Beeks line: Samuel Goodnight Dunham 1830-1907

 I did my initial research on Samuel G. Dunham relatively early in my genealogy efforts.  I knew he was a farmer, and that he had come to Tipton County, Indiana with his parents as very early settlers there.  I knew his brother and his father were ancestors to Barack Obama.  I knew he had helped found the Methodist Episcopal Church in Kempton in 1863.  I thought I knew all there was to know about Samuel.  Umm...not quite.  

Samuel was born September 27, 1830, in Berkeley County in what became West Virginia but was then Virginia to Jacob and Catherine Goodnight Dunham.  The family left Virginia and traveled to Ohio, possibly Clinton County, where their youngest son was born in 1838.  By 1850, Jacob and family had moved on to Tipton County, Ohio, where they settled.  Samuel spent some of his teen-aged years there, helping on the family farm.  He had at least three brothers and a sister, with Samuel being the "middle" child.  

He may have been the middle child, but in no way was he "middling".  He has some fascinating stories.  He started out 'average" enough, as he married Eliza Matilda Reese, daughter of Owen T and Margaret Ellen Moon Reese on May 3, 1855.  Many young men married at the age of 25.  We already know he helped found and support the church in Kempton in 1863.  He probably thought he was set for life, as he and Matilda had at least four children born in the next nine years. However, he was probably paying attention to national affairs, especially the Civil War that many men his age were fighting, and he may not have been surprised to find himself drafted at the age of 35.  

He was drafted into the 33rd Indiana Infantry on March 22, 1865 at Wabash, Indiana.  The war was just a few weeks from being finished, but no one knew that for sure when he was drafted, and so off he went.  He likely spent a few weeks in training and then joined his unit (Company A) wherever they were.  The unit marched in the three day Grand Review in Washington, DC but we don't know whether he participated.  He may well have been assigned instead to guarding prisoners of war or other tasks that didn't require much training.  He was mustered out at Louisville, Ky on July 21, 1865, but we don't know whether he ever was in battle.  (The 33rd had a long list of battles to their credit, which is why their ranks needed to be reinforced.)

After the war, Samuel returned to Kempton and his family and resumed farming.  The next reference I found to him is in 1878 as "Esquire", when he was something of a justice of the peace, and had two juveniles brought before him.  At this time, he was of "Cicero", which was about 22 miles from Kempton.  He owned land in Cicero as late as 1901, when he sold a lot to James A Edwards.

Matilda died November 10, 1900 in Kempton and Samuel became involved in an interesting situation  during the next couple of years.  On December 3, 1901 the Hamilton County Ledger reported that Nancy Calhoun was suing Samuel for breach of contract.  She had purchased wedding clothes at his suggestion, only to learn that Samuel had married Julia Cooper of Sheridan.  I didn't find a report on the disposition of the suit, but it did note that Dunham was reported to be worth at least $10,000.

Unfortunately for Samuel, the marriage didn't last.  I found reference to Mr. and Mrs. Dunham in early 1902, and then the next report I found was his obituary, which stated that he had married a "Sheridan lady" but they had divorced and he had spent his last years living with his son, W.R. (William Riley) Dunham.  Samuel died June 6, 1907 and the obituary mentions his involvement with the G.A.R., the Grand Army of the Republic.  

Samuel may or may not have received a pension, but I did find a military record listing him as an invalid.  I also found that Julia Neill applied for a pension based on his record, even though they had been married just a short time and she apparently remarried.  It sure would be interesting to see those pension papers!  I haven't found probate papers for him.  More research needs to be done, to review the pension, to find the divorce records, and to determine what happened to the property he'd owned in 1901.  "Just a farmer?"  Ummm...no.

The line of descent is"

Samuel Dunham-Matilda Reese

Margaret Catherine Dunham-Harvey Aldridge

Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks

Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger

Their descendants