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Below is a family biography included in The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois published by Biographical Publishing Co. in 1894.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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D. W. DUNN, M. D., who for some time has made his home in Du Quoin, where he is successfully engaged in the practice of medicine, claims Tennessee as the place of his nativity. He was born in Pocahontas November 25, 1852, and is a son of James P. and Minerva (Wooten) Dunn. His mother died before he was two years of age. The father was born near Huntsville, Ala., January 1, 1812, and was a minister in the Missionary Baptist Church, preaching in Tennessee, Mississippi, Indiana and Illinois for more than forty years. In 1868 he located in Corinth, Ill., where he lived until his death, in 1888. He had the respect and confidence of all who knew him, and his loss was deeply mourned. His father, Daniel Dunn, who was also born in Alabama, was a prominent and wealthy stockman and died in his native state about forty years ago. The Doctor had three sisters and four brothers, but only one sister and two brothers are now living. They are: M. C, a farmer of Texas; E. E., who follows farming near Poplar Bluff, Mo.; and Jalia, wife of George Wray, a farmer residing near the old Dunn homestead in Tennessee.

The Doctor being the son of a preacher had no settled home in his boyhood. His education was such as was afforded by the schools of the community in which they happened to live. At the age of twenty he started out to make his own way in the world, and the first thing he determined upon was to provide himself with a more thorough education, but he had no means and had to work his way through school. At the end of three years he had fitted himself for teaching and embarked in that profession, which he followed for twelve years in Franklin and Williamson Counties, Ill.

At the age of twenty-one, in 1873, Dr. Dunn married Miss Mary Jordan, and to them were born three children, James, Luther and Lulu. The wife and mother died in 1878. Three children have been born of his second marriage, Leonard, Theodore and Everett.

While engaged in teaching, our subject spent his leisure hours in the study of medicine, and also mastered telegraphy, but never made any practical use of the latter. After becoming well versed in the science of medicine, he gave up teaching and entered the office of Dr. D. L. Carter, of Thompsonville, Ill., with whom he continued his reading for a year, when he became a student in the American Eclectic Medical College of St. Louis, from which he was graduated on the 3d of June, 1889. He then engaged in practice for a year in St. Louis, and also spent one year in Thompsonville, after which he came to Du Quoin, where he has since built up a large and lucrative practice, the result of his skill and ability. He has gained an enviable reputation, which is well deserved. In politics he is a Republican, but has never sought or desired political preferment.

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This family biography is one of 679 biographies included in The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois published in 1894.  View the complete description here: The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois

View additional Perry County, Illinois family biographies here: Perry County, Illinois Biographies

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