Merced-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Dunning, William A. 1856 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com February 6, 2006, 1:10 am

Author: John Outcalt (1925)

WILLIAM A. DUNNING

   The same spirit of adventure and a desire to get on in the world, which
characterized most of the California pioneers, no doubt prompted William A.
Dunning to come from his far off home in Maine and cast in his lot with the
Pacific Coast country. He was born in Washington County, Me., on August 10,
1856, the son of Albion and Mary (Foster) Dunning, who had six children, viz:
Fred H., in Maine; Mrs. Nellie M. Getchell, a widow residing in Oakland; William
A., our subject; Waldo F., in Oakland; Mrs. Linnie McRavey, in Maine; and Carrie
S., deceased. The father died in Maine after a life of usefulness to his family
and community.

   William A. came from Maine and landed in a lumber camp in Snohomish County,
Wash., where he remained for a year; then he worked for an uncle in Nevada for
two years, after which he came to San Francisco and spent a year. Coming to the
West Side of the San Joaquin Valley he stopped at Hill's Ferry a short time and
in 1880 settled in the Cottonwood district and worked on the Ewing ranch for M.
E. Bunker.

   Mr. Dunning was married on the Ewing Ranch, on August 22, 1883, to Miss Laura
A. Ewing, born in the Tassajara Valley, Contra Costa County, August 25, 1865,
daughter of Andrew and Mary (Dailey) Ewing. Andrew Ewing came to California from
Iowa crossing the plains with an ox-team in 1852 and locating in Stockton, where
he remained a year; then he went to Chinese Camp, Tuolumne County, and mined.
His next move was to Contra Costa County and it was there his daughter, Laura
A., was born. There were the following children in the Ewing family: Samuel,
deceased; Charles and Edgar are deceased; Rebecca, died in Iowa; and Laura A.,
Mrs. Dunning, the only survivor. Andrew Ewing came to Merced County in 1868 and
settled in the Cottonwood district and here took up a homestead and farmed to
grain. He developed his ranch home and lived there until his death at the age of
seventy-seven years. In the seventies he served in the State legislature. His
wife died in 1907 at the age of eighty-five years. In 1880 Mr. Ewing had
purchased eighty acres of land under the San Joaquin-Kings River canal about
four and one-half miles from what is now Gustine, where Mr. Dunning now lives.
The son, Samuel Ewing, married Letitia Tinnin, a native of California and
daughter of an old pioneer family from Missouri. He died in 1886.

   Mrs. Dunning was educated in the Clay district school and after their
marriage Mr. Dunning leased the old Ewing ranch, also other lands from time to
time, and carried on grain farming on a large scale. He bought forty acres of
the eighty on the canal and erected their home and made other improvements and
he and his wife live on this place. He also owns 160 acres under irrigation in
the Cottonwood district. Mrs. Dunning owns the old Ewing ranch of 160 acres and
the forty which joins their home place. Mr. and Mrs. Dunning have two children:
Mary Ray, Mrs. F. M. Lamb, of Stockton, the mother of two children, Francis
Dunning, born in 1915, and Jean Elizabeth, born in 1918; and Gladys, a student
in the University of Southern California, Class of 1925. In politics Mr. Dunning
is a Republican, while Mrs. Dunning is a Democrat. He belongs to Hills Ferry
Lodge No. 236, F. &A. M. of Newman; Modesto Chapter No. 49, R. A. M.; Stockton
Commandery No. 8, K. T.; and Aahmes Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Oakland. Both
Mr. and Mrs. Dunning are charter members of Orestimba Chapter of the O. E. S.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/merced/bios/dunning437bs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/

File size: 4.4 Kb