Paris C. Dunning

Infobox Politician
name =Paris C. Dunning


birth_date= March 15, 1806
birth_place= Greensboro, North Carolina
death_date= May 9, 1884
death_place= Bloomington, Indiana
party = Democrat
spouse = Sarah Alexander, Mrs. Allen Ashford
religion= Methodist
order =
office =Indiana House of Representatives
term_start =December 4 1833
term_end =December 5 1836
office1 =Indiana State Senate
term_start1 =December 4 1836
term_end1 =December 5 1840
office2 =Lieutenant Governor of Indiana
term_start2 =December 5, 1846
term_end2 =December 26, 1848
term_start3 =1863
term_end3 =December 4, 1865
office3 =Governor of Indiana
lieutenant3 = Vacant
predecessor3 =James Whitcomb
order3 = Ninth
successor3 =Joseph A. Wright
term_start3 =December 27, 1848
term_end3 =December 4, 1849

Paris Chipman Dunning (March 15, 1806–May 9, 1884) was a Democrat governor of the U.S. state of Indiana from December 26, 1848 to December 5, 1849.

Biography

Dunning was born in 1806 in Greensboro in Guilford County, North Carolina where he attended school and graduated age seventeen. His father died while he was young and his mother moved, first to Kentucky, and then to Bloomington, Indiana where Dunning taught school and studied medicine. He later moved to Louisville, Kentucky where he briefly studied medicine before giving up the pursuit in favor of law. He returned to Bloomington where he began to study law in the office of James Whitcomb. He was admitted to the bar in 1833.

Dunning married Sarah Alexander, the daughter of James Alexander, on July 6, 1826. Sarah died in 1863 and Dunning remarried to the widow of Allen Ashford on Sepetember 17, 1865.

Dunning was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives serving from 1833 to 1836. He was then elected to the Indiana State Senate in 1836 serving until 1840. He also served on the Indiana University Board of Trustees 1838-1841 and a presidential elector in 1844. He ran as Lieutenant Governor for James Whitcomb in the 1846 election and won serving from 1846 until 1848.

Dunning succeeded Whitcomb to become Governor when Whitcomb was elected to the United States Senate. Dunning served a brief term overseeing the final phase of the state's plans to liquidate it's public works projects. After his term her returned to Bloomington and resumed his law practice, declining a nomination to run for Congress.

During the American Civil War Dunning, who was a Douglas Democrat was again elected to state senate and served from 1863 until 1865. Dunning was the only Hoosier to hold all the positions of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, State Senator, President Pro Tempore of the State Senate, and State Representative. Dunning died on May 9, 1884 in Bloomington, Indiana, and is buried there in Rose Hill Cemetery.

References

*cite book|title=Indiana and Indianans|author=Dunn, Jacob Piatt|year=1919|publisher=American Historical Society|page=434

ee also

*List of Governors of Indiana

External links

* [http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/ihb/govportraits/dunning.html Biography and Portrait from Indiana State Library]
* [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/dunnagan-dunwell.html#RF20VU5MY Political Graveyard]