide-de-camp to Union General George B. McClellan in 1861. In 1864, he became a colonel and assistant judge advocate general for the U.S. Army and brevetted brigadier general in 1865. Dunn retired from the military in 1881 and died at his summer residence in Dunn Loring, Virginia, in 1887.

Arrangement

This collections is organized into five series: Correspondence, Legal documents, Writings, Cemetery records and Genealogical material.

Scope and Content Note

The Dunn family collection has been organized into five series: Correspondence, Legal documents, Writings, Cemetery records, and Genealogical material.

The Correspondence series spans from 1851-1892 and includes original letters along with their transcriptions to George Grundy Dunn from some of his associates in Bloomington.

The Legal documents series spans from 1855-1900. This series includes deeds, insurance papers, leases, and receipts from real estate and other transactions from members of the Dunn family. Most of these materials belonged to Felix C., Samuel G., Mary E. and Mabel S. Dunn.

The Writings series spans from 1833-1859 and includes addresses and manuscripts by members of the Dunn family. Items include an address by George Grundy Dunn to the Philomathean Society in 1833 and an address given by William McKee Dunn at the inauguration of Rev. James Wood at Hanover College.

The Cemetery records series spans from 1855-1956. This series includes drawings of the plot plans for the cemetery on the Indiana University campus in the 1950’s; sketches of the headstones; and a type-written copy of the original deed for the cemetery written by George Grundy Dunn in 1855. Interestingly, the cemetery is still owned by the Dunn family today and is maintained by the university’s grounds crew.

The Genealogical material series spans from 1906 through 1954. Of particular note is a family history record that is mostly on the Knight-Campbell Family, but includes a section on Elizabeth Willis Pryor Dunn, who married Samuel Dunn. This material came from the Archives Reference File under “Dunn, Elizabeth-Genealogy.” This Elizabeth Dunn is the daughter of Elizabeth Willis Pryor and Samuel Dunn, and later married Jonathan Richards. This same Elizabeth Dunn drew a map of the United States in 1820 that hangs in the Wylie House in Bloomington. The family record was given to the archives by Margaret Campbell (Mrs. Joseph R. Ewers), great-great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Dunn. Further information is avaialable in Maxwell History and Genealogy.

Additional information about the University's real estate purchases is located in the Archives' Real Estate Files. Additional information on George Grundy Dunn is located at the Lilly Library.

• Indexing Terms

• The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the catalog using these terms.

• • Names
  • Dunn family --Archives.
  • Dunn, George Grundy, 1812-1857 --Archives.
  • Dunn, Moses F. (Moses Fell), 1842-1915 --Archives.
  • Dunn, W. McKee (William McKee), 1814-1887 --Archives.
  • Dunn, George Grundy, 1812-1857.
  • Dunn, Moses F. (Moses Fell), 1842-1915.
  • Dunn, W. McKee (William McKee), 1814-1887.
• • Topics
  • Deeds.
  • Photographs.
  • Deeds --Indiana --Monroe County.

Separated Material

Most of these papers, including the photos, were found in a box of Harvey Bordner's papers, where they appear to have been put by mistake. A few of the papers were moved from the Archives' Reference File. At the time of the original processing of this collection (1995) the photographs were removed from the 9 x 11 x 3.5" golden brown velour covered album in which they were found.

Related Material

Additional information about the University's real estate purchases is located in the Archives' Real Estate File.

Additional information on George Grundy Dunn is located at the Lilly Library.

Administrative Information

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