1. JOSEPH 1 DUNHAM b. say 1705. This man is given as the probable head of the Dunham Families of Tennessee.
Two young men, John and Daniel Dunham are of record in the early settlement of Fort Nashborough, later Nashville, Tennessee. When trying to find the origin of John and Daniel Dunham and to locate them prior to their move to Fort Nashborough in 1780, we need to be aware of state boundary changes. Boundary changes took place between the states of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, and there were boundary changes with other counties in that area. We also need to study the migration pattern of the people who settled in these areas.
People came from cities like Philadelphia [Pennsylvania] and Baltimore [Maryland] ; from areas of New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina; and some came as new immigrants. Many of these new immigrants were Scots-Irish. Joseph 1 Dunham, the probable father of Joseph 2, John 2 and Daniel 2, could have come from any of these above groups.
Bill Dunham of Iowa, a descendant of John 2 Dunham has done a lot of research on this Dunham line. He feels that this line descends from a Joseph Dunham who was in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1729.
In 1778 a John Dunham served as a member of the first grand jury of Washington County, North Carolina. Washington County was laid off by an act of the Legislature of North Carolina passed in November, 1777, and it was made to include the whole of the territory afterward erected into the State of Tennessee.
We know that John and Daniel were in the area of Washington County [North Carolina] and that they were members of the Donelson party who went to Fort Nashborough/Nashville, Tennessee. We do not know where they were before they came to Washington County. They were adults at the time they lived in Washington County, but we do not know if they were born in this country.
There were two men named John Dunham who signed the Cumberland Compact on May 13, 1780. This document was a self-governing agreement signed by the settlers when they arrived at Fort Nashborough. The two Dunham men were probably father and son, and thus they were John 2 and his son John 3 Dunham.
Children of Joseph 1 Dunham:
2. i. JOSEPH 2 DUNHAM, b. say 1725-27
3. ii. JOHN 2 DUNHAM, b. say 1732
4. iii. DANIEL 2 DUNHAM, b. say 1735
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