Samuel Dusenbury was born to Charles and Mary on August 4, 1792. He left Peekskill during the War of 1812 as assistant surgeon on the privateer “Old Ironsides.” At the close of the war, the cruise of the privateer being over, he was given his discharge at the Port of Charleston. The Country was then in an unsettled state and the next authentic account we have of him, he was located in Columbus County, North Carolina.

The original commission granted to Dr. Samuel Dusenbury was written on sheepskin and the last known account of that, it was in the possession of Lt. James Saye Dusenbury, USA of Fort Totten, New York. Several years ago, one dozen imperishable photographs were made of this commission and promiscuously distributed among the Dusenbury Family. By virtue of this service on “Old Ironsides” in the year 1849, the United States Government awarded him a land warrant for 160 acres of land. This land was located out west and he realized it for $160.

Samuel was a Baptist preacher and a school teacher, having taught school in Robeson County, North Carolina, at a place called Ashpole Baptist Church. He married a widow, named Lay, whose maiden name was Mary Ellis, an Irishwoman, and who emigrated from the Emerald Isle to this country and married one Ellis (she had been Mary Drysdal) whom she met in Charleston, South Carolina. How they ever came to locate in North Carolina, we do not know. She was the mother of six children by her first husband. Her Dusenbury children were all boys and in the order of their birth, were: Timothy, Zacheus William, Samuel Solomon and James Elkanah.

After Mary died, Samuel married Sara O’Donnell Lay.