Cayuga County NyArchives Biographies.....Dunning, Henry Silas 1816 - 1871
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Author: Elliot G. Storke (1811-1879)

Henry Silas Dunning, was born in Aurelius. Cayuga County, New York,  September
6th, 1816, on the farm were his grandfather Silas Dunning settled in 1796. When
a young man he learned the machinist's trade which he followed some eight or ten
years, becoming very expert and was often sent away to the Southern States and
other distant places to superintend the erection of machinery. His health
failing through overwork on one of these expeditions, he was obliged to resort
to the out-door life of farming, and commenced in the year 1842, on the farm
then owned by his father-in-law, Joseph Wadsworth, on Genesee street, near the
western limits of the city of Auburn. 

He soon after purchased other lands adjoining this farm and afterwards from time
to time other adjoining farms until he finally acquired a farm of some 300
acres, which became through his careful and successful management one of the
finest in New York State. He was always foremost among farmers in introducing
and employing labor-saving machinery in farming operations, and in improving his
farm by a thorough system of tile draining (which at that time had few
supporters,) and in improving his cattle and horses by the introduction of
improved breeds. He was very successful in introducing and growing the best
varieties of apples, in some years selling one thousand barrels from his orchard
of twenty-five acres. His views were often sought by other farmers and he was an
occasional contributor to the agricultural press on various topics. Mr. Dunning
was prominent in many connections outside of his farm. He was the first alderman
elected to represent the new territory known as the 7th ward after its
annexation to the city. He was connected with the Cayuga County Agricultural
Society from its organization, and during most of the time in official capacity. 

He was elected a Director in the Auburn Gas Light Company in 1863 and in 1865
was elected its Superintendent and Treasurer. Through his enterprise and
activity the business of the company was largely extended and improved. Not
possessing a strong constitution the excessive labor again told upon his health
and he was obliged to relinquish the charge of the company in 1869 to one of his
sons. The death of his wife August 7th, 1869 was a severe blow from which he
never recovered, and his health gradually failed from that time 
until his death April 22d, 1871. 

Mr. Dunning was married October 7th. 1840, to Jane Wadsworth, daughter of Joseph
Wadsworth, then a prominent manufacturer of agricultural hand implements in the
western part of Auburn. She was a person of extraordinary energy, yet of quiet
and unassuming character; her influence was felt far and wide through the
Church, the Orphan Asylum, towards the poor, always in the cause of charity aud
humanity, aud toward the improvement of her fellow-beings. They both became
members of the Baptist Church at Auburn, at an early period, and were always
afterward among the most active and influential members thereof, contributing
liberally towards its support. Mr. Dunning was a life member of the American
Baptist Home Missionary Society. They both died at a comparatively early age and
left a large family of children, six sons and one daughter, to mourn their
untimely loss. 

History of Cayuga County, New York 1879
page 142a

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