James Dunn was born 28 June 1793, according to his own handwritten records. He did not record a birth place, but family records give his place of birth as either Essex or Sussex County, New Jersey. His father, Samuel Dunn, served in the Revolutionary War and enlisted at Sussex County in 1775, but the family moved frequently from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to New York. James' mother was Femetje "Phebe" Kuykendall. About 1815, in Ontario County, New York, James married Sarah "Sally" Barker, the daughter of John Barker, Jr & Betsey Leland. They were the parents of 8 children: Crandell, Laura, Thomas James, Harvey, Loren, Pamelia, John Barker and Sarah Elizabeth. James and Sally moved their family from New York to Michigan, where they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1840s. They then moved to Illinois before making the journey to Utah, where they ultimately settled. James and Sally were living in Providence, Utah at the time of his death in August of 1872. Sally moved to Beaver Dam, Utah to live with her eldest son, Crandell, and his wife Mary Ann until her death in 1889.
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