W. O. Dungan
30th, Ill.
Minden G. A. R. 1911
THE MINDEN NEWS
September 22, 1911

Veteran picnic at Old Fort Kearny, Nebraska.
William O. Dungan standing in left corner

DUNGAN, WILLIAM OLIVER, Fort Kearny, Kearney County. Neb., was born December 15, 1838, in Fayette county, Ind., son of Benjamin Dungan, who was born in Virginia and reared in Monroe county, Ky., a farmer and carpenter, where his father owned a large distillery. William Oliver Dungan's mother was Elizabeth D. La Barre, who taught school in Union county, Ind. Her father was born near Baltimore, in Pennsylvania — the second son. The family owned a large estate there. In the absence of a will the oldest son inherited everything, and Grandfather De La Barre started in life poor. He chose surveying as his business; was commissioned ensign in the War of 1812.

The Dungan family came to Pennsylvania and settled near Philadelphia three years before Penn. All owned slaves, but as slavery was unpopular with the Quakers, William O. Dungan's branch went to Virginia.

The great-grandfather of W. O. Dungan was the only one spared when the family was massacred by the Indians in the early wars in Virginia; he was spared on account of the bravery he displayed when taken captive. He served as a common soldier in the Revolutionary War. One of his sons, William, the grandfather of W. O. Dungan; went to sea, accumulated a fortune, returned, and settled in Monroe county, Ky. From there he moved to Indiana, where the father and mother of W. O. Dungan were married, and in 1840 they moved to Mercer county, Illinois, where the mother died in 1848 and the father died two years later.

W. O. Dungan as an orphan made his own way from nine years of age. By 1857 he had saved money to enter Knox College, but the panic swept his earnings away.

W. O. Dungan enlisted July 10, 1861, at Aledo, Mercer county. Illinois, under Warren Shedd; was in the battles of Belmont, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, the siege of Corinth, and the Battle of Britton's Lane, in Tennessee, where he was wounded three times on September 1, 1862. He was made fourth sergeant of Company A, 30th Illinois regiment, and was discharged in 1863 and returned to Mercer county, Illinois. He was elected road commissioner, and in the same year sheriff of Mercer county.

He moved to Nebraska in 1873, settled at Fort Kearny, Kearney county, and engaged in farming and stock raising with varied success incident to the pioneer region, the drought, and grasshoppers. He is a member of the G. A. R., Strong post No. 91, Minden, Neb., of which he was a commander. He affiliated with the republican party until 1888, and since that time with the independent party; and served as sergeant at arms in the Nebraska legislature for two terms. Mr. Dungan joined the first alliance at Fort Kearny. He was a member of the Omaha convention that adopted the platform of the people's party, and was chairman of the convention that nominated McKeegan of Red Cloud for Congress.

In September, 1864, he married Miss Adeline Frances Gaily, and to them were born five children: Mary Metta, now Mrs. Lemuel E. Copeland, of Minden, Neb.; Edmond Watson and Charles Clarence who died in infancy; Will Gaily, present roadmaster of Oberlin and St. Francis branches of the Burlington road, with headquarters at Orleans, Neb., a graduate of the Minden high school at the age of fourteen, attended the State University, enlisted in the SpanishAmerican War, and was promoted to lieutenant of his company; and Donald Clare, now of Lincoln, Neb., a graduate of the State University, who won a scholarship before he was twenty years of age.

Illustrated History of Nebraska: A History of Nebraska from the Earliest Explorations of the Trans-Mississippi Region, Volume 2 (Pages 681 & 682)


In December of 1876, a General Order was issued from Army Headquarters to provide for the sale of the Fort Kearny Military Reservation in the State of Nebraska. The order gave direction for the Secretary of the Interior to survey and section the land and offer it to settlers at a minimum price under the accordance of the homestead laws. In 1873, William O. Dungan, a Civil War veteran, purchased the squatters' rights and later fulfilled the obligations of the Homestead Act to acquire the land and receive the title in 1878. Dungan located his home among the old cottonwoods planted around the parade ground and used the shade of the large trees for his yard and grazing livestock. Dungan never permitted the old earthworks east of the fort buildings to be plowed up. He also encouraged the use of the land for reunions of soldiers and settlers who kept alive the feeling of reverence many felt for the fort site. This respect for the fort's site is an example of the recognition and pride of the surrounding community in the considerable historic contribution of the military fort.

Volume 23, No. 2 - Buffalo County Historical Society March-April, 2000

Fort Kearny-the Rest of the Story Part II
by Sally Vifquain
The History and Evolution of Fort Kearny as a Historic Site - 1871-1929

Keithsburg Observer, Keithsburg IL 11-26-1863

Times Record, Aledo IL 3-16-1922 #3

Times Record, Aledo IL 3-16-1922 #2

Times Record, Aledo IL 3-16-1922 #1

Times Record, Aledo IL 3-9-1922

KEARNEY COUNTY NEWS 1904 Oct 7 Dungan sale at Ft Kearney

Minden Courier
March 9, 1922
_______
Minden GAR data - Shot three tiems: Left breast, ankle and back Brittons Lane Tenn.

The Nebraska State Journal, March 10, 1922, page 14

Kearney County Democrat
Minden, Nebraska
R. P. Stein publisher
June 1886
Fort Farm = Fort Kearny
[R. P. Stein and Mrs W. O. Dungan were first cousins. R. P. Stein buried five miles south in Minden.