Archer G. DUMOND

DUMOND, MARTIN, OLIVER, CUTLER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 5/29/2011 at 15:56:40

March 29, 1808 - May 18, 1858

Archer Dumond only lived for three years following his family's settlement along the Iowa River to Wright County, Iowa, but he and his family left a lasting imprint on the history of Belmond. Archer G. Dumond was born on March 31, 1808, in New York, the sixth of ten children born to Mary and Isaac I. Dumond. The family moved to Ohio when Archer was about four years old, and by 1830, they were residing in Seneca County, Ohio. Archer (his name is Archer in all historical documents, including the Dumond Bible) moved from Ohio to Indiana where he was married to Elizabeth Martin on May 11, 1834, in LaPorte County. Elizabeth was born on November 17, 1813, the tenth and last child born to Mary Oliver and Robert Martin. Two weeks following the marriage of Archer and Elizabeth, Thomas Oliver (Mary Oliver's brother) married his niece, Deborah Martin (Elizabeth Martin's older sister, or perhaps half-sister). these families resided near Crown Point in Lake County, Indiana. The Dumond family (and probably the Thomas Oliver family, too) moved to Iowa in 1854, with the Dumond family stopping in Hardin County for a few months and the Oliver family stopping in Scott County. The Oliver family included seven children, as did the Dumond family. The two families moved to Wright County early in 1855 and were joined by Dr. Lewis H. Cutler and his two sons from Stephenson County, Illinois. The three families built a log cabin beside the Iowa River near where the first mill was later erected and all 21 persons lived through the summer in that cabin. Before long, Mr. Dumond erected a new log house for his family, this one on the Hill west of the Iowa River. This little settlement was first named Crown Point. In 1857 the Belmond Cemetery near Franklin Grove was set apart and Archer G. Dumond, who died on May 18, 1858, was laid to rest in this cemetery (Original Cemetery Land, Belmond Cemetery, lot 119", Belmond, Wright Co., Iowa). He had celebrated his 50th birthdays six weeks earlier.

Source: Gretchen Rauschenberg: "The Life of Matthias Lane Dunlap", printed in: Dumond Legacy - Belmond Sesquicentennial 2006, pages 25 & 26.