Mellie Dunham

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Mellie Dunham

| image = Alanson Mellen Dunham.jpg

| caption = Dunham circa 1910

| image_size =

| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

| birth_name = Alanson Mellen Dunham

| alias =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1853|07|29}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1931|09|28|1853|07|29}}

| birth_place = Norway, Maine, U.S.

| origin =

| instrument = Fiddle

| death_place = Lewiston, Maine, U.S.

| genre = Country

| occupation = Snowshoe maker

| years_active =

| label =

| associated_acts =

| website =

| current_members =

| past_members =

}}

Mellie Dunham (July 29, 1853 - September 27, 1931) was an American fiddler during the early twentieth century.

Biography

Dunham was born in Norway, Maine,

{{cite journal |last=Wells |first=Paul F. |date=Autumn 1976 |title=Mellie Dunham: "Maine's Champion Fiddler" |url=http://www.dwsanderson.com/dunham_jemf_article.html |url-status=dead |journal=John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly |volume=12 |issue=43 |accessdate=2008-11-29 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222110027/http://www.dwsanderson.com/dunham_jemf_article.html |archivedate=2008-12-22}} the son of Alanson Mellen Dunham and Christiana Bent. He came to prominence after he was invited to play for Henry Ford at his house in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford sent a Pullman car for Dunham and his wife, Emma "Gram" Dunham (née Richardson), because of Ford's love of country music.

{{cite web |date=Dec 21, 1925 |title=Melody Three |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,928571,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219121848/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,928571,00.html |archive-date=February 19, 2012 |accessdate=2008-11-30 |publisher=Time Magazine}} While Ford had invited 38 other fiddlers before Dunham, none received as much attention as Dunham did.

He was also a snowshoe maker, supplying 60 pairs of snowshoes to Commodore Robert Peary for an Arctic expedition.

{{cite web |title=Mellie Dunham making snowshoes, ca. 1925 |url=http://www.mainememory.net/bin/Detail?ln=18986 |accessdate=2008-11-30 |work=Maine Memory Network |publisher=Maine Historical Society}}

Dunham died on September 27, 1931, in Lewiston, Maine, after a two-week illness,

{{cite news |date=September 28, 1931 |title=MELLIE DUNHAM, NOTED FIDDLER, DIES |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/09/28/archives/mellie-dunham-noted-fiddler-dies-maines-champion-who-never-took-a.html?sq=mellie%2520dunham&scp=3&st=cse |accessdate=2008-11-30 |work=New York Times |pages=17}}

and was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, South Paris, Maine.