Beeks line: The family of Samuel G Dunham 1830-1907

 Samuel Goodnight Dunham was born Sept 27, 1830, in Berkeley County, in what is now West Virginia, the son of Jacob and Catherine Goodnight Dunham.  He married Eliza Matilda Reese, daughter of Owen Traveler and Margaret Moon Reese, on May 3, 1855 in Tipton County, Indiana.  By that time, he had been in Indiana at least 5 years, per the 1850 census, and probably at least two years longer than that. I'm not sure when the move actually took place, and there are indications that the family may have been in Ohio in 1840, but I'm not sure of that.  

However, we do know that the Dunhams lived their entire married life in or near Kempton. until Matilda died in 1900.  The following year, Samuel married Julia Ann Sackman Mace, who was three years younger than Samuel, and a widow.  They were married about 6 years when Samuel died on June 12, 1907.  

Samuel and Matilda had four known children, with the youngest, Jane, dying at the age of 5 in 1869.  

William Riley was born in 1856 and died in 1921.  His wife was Lousia Belle Allen, the daughter of Samuel and Harriet Allen, and their children were Wilfer, Grover, and Bonnie.  He was a member of the state legislature from 1913-1915, and was very well known in his district.  It is the home that he built that is known as "The Dunham House" near Kempton.

Margaret Catherine was the second child.  She was born in 1858 (I have two birth dates and am not sure which is correct).  She married Harvey Aldridge, the son of Darlington and Leah Folsom Aldridge, and they had seven children:  Samuel, Frank, Lula Bertha, Della, Dorothy, Gretta Cleo, and Roy.  I will write of this family on another day.  

Owen Jacob was born in 1862 and married Antoinette Redd, daughter of George and Elizabeth Legarde Read.  Their children were George, Everett, Vernie, Irene, Goldie, Cecil, Elizabeth, Edna, and Hubert.  

Jane, previously mentioned, died in 1869 and the couple had no more known children.  

The Dunhams had a large extended family, both numerically and geographically.  The children of Samuel and Matilda would have known a large number of cousins, and there were family reunions for years that kept the families close.  One of those reunions was fairly recent, when then Senator Barack Obama briefly visited the old family farm.  

This is the last post I plan to write about specific Dunham families.  We started in early Massachusetts and went through New Jersey, (West) Virginia, possibly Ohio, and ended up in Tipton County, Indiana.  The Dunhams had a small part in a large amount of our history, and it's been interesting to learn about them.