John S. Dunston Family Leader: Fields of Our Fathers Book

John S. Dunston was born in October 1825 in Ohio and died on 22 March 1904. He married Lydia Catherine Blair on 11 July 1856 in Iowa County, Wisconsin. He also married Eleanore "Lenore" "Nora" M. Parish in 1880.

John was the youngest son of Thomas Dunston, whom I wrote about last week. 

John moved to Highland Township, in Wisconsin and worked as a mier. He was married to Eleanor Parish. Most of his neighbors in the census with him were also miners or famers. 

Lydia disappear from records along with their daughter, Mary. The Wisconsin timeline of that area indicates they might have died from an outbreak of cholera. 

He married Eleanore Parish with three children under his care.  She was around ten years younger and became a mother instantly. 

They went on to have children together. His oldest son, joined the Wisconsin Infantry as a drummer boy (I will highlight his life next week). 

At a fairly young age, John had to give up farming and rely on his sons, as he had became blind. Census records state that he did "home work". 

John became a widower three years before his death. He died on 22 March 1904 and was laid to rest in Tevera Cemetery in Wisconsin. 

There is one mystery I was not able to solve while writing "Fields of Our Fathers" and his profile... he listed his mother as orginating from France. Her baptimal records states he was from Maryland. More focused and indept reserach is required to find this consistency. 

Check back next week for the sketch of the next family leader and John's oldest son, William Dunnston.