SIMEON DUNBAR

DUNBAR, WRIGHT, BUFFUM, HINES, HALL, HANDLEY

Posted By: Norma Nielson (email)
Date: 8/12/2004 at 21:08:30

Simeon Dunbar is the owner of valuable farm property in Adair county, having three hundred and sixty acres in his home place in Walnut township, and two hundred and forty acres near Greenfield in Grove township. This investment represents the result of earnest, persistent effort, intelligently directed, and he is accounted one of the foremost farmers of his part of the county. He was born in Knox county, Illinois, June 15, 1860, a son of Jackson and Marian (Wright) Dunbar, the former a native of Kentucky and of Scotch-Irish descent, while the mother was a native of Pennsylvania. Jackson Dunbar devoted his life to farming. In his boyhood he accompanied his parents on their removal to Knox county, Illinois, where he was reared and educated. He made farming his life work, but his labors were terminated by death in 1864 when he was only forty-five years of age. His wife died in 1890 at the age of fifty years.
Simeon Dunbar spent his youthful days in his native county. Following his father’s death his mother married again and he went to live with an uncle, with whom he remained until he attained his majority. He then started out in life independently, taking up his abode upon a rented farm in Henry county, Illinois, which he operated for seven years. He then removed to Missouri Valley, Iowa, where he purchased land, upon which he made his home for nine years. On the expiration of that period he disposed of his property and came to Adair county, where he invested in three hundred and twenty acres on sections 27 and 28, Walnut township. With characteristic energy he began the further cultivation of this place and in a short time was gathering golden harvests as the reward for the care and labor which he bestowed upon the fields. He has brought his land to a high state of cultivation and the farm is most neat and thrifty in appearance. To that tract he has added an adjoining forty acres and he has also become the owner of two hundred and forty acres in Grove township near Greenfield, which is now being operated by his son. A visit to the Dunbar farm is a delight, for it is one of the best improved places in the county. The buildings are all large, commodious and substantial and well adapted to the purposes for which they are used. The home is an attractive one and investigation into the farm methods followed by Mr. Dunbar shows that he is in touch with the latest processes of scientific farming. He is prominently known as one of the leading stock-raisers of the county, making a specialty of handling Aberdeen Angus and shorthorn cattle, feeding about two carloads per year.
In December, 1888, was celebrated the marriage of Simeon Dunbar and Miss Laura L. Buffum, a daughter of Emory and Anna (Hines) Buffum, the former a native of Rock county, Illinois, and the latter of Bradford county, Pennsylvania. For many years Mr. Buffum followed farming in Stark county, Illinois, establishing his home there about the time of the close of the Civil war after having served in that conflict with the Thirty-seventh Illinois Infantry. He and his wife are now living retired in Toulon, Stark county. Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar have become the parents of ten children: Bertha, the wife of Ross Hall, a resident of Logan, Iowa; Edith, the wife of Bert Handley, residing on her father’s farm near Greenfield; Eddis, who is married and is farming in Grove township; and Susie, Forrest, Merle, Harold, Glenn, Clarence and Lee, all yet at home.
The religious faith of the family is that of the Methodist church and their lives are in accord with its teachings. Mr. Dunbar is also connected with the Order of the American Yeomen. He is widely and favorably known as a business man, as a citizen and in social relations, and he and his wife have made their home a most hospitable one, whose good cheer is greatly enjoyed by their many friends.
Source: The "History of Adair County Iowa and its People," Volume II. (Chicago, The Pioneer Publishing Company) 1915.