Dunn, Ransom, 1818-1900.

Free Will Baptist minister and president of Hillsdale College.

From the description of Ransom Dunn papers, 1796-1900. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 34419813

Ransom Dunn was born in Bakersfield, Vermont, July 7, 1818. Around 1830, he joined the Free Will Baptist Church and soon thereafter decided to enter the ministry. He moved about frequently in this period. In 1837, he was in Ohio where he was ordained, then back east where he was minister at the Washington Street Free Baptist Church in Dover, New Hampshire, and later at the First Free Baptist Church of Great Falls, New Hampshire. He returned to Ohio for a period, then to New York where he did missionary work, then on to the First Free Baptist Church of Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1851, Dunn accepted appointment as professor of mental and moral philosophy in Michigan Central College, Spring Arbor, Jackson County. With the move of that school to Hillsdale, Dunn took on the additional role of fund raiser for the needed buildings on the new campus. In 1863 he became Burr Professorship of Christian Theology. From 1884 to 1886, Dunn also served as acting president of Hillsdale College. He died November 9, 1900.

From the guide to the Ransom Dunn papers, 1796-1900, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)