mydunaganrootsandbranches

This year the descendants of Ezekiel Dunagan will be hosting our annual Dunagan Family Reunion on September 15, 2019 from 1 PM to 3 PM at the Gainesville Marina Lake Pavilion in Gainesville, Georgia. Please come out and join us for a potluck dinner, live music, storytelling, and great company!! 

We encourage all Dunagan’s far and near to join us to celebrate our heritage and to get to know your cousins. Just bring  your family and your favorite dishes to share. Hope to see you there!!

          Gainesville Marina located at 2145 Dawsonville Hwy, Gainesville, GA 30501

The Dunagan Family will be hosting our 2017 reunion on September 24, 2017 at the Gainesville Marina Lake Pavilion. If you are a descendant of Ezekiel Dunagan or any of his children we want to see you there. Come out and enjoy the fun, food, music, and best of all the company.

After moving back to my hometown 11 years ago, my cousin Brad and I decided to organize the Dunagan Family Reunion. It took a lot of work but we have found many of the descendants of  ‘Ole Zeke’ and have enjoyed getting together and getting to know each other since the start of the reunions. If you are not on our mailing list and would like to be please send me your contact information and your line of descent as you know it. You will be added to our mailing list and our family tree.

Ezekiel’s children are scattered far and near but we are still family. See ya at the next gathering of Ezekiel’s children.

Frederick Dunagan is the oldest born son of Joseph Ellis and Lucinda Beall Dunagan and the grandson of Ezekiel and Lydia Ann Brown Dunagan. He was born on November 2, 1824 in Gainesville, Hall, Georgia. His father Joseph was 31 and his mother Lucinda was 22 at the time of his birth. Frederick was named after his maternal grandfather, Colonel Frederick Beall.

We know that Frederick married Louisa Augustus Kerbow on October 22, 1846, Jackson County Georgia, when he was 22 years old and she was 18. They had four children in nineteen years. Harriet H. Dunagan West Andrewartha was born July 13, 1847. Their second child, Columbia Clementine Dunagan Tate was born November 22, 1848. Joseph Milton Dunagan, their first son and third child was born in White County Georgia in October of 1850. Some years later in 1866 their son William Dunagan was born, also in White County Georgia.

We find Frederick and his family in Hall County, Georgia in the 1850, then in White county in the 1860 census. His occupation was listed as farmer. In the 1870 White County, Georgia census we find Louisa with three of her children. Frederick and Columbus Clementine were not listed in the household. We know that Frederick had already left for Idaho where is listed in the 1870 census as a farmer whose farm is valued at one thousand dollars with his personal belongings valued at three hundred dollars.  He has one farm hand living on the farm with him. His farm was located in the Idaho Territory, Alturas, Overland Road.

I believe that Frederick went ahead of the family to prepare a home for them. Idaho History Volume 3 states that his daughter Harriet came to Idaho in 1874. I will need to do more research to see when the others arrive in Idaho.

By 1880 we discover that Frederick has not only changed professions but has also divorced. He has made his home in Hornet and Little Salmon Valley, Washington, Idaho. His profession is now listed a singing teacher.

This is what is written in the History of Idaho Volume 3 1920:

“… Frederick Dunagan, a musician of ability, who also taught music and who became a prospector and miner, going to California as a gold seeker in the early ’50s. Later he came to Idaho, living in old Alturas county for many years. He afterward removed to Baker, where he passed away in 1907.

I know that Louisa, his wife, is buried in Boise, Ada, Idaho in Morris Hill Cemetery. Fred died in Baker, Idaho in 1907, however, I have been unable to find the location of Frederick’s burial to date.

I would love hearing from any of Fred and Louisa’s descendants and learning more about my third great uncle.

Darline Dunagan Scruggs

This is an 1899 map showing Dunagan, Hall County, Georgia. It is here that Joseph and Joshua Dunagan brought the first group of white settlers. Shortly after their arrival, Ezekiel and Isaiah came with the second group of settlers. Ezekiel stayed and raised his family in this same area. At the time of his death in 1836, he owned three thousand acres. Ezekiel’s descendants remained on his land and built a community that was known as Dunagan, Georgia. The Dunagan community can be seen on this map located under the “A” in the word “HALL”.

This was our fourth year to host the annual Dunagan Reunion for the gathering of Ezekiel and Lydia Ann Brown Dunagan’s descendants. I found that this year I was really looking forward to seeing the familiar faces of my new-found cousins. We have a real sense of family that has developed over these four years. My cousin Brad Dunagan overheard two of our little ones discussing, with astonishment, how many people they were related to. I think it is wonderful that they can come out and know that they belong to a family much bigger than the one they live with.

We began our Saturday at Dunagan’s Chapel located in east Hall County, Georgia. This is the area that Ezekiel and his family lived. It was known as Dunagan, Georgia back then. At the time of his death in 1836, Ezekiel owned over three thousand acres there. We still have Dunagan’s living on parts of his land today. This is also where Ezekiel and Lydia’s graves are located. We visited the gravesite and returned to the church to discuss and share information on our family and its history.

On Sunday we gathered at the Paul E Bolding Post of the American Legion in Gainesville, Hall, Georgia. This is year we honored our family members who labored to develop, defend, and serve this great nation of ours. We have had Dunagan’s and allied family members serve our nation in every conflict since the Revolutionary War to present date. We have also had judges, mayors, congressmen, senators, and governors in our proud lineage.

Reverand Roger L. Dunagan of Lumpkin County, Georgia offered a prayer and blessing on the food, after which we shared a delicious southern pulled pork barbecue with banana pudding for dessert. In addition to good food, and great company, we had music provided by Brad and Mike Dunagan’s band, Longstreet Station.

We had family members traveling from many states to attend this year. Thanks to each of you, near and far, who attended this year’s Dunagan Family Reunion. We are looking forward seeing you all and more next year.