Chauncey
H. Dunn. Among the best representatives of the Sacramento bar is the gentleman
whose name heads this sketch. He is a native of Hamilton County, Ohio, born at
the village of Laurel, September 25, 1856, and son of Rev. Thomas S. and F. M.
(Conkling) Dunn. Both parents were born in Ohio, and there the father was
educated for the ministry, and ordained a minister of the Methodist faith. In
1860 the family came to California, via Panama, and located temporarily in San
Francisco. Rev. T. S. Dunn attended the
conference shortly afterward held in Santa Clara, and was appointed to charge
in San Jose. He officiated two years there, and a life term each at Placerville
and Virginia City, Nevada; then three years at San Jose again, when he was
called to Oakland. After he had presided for three years in the pulpit there,
his health had so failed him that he was impelled to ask for the Napa charge,
which request was granted, he remained at Napa one year. His next charge was
the Central, Mission street, San Francisco. where he officiated two years;
after a pastorate of one year at Grass Valley, he went East, and there visited
relatives and attended the Centennial. Returning to California, he was
installed for three years over a Stockton charge, and followed this with two
years at Alameda, three years at Sacramento and three years at San Jose. In
September, 1887, he assumed the superannuated relation, and made his home on
his ranch near Evergreen, Santa Clara County, until February 24, 1889, when he
quietly passed away. Chauncey H. Dunn, subject of this sketch, was reared to
manhood principally in this State. He finished his education at the University
of the Pacific, San Jose, but taught school a portion of the time after
commencing attendance there in order to pay his own way through college. He
made up for lost time, however, by night studying, and each year passed his
examination with his class. After
completing his education, he taught schools regularly three and a half years,
and during a portion of that time read law by night. During vacation he read
with Judge Patterson (now one of the Justice of the Supreme Court), and for a
year afterward borrowed books from the judge’s library while residing at
Stockton. In August, 1881, he commenced attendance at Hastings’ Law School. By
May, 1882, he had completed the entire two years’ course of lectures, and read
the whole course. He came to Sacramento in May, 1882, and continued his reading
in the office of L. S. Taylor. On the
13th of July, 1882, he was admitted to practice in the Superior
Court, and on the 20th of November following began practicing in the
Supreme Court. About the 1st of September, 1882, he commenced work
on “American Decisions,” as associate editor with A. C. Freeman. In July, 1883, he formed a partnership with
Hon. J. N. Young, which he continued until Mr. Young removed to San Francisco
in December, 1886. About the first of
January, 1884, he completed his labor on the “American Decisions.” Mr. Dunn has
always been an active champion of temperance principles, and in November, 1883,
when a Prohibition paper was founded here, he identified himself with the
Prohibition Party. He was candidate for city attorney on the party’s first
regular ticket in 1884, and his name has been on the ticket in each succeeding
election. He has also been secretary of the central committee of the party for
this county since 1884. Since 1886 he has been superintendent of the
Sunday-school of the Sixth Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Dunn was
married in September, 1884, to Miss Merrium V. Blasdel, of Nevada. Mr. Dunn is
one of the most respected young men of Sacramento, and is a credit to his
profession, on account of his fine character and abilities.
Transcribed
by: Marla Fitzsimmons
An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California.
By Hon. Win. J. Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 290-291.
© 2004 Marla Fitzsimmons.