This Is Me

By Xlibris US

The surname Dunn comes from the Gaelic word donn, which means brown. The Gaelic form ODuinn (the descendant of donn) is most commonly anglicized as Dunn, but is also written as Dunne.

The Dunn family is of the same Celtic stock as the OConnors and ODempseysclans who trace their descendants from Rossa Failgeach, eldest son of Cathaoir Mor, king of Ireland in the second century.

The Dunn sept stems from Riagan, tenth in lineal descent from Failgeach, the district ruled over by Riagan, located in County Leix, which became the ancestral home of the Dunns. In later times, their chieftains were known as Lords of Iregan.

Irish bards praise the martial prowess and commanding stature of the Dunn warriors. They were undoubtedly conspicuous in history for their doughty resistance to the encroachment of Anglo-Norman invaders who held lands in the pale boarding their territory.

The Dunns were in the forefront of every battle for Irish nationalism. They suffered heavily in the bitter and prolonged struggle against Cromwell. In the next generation, they espoused the Stuart cause, and the head of the family was killed in the Battle of Aughrim. With the fall of the Stuarts, the lands of the Dunns were confiscated, and their fighting men who survived followed Sarsfield and the wild geese to fight in the ranks of the Irish Brigade in France. Many of them served with distinction in the regiments of ODonnell, Lord Clare, and Walsh up to the days of the French Revolution.

The name Dunn is twenty-seventh in the list of commonest surnames in Ireland. It is widespread in the United States also. Representatives of the family have achieved prominence in the literary, political, and religious life of our country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493179626

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by EDWARD M. DUNN, JR.

Library of Congress Control Number:          2014904208

ISBN:          Hardcover          978-1-4931-7961-9

                   Softcover            978-1-4931-7960-2

                   eBook                  978-1-4931-7962-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 05/29/2014

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Contents

About The Author

Dedication

Coat Of Arms

Introduction

Chapter One                 Birth, Name, and Preschool Years

Chapter Two                 The House Where I Grew Up

Chapter Three               The Depression Years

Chapter Four                Our Vacations

Chapter Five                 School Years

Chapter Six                  Our Summer Home

Chapter Seven              Military Service and War Years

Chapter Eight               Volunteer Fireman

Chapter Nine                My Working Years

Chapter Ten                  My Two Wonderful Wives and Family

Chapter Eleven             My Political Life

Chapter Twelve            Organizations

Chapter Thirteen          Church Affiliations

Chapter Fourteen         Charlestown Retirement Community

Chapter Fifteen            Things Overlooked and Not Covered in Other Chapters Late-Arriving Photographs and Recently Discovered Photographs Afterthoughts, Delay in Memory, and Final Thoughts

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born and grew up in southwest Baltimore City, Maryland. He was educated in Baltimore City public schools and graduated with an academic diploma. From high school (the Baltimore City College) at City in addition to his scholastic accomplishments, he participated in extracurricular activities and sports. He played trumpet in the marching band and the concert band, was a member of the Red Cross Club, and was VP of his homeroom class. In sports, he was a member of the wrestling team, the cross-country team, and the track team.

At age seven, his parents purchased a waterfront property on Stoney Creek, Powhatan Beach, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, where the family spent their summers.

He did a lot of things in the Depression years to earn his spending money. He sold shopping bags and hauled groceries home from the market for the shopping mothers in his little red wagon. He became a Liberty Boy Magazine salesman at age twelve and learned to play a trumpet in the Liberty Boy Band at age twelve. During high school and the first year of college, he was employed by the A&P Tea Company. The other three years of college, he was employed by a printing company as gofer, proofreader, and bookkeeper. After graduation from high school, he entered the United States Army Air Corps where he trained on B-24s and was transferred to B-29s; he served as a B-29 central fire control gunnery instructor at Davis-Monthan Air Base in Tucson, Arizona. Part of his service was in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Southern Europe theater.

After discharge, he successfully completed the accounting program of the University of Baltimore and was awarded a bachelor of science degree. He became a licensed certified public accountant in the states of Maryland and Florida.

He married Helen F. Everley in 1946 and had one daughter, four grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. Unfortunately, after thirty-six years of marriage, his wife died of cancer on December 20, 1982. Eight years later on October 20, 1990, he married his high school sweetheart, whom he had not seen since their last date in May 1945 – a period of forty-five years. This marriage is now in its twenty-third year.

The author has lived a life of service. Other than his business as a CPA and owner of an insurance agency, he served in elected public office for twelve years as treasurer, commissioner, and councilman of Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

He was an active volunteer firefighter, and after thirty-seven years as active, he became a life member of the Powhatan Beach Volunteer Fire Company Inc. He was a member for fifty years until the company was dissolved and merged with neighbor Green Haven into a new company named Armiger Volunteer Fire Department.

He served in many different positions both in his hometown fire company and the county and state association, plus the Maryland Fire Chiefs Association and International Fire Chiefs Association.

Also, in his church, he served on the board of directors, was secretary and superintendent of the Sunday school, and was president of the Young People’s Society.

He was also active in several of the service clubs: (Lions and Rotary) Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, moose and elks.

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Edward M. Dunn Jr.

Keesler Army Air Base

Biloxi, Mississippi

May 1944

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QUESTIONS AND INQUIRIES

Edward Mathias Dunn Jr.

Apartment H.V. 517

715 Maiden Choice Lane

Catonsville, Maryland

21228-5779

Telephone # [phone]

e-mail: [e-mail]

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my Christian parents for all the wise counsel, guidance, and advice they gave me during my life. For teaching me Christian principles and high moral standards to live by.

Edward Mathias Dunn Sr. (1904-1999)

Virginia Christabelle Dunn [née Clark] (1905-1991)

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COAT OF ARMS

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The Dunn Family

County Down

Northern Ireland

The surname Dunn comes from the Gaelic word donn, which means brown. The Gaelic form O’Duinn (the descendant of donn) is most commonly anglicized as Dunn, but is also written as Dunne.

The Dunn family is of the same Celtic stock as the O’Connors and O’Dempseys – clans who trace their descendants from Rossa Failgeach, eldest son of Cathaoir Mor, king of Ireland in the second century.

The Dunn sept stems from Riagan, tenth in lineal descent from Failgeach, the district ruled over by Riagan, located in County Leix, which became the ancestral home of the Dunns. In later times, their chieftains were known as Lords of Iregan.

Irish bards praise the martial prowess and commanding stature of the Dunn warriors. They were undoubtedly conspicuous in history for their doughty resistance to the encroachment of Anglo-Norman invaders who held lands in the pale boarding their territory.

The Dunns were in the forefront of every battle for Irish nationalism. They suffered heavily in the bitter and prolonged struggle against Cromwell. In the next generation, they espoused the Stuart cause, and the head of the family was killed in the Battle of Aughrim. With the fall of the Stuarts, the lands of the Dunns were confiscated, and their fighting men who survived followed Sarsfield and the wild geese to fight in the ranks of the Irish Brigade in France. Many of them served with distinction in the regiments of O’Donnell, Lord Clare, and Walsh up to the days of the French Revolution.

The name Dunn is twenty-seventh in the list of commonest surnames in Ireland. It is widespread in the United States also. Representatives of the family have achieved prominence in the literary, political, and religious life of our country.

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The Irish race is famous for their poets, scholars, playwrights, authors, artists, and statesmen. Evidence of the age of Irish culture is exemplified by the oldest standing building in the world, and the many pieces of fine jewelry predating biblical times.

Historians have compiled this history of the name Dunn using books by O’Hart, McLysaght and O’Brien, and Woulfe – baptismals, parish records, and ancient land grants.

Researchers have concluded that the family name Dunn was first found in County Meath where they had been seated from very ancient times.

Your name, Dunn, occurred in many references, but from time to time, the surname was recorded as Dunn, Dunne, Dun, O’Dunne, O’Doyne, Doine, Doin, O’Dunn, O’Dun, and these changes in spelling frequently occurred within the sept. It was not uncommon for a person to be born with one spelling, be married with another, and have yet another at his wake.

The ancient kings of Ireland were descended from King Milesius of Spain, the grandson of Breoghan – or Brian, King of Galicia, Andalusia, Murcia, Castile, and Portugal. Milesius sent his uncle northward from Spain with his own son Lughaidh to explore the Western Isles. This was to fulfill an ancient druidic prophecy.

On finding that his son had been murdered by the three resident Irish Kings (the Danans) in Ireland, Milesius gathered an army to take his revenge on the Irish. He died before he embarked on the trip. His succeeding eight sons conquered Ireland.

The distinguished Irish name emerged in Meath. The family name Dunn is one of the oldest surnames, and its history has been claimed as both Irish and Scottish nevertheless records show that the Irish family has a far longer history and it must be presumed that the clan later branched off into Scotland. The descendants of the Dunn chiefs included descendants of O’Regan and O’Conolly. The Dunns – or Dunnes, as they were then known – also held an estate at Ards. These Dunnes, with other members of the clan, are one of those clans mentioned in official orders as being especially hostile to the English interest. The invasions of Ireland took their toll on the family. One was killed at the Battle of Aughrim in 1691. One very active member of the clan was James O’Dunne (1700-1758). As Bishop of Ossory, he spent most of his life in France where several of his relatives distinguished themselves as diplomats and soldiers. Notable amongst the family name at this time was the Bishop of Ossory.

During the twelfth century, 1172 AD, Dermott McMurrough, King of Leinster, requested King Henry II of England for assistance. This was the first intrusion into Ireland by the Anglo/Normans. Many native Irish families lost their lands and possessions. This invasion was followed by Cromwell’s invasion in 1640, when further loss of land befell the unfortunate Irish people.

In 1845, the great potato famine caused widespread poverty. Many of the Irish joined the armada of sailing ships which sailed from Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Holyhead, Liverpool, and Glasgow – all bound for the New World. Some called these ships the White Sails – others, more realistically, called them the Coffin Ships, as 25 percent of the passengers died of disease and were buried at sea.

In North America, some of the first migrants which could be considered kinsmen of the sept Dunn of that same family were Thomas Dunn who settled in Wymouth, Massachusetts, in 1647; Ms. Dunn settled in the Barbados in 1774; Mrs. Dunn settled in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1766; Agnes Dunn settled in Charlestown, South Carolina, in 1767; Arthur Dunn settled in Maryland in 1723; Arthur Dunn settled in Virginia in 1735; George Dunne settled in Virginia in 1660; the family also settled in New York, New Jersey, and California in the nineteenth century.

Some remained loyal to the Crown during the American War of Independence and moved north into Canada, becoming known as the United Empire Loyalists.

Meanwhile, the family name Dunn produced many prominent people: Air Marshal Sir Patrick Hunter Dunn of Berkshire; Most Reverend Patrick Dunne, Bishop of Dublin; John William Dunne, English author; Finley Peter Dunne, American journalist.

Research has determined the above coat of arms to be the most ancient recorded for the family surname Dunn.

Certification # – 943312-9.95-1405

© Copyright 1993, The Hall of Names Inc. All rights reserved

PURCHASED FROM

THE HOUSE OF NAMES

DOCKSIDE

HAMILTON, BERMUDA

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County down, Northern Ireland

Picture of Court House and County Seal

INTRODUCTION

When I would talk with my family over the years, they would tell me I should write a book. Well, here it is. I hope everyone who reads it finds it interesting and enjoys reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. My generation lived through some very hard times, but possibly not as hard as our parents’ generation. They went through two world wars as well as the Great Depression. They had the responsibility of paying the bills, putting the food on the table, and clothing us while we were still children in the Depression years. I heard recently about how cheap everything was. The example was that bread was ten cents a loaf – but you didn’t have ten cents to buy a loaf.

During the Depression years, the economy was at an extremely low point. I have read that unemployment was as high as 65 percent. With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to be our president in 1932, there were high hopes of recovery with the stimulus programs he put into motion. Everyone was sure these programs would work. He started programs like the Civilian Conservation Corp. (CCC). This was where young men were taken off the street and were sent to work rebuilding our parks, forests, and recreation areas throughout the country. There also was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). This program created work by repairing and rebuilding roads and bridges. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) electrified a major part of our country.

President Roosevelt had many vast programs underway, but it still didn’t pull us completely out of the Depression. It was not until the war started in Europe in 1939 that we really went back to full employment. Neville Chamberlain was prime minister of Great Britain. He would meet with Adolph Hitler – who had been elected chancellor of Germany, I have been told, by one vote of the Bundestag, the National Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its seat is in the Reichstag Building in Berlin. I have not been able to verify this through my own research. This is the equivalent of our Congress.

Mr. Chamberlain would agree to things like giving back to Germany that part of France, Poland, Austria, and any other countries that had been taken from Germany after World War I. The British prime minister would come home to England and tell everybody that Hitler was a very nice man and all he wanted was peace. Winston Churchill, a member of parliament at the time, would reply that yes, all Hitler wanted was peace – a piece of France, a piece of Poland, a piece of Austria, and any other country he could get a piece of, surrounding Germany. Churchill was elected prime minister, and he and Charles de Gaulle of France decided to stop Hitler. World War II

was on. This was 1939, after Hitler invaded Poland.

At first, our president decided to stay neutral and to sell arms to everyone on a cash-and-carry basis. Bring your ships to our ports. Pay us in cash and carry the material away on your own ships. I am sure he knew Hitler would be unable to do this because of the domination of the seas by the British Navy. Later, we took the side of the British and French and were no longer neutral. That is when we prepared to enter the war. The new policy was lend-lease. We loaned them money to buy, and they leased us land upon which to build military and air bases. The factories were humming twenty-four hours a day during the war.

We did not officially go to war until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. I had just turned sixteen the month before and was a sophomore at the Baltimore City College. I heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the car radio while driving home from Sunday school.

Full employment was maintained long after the war because now we needed to catch up on civilian goods; everything that had been built and manufactured was for military purposes. Housing, automobiles, furniture, appliances – anything you could name was needed. Now that you have some background of the times, let’s get into the whole story.

CHAPTER ONE

Birth, Name, and Preschool Years

I was there, but I just don’t remember being born. According to my father and mother, I came roaring into this world on Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. on November 5, 1925, two months premature. By roaring, I was told that from the time the doctor spanked me, I started to cry and didn’t shut up until about two in the afternoon, when I went to sleep. I still get drowsy that time of day and want to take a nap. My place of birth was at the home of my paternal grandparents at 1010 W. Lombard Street, Baltimore City, Maryland. Back then, children were born at home. Even if you were born in a hospital, there were no incubators. I mention this because according to my dad, the doctor made the statement that I probably wouldn’t live through the day. I fooled him! In a few days (at the time of this writing), I will be eighty-seven years old on November 5, 2012.

There were many amusing stories about my size. Here are some that were told to me by my aunts and uncles: That I only weighed between two to three pounds – my baby book indicates five. Doctors did not carry scales with them, so there is no way of knowing. That my first bassinet was a cigar box. My first crib was a dresser drawer. They could hold me in one hand and have hand left over.

In working on my family tree, I found it very interesting how names were put together. Mine wasn’t too hard to figure where it came from because I am a junior. Looking beyond my father, my great-grandfathers’ names were Johns Kenney Orem and Walter Mathias Dunn. But where did Edward come from? I was also told my grandparents had a very good friend, and he was also my grandmother’s employer. His first name was Edward, last name unknown. So my father got a combination of these names and was named Edward Mathias Dunn. He had an older brother whose name was Walter Kenney Dunn; they both had sons that were juniors.

My great-grandfathers were very interesting men. Walter Matthias Dunn was a waterman and owned a fleet of Chesapeake Bay skipjacks. He delivered freight (fruits, vegetables, lumber, hogs, etc.) to ports from North Carolina to Philadelphia and Baltimore. He was known as Captain Matt. John Kenney Orem was a farmer. The first farm he purchased came with four slaves. The first thing he did was give them their freedom papers. Then he hired them to work for him. His farm was on the eastern shore in Somerset County. It is unknown why he gave up farming, but he did. He accepted a position on the western shore in St. Mary’s County on a plantation as slave overseer. When a slave couple had a baby, he would buy it from his employer, write its freedom papers, and give it back to the parents.

It was very interesting how names came about when people started using surnames. The royal families use the name of their castle, such as the Windsors of Great Britain. Others would take the name of a place or a marker. For example, dun in Gallic means hill. Someone would ask where Edward lives, and they would be directed to the dun. Dun became Dunn. Another example would be if John had a son, he could be William, son of John or John, son of William. These were reversed at some time in history and became Johnson and Williamson. Smith came from the village smithy.

Names have different spellings because of the notary publics. This was back in the days when education wasn’t available and people couldn’t read or write. To sign something, they would go to a notary public and place an x mark for their signature. The notary public would take their oath in due form that his name was Edward Dun, except the notary public would spell it as he heard it. He heard it as Dunn, thus the surname Dunn has been spelled several different ways (Dun, Dunn, Dunne, and O’Dunne). Earlier in the book, after the coat of arms, there is another version of the origin of the name Dunn. My first wife’s maiden name was Everley. According to ancestry.com, it has been known to be spelled as Everly, Everley, and Eberly – depending on how the notary public heard it at the time of taking an affidavit from a person who signed his name with an x.

My paternal grandfather’s name was Greenbury Dunn. I believe his middle name was Light or Point. I don’t really know. The family story that has been handed down is that his father (Captain Matt) got home from a trip to Baltimore. When he arrived home, he found his new son had arrived. He asked what time he was born. He calculated that at that time, he passed Greenbury Point Light, and that is what he named him. Greenbury Point Light marks the mouth of the Severn River. This is where the tall radio towers were opposite the US Naval Academy. They were removed when satellites rendered them obsolete. If my father had followed this tradition, my name would have been Seven Foot Knoll Light. My dad would take us fishing, but he would never venture beyond Seven Foot Knoll for fear of getting lost on the bay. It is a big body of water, but not as big as Lake Superior.

I lost a five-dollar bet when I was in the air corps. I bet a buddy that the Chesapeake Bay was bigger than Lake Superior. Lake Superior is so big, it would look empty if you tried to fill it with the water from the Chesapeake.

My ancestors were very good people. Hardworking, God-fearing, excellent neighbors, they opposed slavery. They were active in the Methodist Episcopal Church when it split during or before the Civil War. They kept their membership in the congregation they had always been a member of, because of longstanding friendships. Even though their congregation went with the Methodist Episcopal Church South, I had a step great-grandfather that served in the Union Army during the Civil War. His name was Samuel James Matthews.

Before I started school. In the public schools of Baltimore City when I was six, we had a lot of activity to keep us busy, especially in the summer. There weren’t as many automobiles back then like there are now, and it was actually safe to play in the streets. We would organize tricycle races. We would skate a lot. There were skates made that fastened onto your shoes for skating on concrete. We would play baseball. The girls played jump rope and hopscotch. The boys had a game we called tin-can Jimmie. We would take an old tin can, and one person would be it. He would throw the can up the street, and while he retrieved it, everyone would hide. He came back with the can, and when he spied one of the players, he would hit the can on the ground and call out his name. In the meantime, if he strayed too far looking for players, someone would grab the can and throw it up the street, and he would be it all over again. We didn’t have a lot of fancy toys like today and it didn’t matter; there was no money during the Depression to buy toys. So we made them. We took old skates and a box and made it into a scooter. We lived near the Mount Clare shops of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. We would spend some time looking in the windows, watching the men repair the steam locomotives. We couldn’t watch too long because they did a lot of welding. The flame of the welder was very bad on the eyes. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad facility was quite large. It was on Pratt Street and went all the way from Poppleton Street to Carey Street, then down Carey Street to their railroad tracks. I understand a good part of it is now a shopping mall with an old steam engine as its centerpiece.

Some days, Mom would take us for a walk to Carroll Park where they had a very large swimming pool fenced off into shallow and deep sections. That was a real treat. It was hot in the city in the summertime. Our other activities in the summer months were our church outings several times a week. I will get into church affiliations in a subsequent chapter. But this church was the American Rescue Workers that my father had discovered when he was nine years old.

One or two days a week, we would go to the Patapsco State Park in Elkridge. We would also go to both Carroll Park and Druid Hill Park in Baltimore City. Our summers were fun. There were days we would visit our great-aunt Alice (our maternal grandmother’s sister) and hear a lot about her childhood growing up on Gwynn’s Island on the Chesapeake Bay in Matthews County, Virginia. Her maiden name was Crockett. She was very proud of her name because she had traced her family and found that Davy Crockett was either her grandfather’s or great-grandfather’s cousin. She was married to Thomas Hurst who had been killed