Chapter XXIV
Col. Warren S. Dungan, one of Lucas
County’s early settlers, had a star-studded ancestry, the likes of which few
people can claim. Eight of his ancestors
were in the army of English barons, who, in the year 1215, forced King John to
sign the Magna Charta – the world’s first Bill of Rights.
While some 2,000 of these knights stood
poised in the rear, three leaders, mounted and with armor shining in the
morning sun, crossed the River Thames to meet the king at Runny Mead. One of these three was Baron Saire de Quincey,
the shrewdest member of the committee that had drafted the famous charter.
Robert B. Costain in his “History of the
Plantagenets” writes “de Quincy is supposed to have written the final draft of
the charter and if he did, he deserves more credit than he has ever been given
and a place among those who have contributed to the liberties of mankind.”
Alfred the Great
Baron de Quincey was a direct descendant
of Alfred the Great and an ancestor of Colonel Dungan whose autobiography was
loaned to this writer by his daughter, Edna Culbertson of Minneapolis, sister
of the late Myra Dungan. Following the
list of eight barons who signed the document is a footnote by another daughter,
Minnie who wrote: “This is a great heritage, but I am more proud of my father
than of all these ancestors put together.”
About the time William Penn migrated to
the new world, Dungan kinsman settled in eastern Pennsylvania where grandfather
Levi Dungan was born. He grew up in
Philadelphia, was married there but the west beckoned. With a wagon, a team and two slaves he
crossed the state of Pennsylvania and settled on a 1,000-acre claim that a
relative had blazed and to whom he paid two shillings per acre (450).
He was the first settler in that county and his nearest neighbor was ten
miles away. He and the slaves cleared
ground, planted corn and garden, built a log cabin, then, leaving the slaves in
charge, he went to bring his wife and three children. Hostile Indians were everywhere. The cabin was later enlarged and used also as
a fort where all neighbors might gather when the alarm went out that the
Indians were on the warpath. Portholes
for the guns had been made between the logs.
Horseback Caravan
Came the day when the family needed salt
and other necessities. Grandmother
joined a horseback caravan to Philadelphia – 300 miles over mountain trails,
leading a pack horse beside the one she rode.
She carried money to pay for the land patent and to buy the salt and
other items.
The
grandson of these hardy folk was Warren Scott Dungan, born in the old log cabin
and attended school and church – both located on the farm. The paternal ancestors were Baptists. The maternal side was Scotch-Irish
Presbyterian of the strictest sect. “In
my youth, I sometimes rebelled but my experience in later years modified my
views. Do not conclude that we young
people were somber and cheerless! On the
contrary, we engaged in sports and pastimes that delighted our parents, just so
they were not forbidden in the Decalogue.”
One of this boy’s earliest memories was of
receiving a fancy little tin pail as a gift.
He wanted to help carry water from the spring and insisted on doing it
alone to prove his many aspirations. “The
child is father to the man,” says a proverb.
He went, fell in, got out alone, learned his first lesson in caution and
went valiantly on to finish the job.
Family of “Jo”
He was educated in the academy in
Frankfort Springs, Pennsylvania. Upon
graduation he taught in West Virginia “where fully half the pupils were
Rallstons. Joseph was the favorite name
and we had Big Jo, Little Jo, Old Joe, Young Jo, Miller Jo, Old Joe, Young Jo
Miller, Jo and Squirrel “This was before the day of public schools. Families who could afford it paid for their
children’s schooling by “subscription” but taxes were levied for the children
who then were humiliated by the others who called them “paupers.” Mr. Dungan’s former teacher, Hon. Nicholson,
led the fight for “free for all public schools.” He was the father of the public school system
in Pennsylvania.
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In 1848 Warren made a trip to Iowa to look
after the estate of his older brother, a doctor who was practicing in
Kishkekosh county (now Lucas and Monroe counties) and who had died of
measles. He came on a river boat from
Ft. Duquesne (now Pittsburg) to Keokuk.
He writes: “At every turn of the wheel the old boat shook from stem to
stern, groaned like a monster in the throes of death, to the extreme discomfort
of the passengers.
“Arriving at Keokuk they learned that the
stage had already gone so this young man with a severe case of “sea legs”
started walking upriver. He came to a
point on the bluff overlooking Montrose Prairie – a vision of beauty and wonder
– the first prairie I had ever seen covering several thousand acres, the
majestic Mississippi winding along, its waters glistening in the morning sun,
the village of NauVoo and the broken columns of the Mormon Temple on the
Illinois shore – all presented to my enraptured view a scene no words can
adequately portray.”
Plat of Chariton
Brother Levi, the doctor, had made his
home with Wareham G. Clark whose nephew John Clark was administrator of the
estate.
“For my share, Mr. Clark offered me three
choices: $100 cash, a horse with saddle and bridle (a highly prized possession
in that day) or lots 1 and 4 block 10 in the newly laid-out town of Chariton.” (The town was not legally laid out until the
following year but William Webb of Albia made the first plat and may have had a
preliminary one, which was later followed.
In those days they dealt in futures in real estate.)
Mr. Clark knew that I wanted to return
home on horseback. I accepted the horse
and rode 800 miles in six weeks the way I traveled. When I arrived I sold the horse for $75. Since then I have seen the lots sell for
$1,000 and $2,000.” (Ward’s and Gambles
are on Lot 1 and Lot 4 contains Jones’ Pharmacy, Steiner’s Jewelry, Central
Savings & Load and Tierney’s). The
horseback trip back in Frankfort Springs, Pennsylvania, cost the young man
$17.85 and he says: The first railroad
I ever saw was on that trip- the Mad River railroad in northeast Ohio.” Back in Pennsylvania, Warren farmed his
father’s farm for a year or two and says: “The easiest and pleasantest work was
plowing smooth ground. I could think as accurately
while plowing as I can now pacing the floor.”
Here was a man who had a thirst for knowledge. He wanted “southern experience” so decided to
go and become familiar with its people, institutions and culture, but not to
make a permanent home there nor raise a family in a slave state.
Pages 101-105
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