My Dadmun connection
My great-grandfather was Edward Turner Dadmun of Watertown, Massachusetts. He married Olive Leigh Morgan and their daughter, Hope Alice, was my maternal grandmother. The Dadmun line intersects one of the bloodlines of Peregrine White, first child born in the new Massachusetts Bay Colony after the Mayflower landed, and descendants from that intersection forward may claim Mayflower ancestry.
The Dadmun Line
Research on the Dadmun line has been aided by the availability of a notebook of Dadmun genealogy handed down for several generations, now in the possession of my cousin Dorothy “Dot” Dadmun, widow of Edward Dadmun. Also, there are now a great many genealogical records from early Massachusetts available online, including civil records, church records and published genealogies.
(I) As far as can be determined, our line originates with the supposed original immigrant ancestor, Samuel Dadmun, who is said to have come from Scotland. He was born about 1790 and must have arrived in the colony before 1714, as his name first appears records in Framingham, Massachusetts where he married Martha Jennings, daughter of Stephen Jennings on 27 May 1714. Samuel (II) and Martha Dadmun had two known children, Samuel, and a daughter who married a Wadsworth. Samuel (I) is estimated to have died in 1717 or 1718, as he was no longer mentioned in records.
(II) Samuel Dadmun (II) was born in Framingham about 1715, apparently the first born of Samuel (I) and Martha. He was a soldier in the French and Indian War, serving as a sergeant in a militia company commanded by Captain Henry Eames in 1757. Samuel (II) married Lois Pratt on 7 June 1726. Samuel died in 1794. They are believed to have had 10 children:
- Nathan – b. 7 Mar 1742, died infant
- Daniel – b. 27 Mar 1744
- Nathan – b. 16 Jun 1747
- Timothy – bap. 25 Mar 1750
- Martha – bap. 25 Mar 1752
- Elijah – bap. 19 Oct 1755
- Samuel
- Jonathan
- Lois – bap. 20 May 1764
- Susannah – b. 5 Feb 1769
(III) Nathan Dadmun was born in Framingham on 16 Jun 1747. Nathan was a soldier in the Revolution, serving originally as a Minute Man in Captain Simon Edgell’s company during the Lexington Alarm. Nathan also served as a corporal under Captain Edgell, whose company was part of Colonel Samuel Brewer’s regiment in 1776 during the march on Ticonderoga. He married Hannah Sanger, daughter of David Sanger. Nathan died in 16 Feb 1827. They had 8 children:
- Joseph – b. 14 May 1774
- Jeduthan – b. 23 Dec 1775
- Eleanor – b. 18 Mar 1777
- Sarah – b. 10 Jan 1779
- Hannah – b. 11 Jan 1781
- Bathsheba – b. 26 Dec 1782
- Nathan – b. 29 Mar 1785
- Mary – b. 31 Mar 1787
(IV) Joseph Dadmun was born 14 May 1774 in Framingham. He married Betsey Pike 8 Jan 1795. Joseph died 12 Nov 1876 and Betsey died 6 Sep 1839. Joseph and Betsey had at least eight children:
- Willard – b. 22 Feb 1795
- Betsey – b. 3 Nov 1796
- Loammi – b. 17 Jul 1798
- Joseph – 3 Mar 1800
- Bathsheba – b. 4 Apr 1802
- Lois – b. 8 Apr 1804
- Esther – b. 18 Apr 1806
- Freelove – b. 4 Feb 1808
(V) Willard Dadmun was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts on 22 Feb 1795. He married Joanna Young, daughter of Elisha Young and Hannah Ruggles, on 10 Feb 1823 in Groton, Massachusetts. It is through this connection that the line merges with a Mayflower line, as Joanna Young was a direct descendant of Peregrine White, born on the Mayflower at anchor in Provincetown Harbor in November 1620. Willard and Joanna had at least 3 children:
- Francis Willard – b. 27 Oct 1823
- William Henry – b. 11 Nov 1824
- Lydia Ann – b. 27 Nov 1826
(VI) William Henry Dadmun was born on 11 Nov 1824 in Groton, Massachusetts, the second son of Willard and Joanna Dadmun. He was a lumber surveyor in Massachusetts and Maine for many years, although his draft registration for the Civil War shows he was a “box maker” at that time. He was married twice; first to Rosaline Priest, daughter of Philemon and Ann Houghton Priest. William and Rosalina had two children: a daughter named Milly Maria, born 19 Feb 1847 and died several months later on 15 Aug 1847, and a daughter named Aurelia Rosalina who died from scarlet fever only 7 days after her birth on 24 Feb 1861. Rosalina died only 13 days later, likely due to complications from childbirth, although the death register states “phlegmasia dolens” as the cause of death.
Also during this tragic period, William adopted his niece, Georgietta “Etta” Barker Priest (born 30 Aug 1850), the daughter of his brother in law, Benjamin Lyman Priest and wife Theresa I. Barker. I have not tracked down the specific situation that led to this adoption, but it certainly must have been due to a tragedy involving young Etta’s parents. William and his second wife raised Etta as one of their own. Etta took her uncle’s name and would be known as Etta Dadmun the rest of her life.
William Dadmun’s second marriage was to Charlotte Milliken Turner, daughter of David Sylvester Turner and Rachael Hanson on 12 Apr 1862. I will list Etta here as one of their children, for convenience:
- Georgietta “Etta” Barker (adopted) – b. 30 Aug 1850
- Edward Turner – b. 13 May 1863
- Dora Joanna – b. 18 Sep 1867
- Arthur Henry – b. 7 Jun 1870
(VII) Edward Turner Dadmun was born in Watertown, Massachusetts on 13 May 1867. He came to Virginia when he was but 21 years old, taking the position of first secretary of the YMCA in Norfolk, VA, supervising the construction of the first YMCA in the city. After a few years in Norfolk, he served as the secretary of the YMCA in Staunton before advancing to the position of assistant secretary to the Virginia state organization of the YMCA. After about five years he resigned to enter the ministry, soon becoming an ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Virginia. While primarily serving the Tidewater area, he also served in Farmville, Danville and Richmond before settling in Norfolk. It was in his early work with the YMCA that he met his wife, Olive Leigh Morgan, daughter of Olive Branch Morgan and Hope Alice Davis of Petersburg.
Edward T. Dadmun married Olive Leigh Morgan in Petersburg at the Tabb Street Presbyterian Church on 21 July 1891. They had five children that lived:
- Hope Alice – b. 16 Dec 1893
- Charlotte – b. 16 May 1896
- Edward Henry – b. 12 Oct 1898
- Branch Morgan – b 1 Sep 1903
- Robert – b. 9 Apr 1906
This is the end of my Dadmun line. (VIII) Hope Alice Dadmun married Frank Marvin Murphy of Ayrfield, Kinsale, Virginia on 23 Jul 1932. They were my grandparents, having only one child, Hope Alice Murphy. (IX) Hope Alice Murphy married my father, Arthur Davis Whittaker on 7 Oct 1961.