John Sherburne Dunning was born in New York around 1828, and studied at the University of Michigan between 1853 and 1855. He earned a bachelor's degree from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1858, and studied at the Theological Seminary of the Northwest (now McCormick Theological Seminary) in Chicago, Illinois, between 1859 and 1862. He worked as a Presbyterian minister first in Jefferson, Iowa, and later in Portland, Oregon, after moving there around 1902. He and his wife Mary had at least three children: Mary, Cuyler, and John Corliss. John S. Dunning died in Portland on September 4, 1916. John Corliss Dunning graduated from Cornell University in 1896 and received a master's degree from Princeton University in 1899.
From the guide to the John S. Dunning autograph albums, Dunning, John S. autograph albums, 1856-1861, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
