Dallas County IA Archives Biographies.....Dunn, Martin 1850 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 25, 2007, 12:37 am

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896)

MARTIN DUNN, who is successfully engaged in farming and stock-dealing in Van
Meter township, Dallas county, Iowa, was born near Monroe, Wisconsin, May 25,
1850, and is a son of Thomas and Cynthia (Berry) Dunn, the former a native of
Virginia and the latter of Ohio. About 1865 they crossed the Mississippi and
became residents of Iowa, spending their remaining days in Dallas county, where
the father died at the age of seventy-nine, while the mother's death occurred in
Adel, when she was aged seventy-five. They had a family of eight children, of
whom five are yet living. One brother, Nelson, was killed at Petersburg.

   Martin Dunn was the second of the family. No event of special importance
occurred during his childhood and youth, which were quietly passed on the old
home place, his farm work being alternated by attendance at the district schools
of the neighborhood. He was only fifteen years of age when he accompanied his
parents to Iowa, where he has since lived. He has long been recognized as one of
the valued citizens of the community and a prominent representative of the
agricultural and stock-dealing interests. When he began life for himself he
followed the pursuit to which he had been reared and rented a farm in Van Meter
township, which he operated for two years. On the expiration of that period he
rented forty acres, which he carried on for three years, when he purchased the
tract and subsequently added to it another forty acres. This land was plowed and
planted until, through the cultivation he bestowed upon it, it was made to yield
him many good returns for his industry. In 1891 he began breeding fine hogs,
importing pure-blooded Poland-China swine. He has found this a profitable
business and his sales for the past year have amounted to $3,000. He had
previously been connected with a large breeder of Dallas county for several
years and thus gained a thorough knowledge of the best methods of raising and
caring for hogs. He is an excellent judge of these animals, and in raising the
same has been very successful. He now ranks among the expert and prosperous
breeders of the United States, and is doing a large and successful business,
which is constantly increasing.

   Mr. Dunn was married on the 5th of February, 1876, the lady of his choice
being Miss Rosa Robinson, a native of Polk county, Iowa, and a daughter of James
Robinson, one of the early settlers of Dallas county. Mr. Dunn and his wife have
two children, the elder of whom, Clarence, is now seventeen years of age. He
acquired his literary education in the public schools of Adel, at which he was
graduated in the class of 1895, and will soon enter upon a commercial course of
study in the business college of Des Moines. His average scholarship for his
three years' high-school course was ninety-six, a record of which he and his
family may be justly proud. He has been of great assistance to his father in
business, and there are few young men in the entire country who are better
judges of swine than Clarence Dunn. At an examination of hogs at the State Fair
of Iowa, he was given a certificate as an expert judge of this animal, an honor
rarely conferred upon one so young. Clara, the only daughter of the household,
is now a charming young lady of fifteen, and the family is one of prominence in
the community, the members ranking high in the social circles in which they move.

   Both Mr. Dunn and his son are extensive readers, and though he had but
limited school privileges he has through observation, study and experience
become one of the best informed men in this section of the State. In his
business endeavors he has been successful, owing to perseverance, close
attention and good management. He is to-day the possessor of a handsome
property, and in 1896 expects to erect upon his farm a fine home. In politics he
is a stalwart supporter of the Republican party, and is a public-spirited and
progressive citizen in whom the best interests of the community find a friend.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."'—MACAULAY.

"Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant,
of all things."—CARLYLE

"History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896


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