Born: Noble County, Indiana, May 15, 1837.Died: Glendale, California, December 10, 1920.
Born: Noble County, Indiana, May 15, 1837.
Died: Glendale, California, December 10, 1920.
DAVID ROBERTS DUNGAN, the subject of this sketch, was born in Noble County, Indiana, May 15, 1837. His father, James Dungan, was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, October 6, 1807. The great grandfather was one of the first settlers west of Pittsburg and one of the first purchasers of land under our government in the State of Pennsylvania. He is said to have been a descendant of the Earl of Dungannon, but to have been of Scottish and Welsh extraction. James Dungan was married to Mary Ann Johns, near Wilmington, Ohio, in 1828, and soon after, moved to Noble County, Indiana, where he remained till the spring of 1838, from whence he moved with his young family to Clay Oounty, same State. Here he remained till the summer of 1862, when he took trail for the great Northwest, and stopped in Harrison County, Iowa. The bulk of the Mormons had just gone to Utah, and the Pottawatomie Indians had but a short time before, gone to their hunting grounds farther west.
The subject of this sketch had been a delicate, sickly lad up to this time, weighing on his fifteenth birthday, only sixty- three pounds. In this new country, fare was coarse and work was hard. Council Bluffs, then called Kanesville, was the nearest trading post and post-office. There were two grist-mills a few miles nearer, where corn could be ground. A log house with one room and a sod chimney on the outside was the place of shelter for the first year. There was no lumber in the building; still it was a good house for that country. In point of ventilation it was without a blunder. The wild meats, corn bread and potatoes seemed to be wholesome diet, for with all the toil incident to making a new farm, his weight was 120 pounds on his sixteenth birthday, and all signs of ague had disappeared, and now, but for a premature grayness and baldness one would never suppose that he had been a sickly youth. He has reached a height of about five feet ten, and weighs about 170 on an average.
He was baptized into Christ by O. P. Evans, March 31, 1858, and one year from that day tried to preach for the first time. He has preached regularly ever since. Was ordained to the ministry of the Word in autumn of the year following. February 17, 1861, he was married to Mary Ann Kinnis, of Glasgow, Scotland, was employed by a co-operation to preach that year, part of the time in Iowa and part in Nebraska. C. P. Evans and W. A. Denton were co-laborers in that work. Part of the time he resided in De Soto, Nebraska, and part of the time in Omaha, same Territory. In the spring of 1862 he returned to Harrison County, Iowa, where he farmed and improved some land which he had previously bought, and preached on Lord's days to country congregations. During the winter, however, he taught school near Glenwood, Iowa. In the spring of 1863 he moved to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, where he preached and taught for a year. This school was offered him the next year at double wages, but he chose to give all his time to the work of the ministry. On the first day of January, 1865, he began work under the auspices of our General Missionary Board, in which work he continued for about six years, only taking out of it time for a short course in Kentucky University. Through his efforts R. O. Barrow was located as a fellow-missionary in Nebraska, who still continues to labor in that State as its evangelist. Under their labors the cause was well established in Nebraska. In the summer of 1867 he was chaplain of the first State legislature of Nebraska, and the last one that was held in Omaha. In the fall of that year he moved to Pawnee City, where he preached till the spring of 1871, when he went to Lincoln where he remained till 1874. In the beginning of the effort to build up the State University in Lincoln he was made a regent, which position he held up to the time of his removal from the State in the summer of 1874, having been a regent for six years. He also served as chaplain of the senate, the winter of 1872-73.
He drew the prohibitory liquor law that came within one vote of passing; and the final passage of the Warren Criminal Code that winter was largely owing to his influence and management. From 1874 to 1877 he preached for the church in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He was then two years preaching in Eldora, Iowa. In the summer of 1879 he was nominated for Governor on the prohibition ticket. He made a gallant fight, as is claimed by the Radicals of that State, who maintain that it was this campaign that brought the Republican party to an interpretation of their platform, which bound them to submit the constitutional amendment in favor of the prohibition of the liquor trafflc in that State. Not long after the campaign was over, he came to Davenport, where he has remained until a month ago, when he went to assume his new responsibilities as professor in the Bible department of Drake University, at Des Moines, Iowa.
He is not a graduatc of any college, and yet he iS regarded as one of the really learned men of the West. He has made every man his teacher, and acknowledges himself particularly indebted to Professors Fisher, Hand and Benton, aside from his teachers in Lexington. He is thought to have read and studied widely and deeply. He has served as lecturer and teacher at Clear Lake and Lake Minnetonka, the Chautauquaof the Northwest, and is now president of the Iowa State Sunday-school Association. He has been president of the Iowa Chrisian Missionary Convention for five years, and of the General Convention for one. His unanimous choice by the Board of Trustees of Drake University, as teacher of sacred literature indicates the confidence of the brethren of that State in his ability.
In the many public debates he has had he is regarded as a fair and able disputant. He has thus considered Mormonism, Methodism, Baptistism, Soul-sleepingism, Adventism, Spiritualism, Atheism, Quakerism, etc., etc. Synopses of two of his debates have been printed--one with Leonard Parker, Methodist, which is now out of print, and the other with W. F. Jamieson, Spiritist and Infidel. He published "On the Rock" in 1873, "Modern Phases of Skepticism" in 1878, "Rum, Ruin and the Remedy" in 1879. He gave three out of the five lectures in the first printed "Lectureship of Missouri." He has written a number of tracts, such as " Modern Revivalism," Mistakes of Ingersoll about Moses," "Our Plea and Mission," "What Must we do to be Saved?" These works have met with good sale. During his pastorale in Davenport he edited the Northwestern News, the temperance paper of Iowa, for about a year and a half. His preaching has everywhere had a good result. He does solid work only. His style is plain, scriptural and argumentative. His manner is that of a teacher, rather than what is known as a pulpit orator. Still, as a popular lecturer, he is valued highly, and in his State brings the highest price.*
Since the above appeared in the Standard, he has taught very successfully, in the Bible Department at Drake University; and has received the degree of Master of Arts. Besides, he has written "Chang Foo," prepared and delivered two lectures for the Missouri Lectureship, and preached and written on various topics almost every week, attended meetings of State Board, Preachers' Institute, delivered oration on the Fourth, etc., etc., showing that he is an inveterate worker.