John Henry Dundas, born October 14, 1845, near Aurora, Illinois, was an editor, lecturer, and Chautauqua manager in Auburn, Nebraska. Of Irish descent, his father, James Dundas, emigrated from County Fermanagh, Ireland, to Canada in 1822. John began his career as a stonemason and teacher before transitioning to journalism in 1884. He purchased and merged the Republican and Granger newspapers. Dundas served in various public roles, authored a history of Nemaha County, and was instrumental in founding the Auburn Chautauqua in 1899. He married Wealthy J. Bishop in 1871, and they had five children.
John Henry Dundas, editor, lecturer, and Chautauqua manager, Auburn, Nebraska, was born near Aurora, in Kane County, Illinois, October 14, 1845. Mr. Dundas is of Irish descent, his father, James Dundas, having been born in County Fermanagh, in the north of Ireland, April 22, 1800. In 1822, with his parents and brothers and sisters, James Dundas left the Emerald Isle and sailed for America, landing in Montreal after a long and eventful voyage on which the vessel’s crew mutinied against a brutal captain whom they put in chains. In the old country, James Dundas was a farmer and steward for an English nobleman, but after coming to this country, he worked at the carpenter’s trade, later in life, however, returning to his former occupation, that of farming. In Canada, in 1828, he married Miss Mary Alice Matthews, who was born in Clinton County, New York, May 2, 1813, daughter of John and Alice (Cheatham) Matthews, who came from England shortly before her birth. Mr. Matthews was a watchmaker. In 1845, after the death of his parents in Canada, James Dundas moved with his family to Kane County, Illinois, where he settled on a three hundred-acre tract of prairie land, which he developed into a fine farm and where he lived for eighteen years. In 1863 he came to Nebraska and took up his abode where Auburn now is, that being before Auburn existed, and here he became the owner of one hundred and eighty acres of prairie land, on which he made his home. He and his wife were the parents of five sons and four daughters, namely: Wesley, who died in Auburn in 1900, leaving a family of two sons and three daughters; Alice Lucinda, deceased wife of Amos Hall, died in Prairieville, Michigan, in 1874, and left two sons and one daughter; Mary Ann, wife of Fletcher Palmer, of Phillips County, Kansas, has six daughters and one son; Robert M., a Kansas mechanic, has a family of six sons and three daughters; John Henry, whose name introduces this sketch; Irene, widow of W. A. Good, of Nuckolls County, Nebraska, has seven sons and four daughters; Charles D., deceased, left a widow, four sons and three daughters; Oscar N., of Riverside, California, has six sons and five daughters; and Lucy A., widow of Silas N. Miller, of Cook, Nebraska, has one son. The father of this family died on his Nebraska farm in 1870, at the age of seventy years, and his wife passed away in 1884, she too having lived out three-score and ten years.
John Henry Dundas was reared on his father’s farm. At the age of eighteen years he began learning the trade of stonemason in Auburn, and for several years worked at his trade in summer and taught school in winter.
He was married March 29, 1871, to Miss Wealthy J. Bishop, a native of Covington, Kentucky, born August 1, 1847, daughter of William and Mary (Lusher) Bishop. Their marriage has been blessed by the birth of five children, as follows: Alta, who died at the age of four months; Hollis M., wife of Samuel Curtis, of Auburn; Lucius B., who married Clara Brock, of Eagleville, Missouri; Ada V. and Wendell, at home.
Mr. Dundas has filled many public positions of trust and responsibility. He served several years as assessor, three years as a justice of the peace, two years as police judge, twelve years as a member of the Auburn Board of Education, and two years in the Nebraska state senate.
It was in 1884 that Mr. Dundas entered upon his journalistic work, when he purchased the Republican. After conducting this paper two years he bought the Granger, and consolidated the two under the name of the Granger, a weekly publication devoted to every move in the interest of justice and right, and in no wise fettered by party, sect, or creed. It is a six-column, four-page paper, published by J. H. Dundas & Son, and now has a circulation of one thousand five hundred. In addition to his regular official and editorial work, Mr. Dundas has always found time for much other work, literary and otherwise. He is the author and publisher of a history of Nemaha County, termed by him “The Banner County of Nebraska,” a 12mo., 220-page volume, issued in 1902, a credit both to the author and the county. He is also the publisher of a book called “Every Man’s Account Book,” which he has copyrighted, and which fills a long-felt want among the common businessmen.
Mr. Dundas attended the World’s Congress of Religions in Omaha, and gave this sentiment as the true basis of unity: “Man’s duty to his fellow being is his only duty to his God; and whatsoever more is taught is born of priestcraft, nurtured in superstition, and surrounded with pernicious results.”
Mr. Dundas is the father of the Auburn Chautauqua, which was organized in 1899, and of which he has since been manager, and for the past two years he has also been manager of the Tecumseh Chautauqua. Both were organized and are being managed on the nonsectarian plan. Mr. Dundas takes a bold stand with the advanced thinkers of the day, is a sound reasoner and a fluent speaker, and never fails to bring conviction to the minds and hearts of his hearers. He places deeds above creeds and sees sound religion in the doctrines of Confucius. Some of his popular lectures are as follows: “The Songs We Sing,” “The Better Way to Serve the Lord,” “A Zetetic Sermon,” “Everybody Has His Hobby,” “The Religion of the Twentieth Century,” “Men are Parrots; They Do Not Talk, They Only Repeat Sentences,” and “Quit Your Meanness.”
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.