In 1849, Jacob Dunham and Catherine Goodnight Dunham, originally from Virginia and Pennsylvania, purchased this land, formerly part of the Miami Indian Reserve, through a U.S. Land Grant. Their grandson, William Riley Dunham, an Indiana legislator, built the house circa the 1880s. The Dunham family was committed to serving the public in politics, medicine, education, and agriculture. Families that married into the Dunham family included the Goodnight, Kearney, and Stroup families. This Dunham family is the same line that produced the 44th President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Barack H. Obama. President Obama and his family first visited the Dunham House on May 3, 2008.