Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
James K. Dugdale
It is our privilege to pay a brief tribute to the memory of James Kaighn Dugdale. An honorable, broad-minded Christian gentleman in the best sense of the term, he was unusually free from vice and was patient and persevering. He was born in Haddonfield, Camden county. New Jersey, October 17, 1815, his parents being Benjamin and Hannah (Kaighn) Dugdale. The father, Benjamin Dugdale, was born near Mount Melick, Ireland, and removed to America with his parents about the year 1802. In 1811 he was married to Hannah Kaighn, whose ancestors came to America about 1684 from the Isle of Man.
James Kaighn Dugdale was educated in his native state and entered his father's store at Trenton, New Jersey, where he learned the drug business, remaining there until 1834, when he came to Richmond, at the age of nineteen. He was joined three years later by his father and family, the father once more engaging in the drug business, with his three sons, James K., Thomas and Samuel, as assistants. Upon the death of the father, in 1852, the sons continued together in the business, Thomas retiring soon afterward. James and Samuel sold the stock in 1859 and turned their attention to other matters. James K. Dugdale sold his share of the homestead to Robert Morrison, and it is now occupied by the Morrison Reeves Library. In 1865 the subject of our sketch removed to a farm near Whitewater, some nine miles north of Richmond, where he devoted his time to agricultural pursuits and to perfecting his numerous mechanical inventions. He also dealt in real estate, handling both city and farm property, and in 1877 moved back to Richmond, where his time was exclusively given to that business and to manufacturing his inventions, and he was thus engaged up to the time of his death, July 25, 1892. He was united in marriage November 14, 1842, to Miss .Eleanor F. Downing, of this city, a sister of Henry R. Downing, a leading citizen of Richmond for a number of years. They were the parents of two children: Mary K., wife of C. Edwin Mastin, of this city, and Benjamin H. Dugdale, of Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Dugdale were both birthright members of the Society of Friends, and for their quiet, gentle ways were loved and respected by all who knew them.
Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899