This information was given by Harold Gunn whose family this is... if you have additional information to add to this family please contact   Harold Gunn

In 1858,Samuel Dudley Gunn moved his large family to Izard County from Yalobusha County, Mississippi. He was born August 18, 1818, in Brunswick County, Virginia and died in Izard County in 1886. He was a devoted husband, father and a highly effective, dedicated Baptist minister.

When Samuel was a boy, his father, Dudley Gunn, moved his own family from North Carolina to Franklin County, Tennessee. Dudley, Samuel and all of the rest of us are descendants of Thomas Gunn, a British soldier whose unit was sent to Virginia in 1635 to protect colonists from hostile Indians and to help clear land. Thomas Gunn left the army and settled in Amelia County, Virginia. Many of his descendants are still there and many more are in Caswell and Rockingham counties, North Carolina. Thomas’s father, Nathaniel Gunn, probably came to England from Scotland when James VI, king of Scotland, became James I, king of England.

The Gunns are a very old Scottish highland family from the shires of Sutherland and Caithness, where many still live. Clan Gunn maintains a museum in Wick, Caithness, and holds regular reunions there for family members who come from all over the world.

Samuel Gunn married Catherine Sherrill of Franklin County, Tennessee, on August 5, 1841. Catherine’s father was a native of North Carolina and her mother was born in Tennessee. Family stories about Catherine indicate that she was an admirably strong willed, intelligent woman with a resourceful, independent nature.( Some of the family are exploring possible links between the Sherrill and Gunn families in Virginia and North Carolina. We notice that Sherrill is a common surname in Izard County records, too.)

The couple had two children while they lived in Tennessee; Samuel Dudley, b.1842, and Iverson Ryland Gunn,b.1843. The family moved to northern Alabama around 1844, where three more of their children were born; George Washington, b.1845, Mary Frances, b.1847, and Clementine, b.1848.

Samuel, Catherine and their family of five children moved to Yalobusha County, Mississippi, in late 1848 or early 1849. While they lived there, three more children were born; Jane, b.1849, Barbara Joan, b.1853, and Thomas Jefferson, b.1854.Samuel had a 154 acre farm while he and his growing family lived in Mississippi.

While living in Mississippi, another momentous event occurred in Samuel Gunn’s life; he became a Baptist minister. This calling has had a most profound effect on every generation of Samuel’s descendants, too, down to the present time. Every generation of Gunns since Samuel has produced at least one Baptist minister or ordained deacon.

The Gunns, now a family of ten, came to Izard County in 1858 and bought a 313 acre farm east of Melbourne. Sarah Catherine, the ninth and last of the children, was born in 1860. Samuel was the organizing minister and longtime pastor of Concord Baptist Church, which was located about a mile south of his farm. He was the circuit pastor of several other Baptist churches; Mt. Pleasant, Strawberry, Antioch, and Fairview, at the same time.

Concord church still exists, though in a different Izard County location and building not far from the original site. The family holds annual reunions there, usually in June.

Samuel died October 17, 1886, some two years after suffering a severe stroke which left him with speech and facial impairments. He resigned as pastor of Concord Church in 1884. Both Catherine and Samuel are buried in Big Spring cemetery, near the present site of Concord Church. Their graves are marked by a monument erected by the church after Catherine’s death on January 22, 1893. The inscription reads;" They gathered to their graves in full age, like as a shock of corn that cometh in, in his season".

One of Samuel Gunn’s contemporaries, another minister, described him as follows; " He was a strong doctrinal man and had but little revival power, except when he preached such powerful sermons on the doctrines of grace that he moved the feelings of most all who heard him. His work was mostly with churches as a pastor. He had a well balanced mind, very strong convictions and was always ready to defend his principles when they were assailed".

Samuel played a leadership role in the structuring of associations of north central Arkansas Baptist churches. These early organizations furnished pastors and church leaders with vital training and communications with one another about Baptist doctrines, church disciplines and administrative skills. These groups were critically important to church stability and the growing maturity of local Baptist churches, at a time when those churches were filled with new converts, recently brought to the altar during the intensive revivals of the time.

Samuel and Catherine Gunn’s children:

Samuel Dudley Gunn, Jr., b.1842, Tennessee.. Enlisted September 1, 1861, Company D, 14th Regiment (McCarver’s Regt.), Arkansas Infantry, Confederate States Army. Samuel died in a CSA hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, it is believed, sometime around August, 1862, when he was listed as hospitalized. His wounds or sickness are as yet unknown.

Iverson Ryland Gunn, b. August 9, 1842,Tennessee, d. August 7, 1885, Izard County Private, Company C, 27th Arkansas Regt., CSA.. Reenlisted for the duration of the war at Lawrenceburg, Arkansas, July 26, 1862. Roll of POW’s says he surrendered at New Orleans, La., May 26,1865 and was paroled at Shreveport, La., May 26, 1865.

Iverson married Narcissa Jane Gaines of Independence County, Ark., March 13,1873. He lived in Izard County , near Stella, Ark., for the rest of his life and was the father of five; Samuel W., Martha Catherine, Emma Jane, Alexander Franklin, Narcissa Clementine and Thomas Ivey Gunn. Iverson is buried in Big Spring cemetery near his parents.

George Washington(Wash) Gunn, b. March 19, 1845, Alabama, d. Jan. 25, 1912, of pneumonia in Myatt, Howell County, Mo. Buried in Mint Springs cemetery there. Company C, 27th Ark. Regt., CSA.. Surrendered at New Orleans, May 25, 1865; paroled at Shreveport, La., June 8, 1865.. Wash married Malinda Finley Herron, widow, Izard County, 1866. The couple lived in Izard County until 1883, then moved to Missouri. They had five children; Nancy, Dora, Dosha, Sonia, and Anna Gunn.

Mary Frances Gunn;b.1847, Alabama; did not marry;

Clementine Gunn; b. 1848, Alabama; did not marry; no further information.

Jane Gunn; b. 1849, Mississippi; married Jos. Rainey; no further information.

Barbara Joan Gunn; b. 1853, Mississippi; d. 1917, Bryan County, Okla.; married Alexander Franklin Gaines of Sharp County, Arkansas, Sept. 11, 1887. One child; Martha K. Gaines.

Thomas Jefferson Gunn; b. July 5, 1854, Mississippi; d. April 5,1909;Appleton, Ark. Thomas, a Baptist minister, married Harriet Taylor,1875, and had seven children; Mary Elizabeth, Samuel Dudley, William Iverson, John Thomas, Barbara Joan and Naomi Gunn.

Sarah Catherine(Sally) Gunn; b. July 15, 1860, Izard County, Arkansas; d. March 5, 1923; Bokchito, Bryan County, Oklahoma. She married Henry Marion Metcalf of Sharp County, Arkansas, July 20, 1882. They moved to Indian Territory (Okla.) in 1896. Eight children; Jos. Harvey, Samuel Warner, Oscar Lee, Henry Bryan, Mary Effie, Thomas Jefferson, Sibbina Catherine, and Leaman Earl Metcalf.