Count Edmund Francis Dunne, (July 30, 1835 – October 4, 1904) born Edmund Francis O'Dunne, was an American politician and jurist who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Arizona Territory. During his early career he served in the California State Legislature and as a member of the Nevada constitutional convention. His later life was spent building the town of San Antonio, Florida.
Background
Dunne was born on July 30, 1835, in Little Falls, New York, the eldest of five children to John and Eleanor O'Dunne. Of Irish ancestry, he was a "rectilineal descendant of Tiege Reagh O'Dunne" on his father's side and descended from Cormac, second son of Tiego IV of Iregan on his mother's. A year after his birth, Dunne's family moved to Ohio. There his father, a prosperous businessman, helped Irish immigrants to settle. Details of Dunne's education are unknown but the judge's broad background in history and theology combined with fluency in multiple languages indicates extensive schooling.
In 1852, Dunne and his father went to prospect for gold in California. After several years the pair brought the rest of the family west to live with them on a farm. About this time Dunne obtained his legal education in San Francisco. In 1852 he worked to establish a Catholic colony in Mexico.
Political career and family
During his youth, Dunne was a Douglas Democrat but joined the Unionist Party following the outbreak of the American Civil War. He was elected in 1862 to represent Sonoma County, California in the California State Legislature. Upon completing his term in 1863, Dunne moved to Humboldt County, Nevada Territory.
A year after his arrival, Dunne was a member of the Nevada constitutional convention. Following statehood he was elected a district court judge for Nevada's Sixth Judicial District in 1865 and 1866. Following his service on the state bench, Dunne established a legal practice in Washington D.C. that specialized in helping American citizens with legal claims against the Republic of Mexico.
During this time period, Dunne made a number of trips to Europe. He married Josephine Cecelia Warner of Vicksburg, Mississippi on October 30, 1872, at the Église Saint-Philippe-du-Roule in Paris. A later trip, in 1874, resulted in Dunne meeting with historians who determined he was "the legitimate legal heir of Iregan and chief of his tribe". The marriage produced five children, including respected Maryland judge, Eugene O'Dunne, and longtime Santa Fe society gossip columnist and author, Brian Boru Dunne (1878-1962). Josephine died of pneumonia in Dunne's Catholic Florida colony on January 1, 1883, at the age of 38. And so the couple's five children were brought by the colorful "Stagecoach Mary" Fields (with whom the Warners had a previous connection) to Judge Dunne's sister, Mother Mary Amadeus Dunne (1846-1919). His youngest child, Mary Eithne Dunne, died in 1886 at age 5. Mother Amadeus was herself the mother superior of an Ursuline convent in Toledo, Ohio and would later become a prominent missionary to the Native-American peoples of both Montana and Alaska. Dunne's two surviving daughters, Maria del Carmen (d. 1950) and Hilda (1876-1972), followed their aunt into the Ursuline Order in 1892 and 1893, later becoming Mother Annunciata and Mother Amata, respectively. The two also worked in the missions and schools of Montana, Idaho and Washington. Another relative of note, Dom Frederic Dunne (the first American Trappist abbot), was the eldest son of Judge Dunne's cousin and San Antonio, Florida co-founder Capt. Hugh Dunne.
Arizona Territory
U.S. Senator William Morris Stewart, upon the advice of Arizona Territorial Governor Anson P. K. Safford, recommended Dunne to replace John Titus as Chief Justice of the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court. Safford likely knew Dunne from the time both had lived in Humboldt County. President Ulysses S. Grant made the nomination on March 6, 1874, with Senate confirmation coming on March 20. He took the oath of office on July 6, 1874. The new Chief Justice arrived with his family in late June and settled in Tucson. During his spare time he traveled throughout the territory with Governor Safford and was credited with planting Arizona's first orange orchard in late 1874.