James Milton Dungan, husband of the hymn writer Helen Silcott Dungan, was a well-known composer of sacred music and a respected music professor.
He was born on December 31, 1851, in Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana, the youngest child of Elisha and Lurania (née Tilson) Dungan. Dungan came from a family of musicians and showed musical talent at an early age. He studied at the Dana Musical Institute in Warren, Ohio, and later at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. After graduating from college, he became a music professor and taught for the next 22 years at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana. In 1894, he moved to Indianapolis, where he founded the Indianapolis College of Music, which later merged with the Metropolitan School of Music. In 1897, he founded a private music school, the Indianapolis Piano College.
Dungan was regarded as an “outstanding musician and master of the organ” (Noblesville Ledger). He was also an excellent music teacher who “knew exactly how to conduct a successful music lesson” and, according to at least one source, “could elicit more music from a tuning fork than any other living person” (Edinburg Courier, 1878 & 1882). In addition to his teaching, Dungan authored two textbooks, the “Normal Piano-Forte Method” and the “Normal Text-Book,” both of which were published in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1890.
