A popular citizen of Caldwell, the county seat of Canyon County, is the gentleman whose name appears above. In 1895 he was elected to the position which he now holds, that of county clerk of the district court, and has made a thorough, capable and reliable official. In his political views he is a Populist. Formerly he served as auditor and recorder of Canyon county, and gave entire satisfaction to all concerned in the proper administration of local affairs, and prior to his arrival in this section he acceptably filled the requirements of the office of clerk of the probate court in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mr. Dunbar is a native of the city just mentioned, his birth having taken place on the 23d of August 1854. He is of Scotch-English extraction, and inherited strong, upright, just traits of character from his ancestors. His father, William C. Dunbar, Sr., is one of the oldest residents of Salt Lake City, Utah, as he has dwelt there for almost half a century, going there scarcely two years after it was founded by the Mormons. He was born in Inverness, a city in the far northern highlands of Scotland, but he was reared and educated in Edinburg. Starting-out when a young man to make his own way in the world, he came to the United States, and in 1850 crossed the plains and settled in Salt Lake City. He has witnessed the entire development of that wonderful city and the amazing growth and yearly increasing wealth of that once barren wilderness, which has literally been made to blossom as the rose, by the thrifty, beauty-loving inhabitants. Mr. Dunbar was one of the founders of the Salt Lake Herald, and was its business manager for several years. He is now in his seventy-sixth year, and his good wife, also well along in years, is still his helpmate and friend, the sharer of his joys and sorrows. Her maiden name was Hannah Hales, and Yarmouth, England, is her native place. Of the twelve children born to this worthy couple eight are still living.
W. C. Dunbar, Jr., the eldest of his parents children, was educated in the public schools and in the University of Utah, and later pursued a commercial course in a business college, in order to thoroughly equip himself for the duties of his future life. In this laudable undertaking he was obliged to rely chiefly upon his own efforts, and the expenses of his higher mental training were sustained by himself. Upon leaving the schoolroom, the young man accepted a position as in voice clerk in a large mercantile establishment, with which house he remained for two years. His next position was as a bookkeeper for the firm of F. Auerbach & Brothers, of Salt Lake City. In 1890 Mr. Dunbar came to Caldwell and for three years conducted a mercantile business upon his own responsibility. Then, selling out, he engaged in the abstract business, and was thus employed until 1895, when he assumed the duties of his present office. Fraternally, he is identified with the Masonic order and with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.