Published: May 03, 2008 08:33 pm            

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Time has forgotten Seymour Dunbar of Terre Haute

TERRE HAUTE — Naylor Opera House was filled to capacity on Friday, June 18, 1886, for the 20th annual commencement of Terre Haute High School.

The evening was surprisingly cool, the auditorium was well-ventilated and the exercises, though prolonged, were appreciated.

The Ringgold Orchestra provided the music interspersed by piano solos from three members of the class. Meanwhile, 30 graduates each read a three-minute oration.

Annie Gertrude Scott, youngest daughter of Judge John T. Scott and sister of legendary educator Sarah Scott, was valedictorian, the only student graduating with a perfect “100.”

The salutatorian was Cecelia Agnes Brennan, youngest child of merchant tailor Joseph P. Brennan, a native of Ireland. Walter Seymour Dunbar, son of Terre Haute hardware merchant Charlemagne L. Dunbar, finished fifth in the 1886 class.

Miss Brennan’s discourse was titled “God in History.” Dunbar talked about “The Power of the Judge.” All presentations were well-received.

Shortly after the commencement, Dunbar and Brennan were married. Abandoning his given first name, Seymour became a correspondent for Scripps-McCrea Newspapers.

In 1915, Bobbs-Merrill published “A History of Travel in America,” Dunbar’s picturesque four-volume account of the progress of American civilization which included 400 prints. The history, which took 24 years to compile, even captured a poet’s imagination.

At the time Dunbar’s history was released, poet Joyce Kilmer was on the staff of the New York Times Sunday Magazine and Review of Books. Kilmer’s lengthy review praised Dunbar’s work, characterizing it as being “distinguished by an unusual combination of erudition and charm.”

Dunbar’s print collection first was exhibited by the New York Public Library during the Hudson-Fulton Tercentenary Celebration in 1909. The collection later was acquired by the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

Dunbar is one of several former Terre Haute residents that time has forgotten.

Though “A History of Travel in America” was his most visible work and was republished in 1937 by Tudor Press in one 1,500-page volume, Dunbar compiled and edited other works and is credited with providing President Woodrow Wilson with an outline for the League of Nations.

Born Oct. 9, 1866, in Cincinnati, Seymour purportedly was in the ninth generation of direct descent from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of the Mayflower.

Charlemagne L. Dunbar established Dunbar Hardware Co., with Charles H. Swiggett and Ambrose W. Smith as partners, at 504 Wabash Ave. in late 1882 or early 1883. Is it coincidental that Lyman Alden, also a direct descendant of John and Priscilla, relocated to Terre Haute in 1883 to superintend the construction of Rose’s Orphanage?

The Dunbars, which included Seymour’s sister Georgia, initially resided at 631 S. Center St. but later lived at 325 S. Sixth St. Meanwhile, Agnes’ father died and the Brennan family had to join forces to keep the tailoring business at 651 Wabash Ave. open.

Charlemagne Dunbar closed his Terre Haute hardware store in 1888 but, by that time, Seymour was working for Scripps-McCrea. He then worked as a reporter for the Cincinnati Post and the St. Louis Chronicle. One biographical sketch asserts that he “edited a Midwest newspaper for a short time” before locating in New York City.

Without the apparent benefit of any college, Dunbar began to accumulate material for his history of travel. He did not begin to write until 1905. Meanwhile, his wife became ill and died, at age 42, in New York City on May 23, 1909.

Dunbar visited Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton University, in 1909 to discuss what Seymour referred to as “The Congress of Civilization.” He provided the future president with a proposal to form a League of Nations to maintain world peace.

His papers now are part of the United Nations’ archives.

In 1921, Dunbar identified “The Fort Sutter Papers,” transcripts of records and correspondence lost for more than 70 years by John Sutter’s stormbound expedition party during the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846. After editing the collection, he placed it in 39 folios and donated the papers to the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif.

Meanwhile, he edited “The Journals and Letters of Major John Owen, Pioneer of the Northwest: 1850-1871” and wrote the historic commentary. It was published in two volumes in 1927.

Dunbar’s collection of stamps, covers and broadsides related to American postal history won the grand prize at a Midwest Philatelic Society exhibition at Kansas City in 1935 and again in 1937.

Though he had two married daughters, Seymour lived alone at 38 Barrow St. in New York for many years. In 1946, he moved to the home of daughter Dorothy Kavrik of Little Ferry, N.J. His other daughter was Katherine Lucas.

Dunbar died, at age 80, in a hospital in Hackensack,. N.J., on April 18, 1947.

        

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