Santa Clara County
Biographies
CAPT.
FRANK DUNN
CAPT. FRANK DUNN. The
life of Capt. Frank Dunn has been one of constant change and necessarily of
variety of scene and conditions. Until his final retirement in 1885 to his
ranch in Santa Clara county, in the neighborhood of Lawrence, he followed the
sea and the precarious fortunes of a sailor, winning a competence and a
position of importance in the maritime commerce, principally of the Orient. He
was born in Nova Scotia, July 27, 1833, a son of
Thomas Dunn, a native of Ireland.
Thomas Dunn came to
the western world in an early day, locating in Louisburg, Nova Scotia, where he
engaged in farming. Later he located in Gloucester, Mass., after which he
followed the sea principally, being interested in a fishing vessel of the West
Indian traders until his death. He married Mary Dunn, also a native of Ireland,
and her death occurred in Massachusetts. She was the mother of seven sons and
three daughters, of whom the second in the family and the eldest son was
Captain Dunn. As a lad he was accorded the privilege of attending the
common schools where he acquired a rather limited education, the knowledge
which enabled him to successfully fight the battle of life coming later in
actual contact with men and events. In 1846 he joined the United States navy as
an apprentice and studied navigation aboard his ship. He remained in the
service four years and three months, from ordinary seaman being promoted to
coxswain of the commodore’s barge. He was discharged in 1850, and after a brief
stay on land he joined the sailer Snow Squall,
receiving promotion to the position of second mate at San Francisco in 1852.
The year following he joined the Sirocco as chief mate in New York City,
remaining in this connection for four years, when the ship passed into other
hands. Joining then the Flying Scud as chief mate he remained with her until
she was sold two years later, and in 1860 joined the steamer Massachusetts as
chief mate until her navigation was stopped on account of the Civil war.
Unsuccessful in an attempt to join the navy he went to China, as the Yang-tse-Kiang was then opened for navigation and both men and
boats were in demand. During the year in which he went east, 1861, he worked on
the steamer St. Louis, plying between China and Japan, as chief officer, and in
1863 took command of the sailing barque Wavelet, with
which he was engaged in coasting until she was sold. He then purchased the
Lizzie Allen, a six-hundred ton barquentine, and
engaged in the coasting trade until 1867. This barquentine
was then sold, after which he assumed charge of the English steamer Albion,
chartered by the Japanese government, and was in their service during the Civil
war. Upon the close of the war he was detailed to coast duty along the coast of
China until 1870, when he was discharged, and took charge then of the Typang Yo, also engaged in
coasting. After the sale of this steamer he returned to the Japanese service,
becoming captain of the steamer Kanagawa, during the Formosa war, and at its
close was given the command of the steamer Tokio Maru, which was the first steamer in the mail line between
Yokohama and Shanghai. After five years, in 1878, he decided to return to his
native country, and located in Santa Clara county, Cal., where he purchased a
farm of eighty-five acres located in the Brawly school district, one mile west
of Lawrence. Later he sold fifty-five acres and now owns thirty. Not quite
satisfied with the difference of conditions as existing between this country
and the Orient he returned east in 1879, and was sent to the British Isles by
Chinese Merchants’ Company to superintend the building of the steamer Poo Chi. After five months spent in Glasgow he took the
ship to China, and for the following six years was her commander in a trade
carried on between Hongkong and Anam
and other ports. In 1885 he came back to his California home, and since then
has been contented to reside among the quiet scenes and comfortable
surroundings of the Golden state. He enjoys fine health, has a comfortable home
and a competence with which to surround himself with everything needful to make
life pleasant. Fraternally he is a member of Liberty Lodge No. 299,
A. F. & A. M., being a Master Mason, and also belongs
to the Grange. Politically he is a Republican and is active in his efforts to
advance the principles he endorses.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
04 May 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 553. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie
Hassard.