Background
Proper, Datus Dewitt was born on January 31, 1844 in Van Buren Company, Iowa, United States. Son of Lewis Wellington and Mary (Sedwick) Proper.
Proper, Datus Dewitt was born on January 31, 1844 in Van Buren Company, Iowa, United States. Son of Lewis Wellington and Mary (Sedwick) Proper.
Educational public schools, Iowa, and Howe Academy, Mount Pleasant, Iowa. English course, Baptist Theological Seminary, Chicago, 1873-1875. (Doctor of Divinity, Des Moines College, 1906).
Enlisted in 19th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, August 14, 1862. Promoted to corporal and 2d sergeant. Wounded in Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, December 7, 1862.
In Fayetteville Hospital, December, 1862-March, 1863.
Participated in siege and capture of Vicksburg. Taken prisoner at Sterling Farm, Louisiana, September 29, 1863.
Exchanged July 22, 1864. In Battle of Spanish Fort, Alabama, March, 1865.
Honorary discharged, August, 1865. ordained Baptist ministry, 1872.
Pastor Ames, Iowa Falls and East. Des Moines, Iowa, and Atchison, Kansas. In state mission work in Iowa, 1879-1886, later in Kansas, Washington and Colorado. District secretary American Baptist Home Mission Society, 15 years, superintendent missions, 6 years, now church extension secretary.
Member G.A.R.
Married Amanda East. Dodds, of Van Buren Company, Iowa, September 18, 1866 (died January 16, 1907).