James H. Dunbar Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 994-999

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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JAMES H. DUNBAR, who occupies an influential and prominent position 
among the agricultural population of Washington township, Aurora 
county,- has his homestead on section 6, where he has a farm of three 
hundred and twenty acres. Upon this he has made some excellent 
improvements, and here he lives, surrounded by a fair share of the 
comforts of life. 

Mr. Dunbar was born in Carroll county, Ohio, April 14, 1854, and on the 
paternal side is of Irish and on the maternal side of German descent. 
He was reared upon the home farm, and attended the common schools of 
the locality at intervals from the age of five years until he attained 
his majority. In 1877 he was united in marriage with Miss Ida M. 
Hoobler, who was born in West Virginia, but was reared in Ohio. Her 
parents were natives of this country, and of German extraction. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Dunbar have been born eleven children, of whom nine are still 
living, their names and dates of birth being as follows: Ira L., born 
April 1, 1879; Mary E., October 7, 1881; Orville D., September 28, 
1883; Charlie N., April 4, 1886; George F., February 4, 1888; Caroline 
Eudora, January 13, 1891; Hazel R., December 10, 1892; James H., 
February 8, 1896; and William D., April 5, 1898. Portraits of Mr. and 
Mrs. Dunbar appear on another page. 

Soon after his marriage Mr. Dunbar rented his father's farm in his 
native state, and as an agriculturist he met with excellent success 
there, but, wishing to secure a home of his own, he came to Dakota in 
April, 1883, and located on land which he had previously filed on the 
southwest quarter of section 6, Washington township. The first home of 
the family here was a house 14 x 22 feet, with twelve-foot posts, and 
the barn which sheltered the stock was a sod structure roofed with hay. 
Mr. Dunbar brought with him to this state a team of horses and a small 
flock of chickens, only four of which ever reached the farm. With this 
start and by the closest economy and hard labor, he has made for 
himself and family a pleasant home, although they had to endure many 
hardships incident to pioneer life, and during the years ol 1886, 1887 
and 1888 were forced to burn hay and flax straw as fuel. By subsequent 
purchase Mr. Dunbar has added to his original farm the southeast 
quarter of the same section, and now has one hundred and ten acres 
under cultivation, has enlarged his house until it is now commodious 
and comfortable, has set out plum trees and gooseberries, and in 1898 
drilled a well, from which the water flows from a two-inch pipe at the 
rate of thirty-two gallons per minute. For fifteen years prior to this 
he had to haul most of the water used in the house and for the stock 
from a mile and a quarter to three miles, which fact prevented him from 
extensively engaging in the livestock business. In 1897 he erected a 
good barn, 46 x 48 feet; has also built a sheep barn, etc., and has 
supplied his place with all kinds of machinery needed by the 
progressive farmer of the nineteenth century. 

Politically Mr. Dunbar affiliates with the Democratic party, and he has 
held several township offices, including that of justice of the peace, 
which he has most creditably and acceptably filled for twelve years, 
his decisions being unbiased by either fear or favor. Religiously he 
and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
socially he belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen.