Ebenezer McCants Dunnam, Sr.

Ebenezer McCants Dunnam, Sr. is the first of the Dunnams that came to Mississippi and settled first in Byrd Community. He, apparently, left South Carolina soon after the death of his father, John Peter Dunnam. John Peter Dunnam and his wife, Elizabeth McCants Dunnam, both died in 1815. Ebenezer was the third child of John Peter Dunnam and his wife. He was born January 10, 1776 in South Carolina and died June 18, 1846 Greene County,Mississippi. He is buried in an unmarked grave in a small cemetery on private property known as the Lazarus Walley Cemetery, near Sand Hill, Mississippi. Ebenezer McCants came first to Monroe County, Alabama, with the descendants of Robert Dunnam, his cousins. He stayed there a few years, where several of his children were born, then came on to Greene County, Mississippi about 1835. On the death certificate of his son, Rev. Ebenezer McCants Dunnam, Jr., his grandson, James Nathaniel Dunnam, states that his wife was Elizabeth, buts states "don't know" as to her last name. So we do not know the last name of the wife of Ebenezer McCants Dunnam, Sr. It has been suggested that her name was Elizabeth or "Jenny" Strickland. Others have suggested that her name may have been Elizabeth McKinsey. According to the census records and Bible records, their children were born from 1814-38 This gives reason to believe that EMD, Sr. may have been married more than once. We have no record of this possibility. Eb Dunnam was a Methodist Protestant, Farmer, and Herb Doctor. He and his Alabama cousins were a part of the group that withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church to form a new Methodist Protestant Church. The issue was described as "Mutual Rights", or equal rights for both lay people and clergy in the church. In fact, the early Dunnams were a part of the Mutual Rights Methodist Church, Avera, Mississippi.