"TWO JOHN DUNLAPS
Ruth Ashelford Dunlap, 111 Division St., Mendota. IL 61342
Most researchers have encountered a situation in which two people with the same first and last names have been identitied as one person. Eventually, something doesn’t fit, and the error is suspected and corrected, The error often occurs when two people of the same name were in the sane location perhaps at the same time, were related, had the same occupation, made the same move, or were associated with the same people.
John Dunlap, the Ohio surveyor who married Sarah Goode went to Lawrence County, Illinois, has been identified, apparently erroneously. as the John Dunlap who surveyed land in what became Hamilton County Ohio as early as 1789 He gave the name Coleraine to a settlement there and to Colerain Township in Hamilton County.
Our Heritage - Colerain Township1 says the township was created in 1794 with its earliest settlement being Fort Coleraine, also Fort Dunlap or Dunlap's Station. Dunlap's Station was established in 1790 by John Dunlap, a surveyor and a native of Coleraine, Ireland.
Additional reference is made to Ford`s History of Hamilton County2 which says that John Dunlap was one of John Symmes’ confidential surveyors and was inclined to land speculation, surveying a townsite and settling lots, to which he did not have title. Ford lists John Dunlap among the first township officers in 1794, although Dunlap is not on several lists given of early inhabitants.
Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in 1859 3 says John Dunlap ‘appears to have been engaged in the surveys of Symmes' purchase as early as Jan. 8. 1789.' Our Heritage continues:
John Dunlap, who gave the name Colerain to the township, seems also to have emigrated to Lawrence County. Illinois, where he surveyed and platted the county seat in 1821, and was one of the first three county commissioners. It is believed he died someone in 1822 or 1823. He had a son, Samuel, who was one of the first Senators in the Illinois Legislature. In 1830, John Dunlap`s widow, Sarah Goode Dunlap. married Benjamin McCleve. There were probably more children of John and Sarah (Goode) Dunlap, for Benjamin McCleve, Jr. married Ester Dunlap in 1832. Other Dunlaps appear in these eariy Illinois marriage records. John must have had a son James born in Illinois. James Dunlap served as a guardian for Esther (Dunlap) McCleave’s minor children in 1854.
Our Heritage4 mentions a George McCleave who brought his family to the settlements of Coleraine about 1790. A son, John McCleave, went to Indiana about 1804, and in 1814 to what became Lawrence County, Illinois. John McCleave’s brother, Benjamin, and father, George, followed John to Illinois. The marriage of a McCleave to John Dunlap‘s widow may have precipitated a combination of two John Dunlaps into one man.
The several above accounts in Our Heritage5 probably incorporated two John Dunlaps into one John Dunlap. The John Dunlap who married Sarah Goode was indeed a surveyor and went to Lawrence County, Illinois, but it appears he was too young to have been Symmes' surveyor in 1789. The following data on his line is compiled from several sources.
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Two John Duniaps
- Samuel Dunlap (b. 1744, d. 18137, son of John Dunlap and Sarah Kincade B) married Mary Ann Howey 4 Feb. 1773 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 9
- Samuel Dunlap lived in Lower Dublin Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, during the Revolutionary War and served in units there. 10
- In 1805-06 Samuel Dunlap and his grown sons took up 564 acres in what became (in 1808)
Knox and Licking Counties in Ohio. 11
Known children of Samuel Dunlap and Mary Ann Howey: 12
1. James Dunlap b. 4 Jul 1776 13
d. 1 Aug 1842, age 66, Licking Co., OW 4
m. Mary McCrearey 1799 15 The marriage of James Dunlap to Mary
McCreary 2 Apr 1799 is recorded in Ohio Co., Virginia (Jane Boyd
is listed, probably incorrectly, as James' wife in the referenced DAR
application, but Jane Boyd married William Dunlap, son of James. 16)
James Dunlap was Licking Co. surveyor 1808-1813 Y
2. John Dunlap b. 25 Mar 178118
d. 2 Nov 1823, Lawrence Co., Illinois19 20
ID. Sarah Goode 21 Oct 1806, Muskingum Co., Ohi0
John Dunlap was the first Knox Co., Ohio surveyor 180821
3. Joseph Dunlap b. ?, d. ?, was possibly the Joseph Dunlap who married Rachel
Matthew 21 Dec 1812, Licking Co., OhioY Joseph received
distribution from his father's estate from his brother, James, the
administrator. 23
4. Samuel Dunlap b. 1783
d. age 23 of typhus, soon after family's move to Ohio. 24
Further information of the family is gleaned from a letter written 18 Jan 1900 by William Dunlap (b. 1813, son of James) of Utica, Licking Co., Ohio, to his cousin, James Dunlap (b. 1820, son of John), who lived in Bridgeport, Lawrence Co., Illinois. William Dunlap writes in his letter that he had an "old paper" dated Sept. 17, 1795 which read: "Mr. Samuel Dunlap in account with Baird Dr. to: on compass, one case of instruments, 2 parallel rulers, two drafting scales, two dividers, one two-pole chain." The letter continues:
The question is was our grandfather [Samuel] a Surveyor or did he buy the instruments for
his son John if so did your father [John] learn the Art of Surveying from our grandfather if
he did then my father got his information from the Same and perhaps your father
taught his son Samuel the Art of Surveying . You probably know whether your father took a
compass to Illinois and done some surveying there.
The letter says John Dunlap sold his farm in Ohio to Daniel Falls, and Joseph Dunlap sold his farm to Samuel Hupp. No dates are given but the deeds should be recorded in Knox or Licking County. William Dunlap mentions "your son Lee" in his letter to James in Illinois, which begins "Dear Cousin".
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Two John Dunlaps
The 1880 U .S. Census of Lawrence Township, Lawrence Co., Illinois, lists James Dunlap, age 57, born Illinois, a farmer (his father b. Virginia, mother b. Virginia), his wife, Angeline; his children include a son, Lee, born in 1862 during the Civil War. Jack Dunlap, a direct descendant in this line, adds about Lee: "As you might guess, James B. [Dunlap] was a southern sympathizer naming my grandfather Robert E. Lee [Dunlap]."
John Dunlap was appointed surveyor of Knox Co., Ohio in 1810. He was on a Knox Co. grand jury in September 1813. The following month he was a judge in Morgan Township there. The next surveyor was appointed in 1815.25 This coincides with Jack Dunlap's account that his great-great-grandfather, John Dunlap, went to Illinois about 1814 to what became Lawrence Co., Illinois, land along the Wabash River less than 100 miles north of its joining the Ohio River. John Dunlap did surveying there and across the river around Vincennes, Indiana, and he surveyed the city of Lawrenceville, the county seat established for Lawrence Co., Illinois. 26
The 1818 Census (for Illinois statehood), 27 Crawford Co. (Lawrence Co . created in 1821 from
Crawford and Edwards counties), lists :
Dunlap, John 1 (white males over 21) 7 (all other white inhabitants)
Dunlap, Joseph 1 5
Dunlap, Thomas 1 2
Dunlap, William 1 2
The last three Dunlaps were is areas of Crawford Co . that did not become Lawrence Co., according to later censuses.
The 1820 U.S. Census of Crawford Co., Illinois, p. 46, lists John Dunlap, age 26-45 (thus born after 1775, a female in the same age group (wife, Sarah), four young males and three young females . Benjamin and John McLeef (McCleave) are listed in Edwards Co ., p. 17.
John Dunlap died in 1823 . His tombstone in Howard cemetery, Lawrence Co ., Illinois, is a
replacement for the original stone, both bearing the dates 1781-1823.28 John's widow, Mrs. Sarah
Dunlap, married Benjamin McCleave 26 Jan 1830. 29 Benjamin McLeave is shown in Lawrence Co ., p. 273, in the 1830 U.S. Census. Sarah (age 61, b. Virginia in the 1850 census) died in 1876 and is buried in the McCleave Cemetery, Lawrence County. 30
Jack Dunlap gives the eight children of John Dunlap as: Samuel, Elizabeth, Joseph, Julia, Sarah,
Isaac, Mary Ann, and James . The list does not include Hester Dunlap who married Benjamin
McCleave Jr. 8 Mar 1832Y In the 1850 census, p . 378, Hester was a widow, age 37 (b. ca 1813,
Ohio) , with 4 children (Joseph, Ben Franklin, Sarah, Eliza) . Hester married Philip Lewis 18 Dec
1850, had a son, Samuel Dunlap Lewis in 1852, and Hester (Dunlap) McCleave Lewis died 18 Nov 1853.32 Our Heritage?3 says James Dunlap was a guardian in 1854 to her McCleave children. Her relationship to John Dunlap's family has not been determined.
The John Dunlap who surveyed and laid out lots in Colerain Township, Hamilton Co., Ohio, as early as 1789 appears to be another and older John Dunlap. George Washington was a surveyor at age 16, but it is not credible for John Dunlap (b . 1781) to have been a surveyor at age eight and a land speculator at age nine.
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Two John Dunlaps
Was it the coincidence of two John Dunlaps being surveyors that caused their identification as one man? Was it just coincidence that the widow of John Dunlap married in Lawrence Co., Illinois, to Benjamin McCleave who had been connected to the early Coleraine settlement in Hamilton Co., or was it assumed that both families came from Hamilton County? Were the two John Dunlaps related to each other in some way?
It is fairly certain that John Dunlap (b. 1781, son of Samuel) was not born in Coleraine, Ireland, but in the New World, perhaps in Pennsylvania, although his son in 1880 gave Virginia as his father's birthplace. The Hamilton Co., Ohio, surveyor in 1789 is unidentified, but he may indeed have been born in Ireland. It should be noted that there were a number of men named John Dunlap in the United States during this time period.
Research on Samuel Dunlap and his sons of Licking and Knox counties was undertaken to explore if they were related to Alexander Dunlap (b. 1780 in Pennsylvania) who settled in 1821 at the western edge of Coshocton Co., Ohio, adjoining both Knox and Licking Counties . Alexander had an uncle, Samuel Dunlap (son of another Samuel), who has not been traced. He would not be the Samuel Dunlap of Licking Co. if the latter's father was John Dunlap as identified by Hazel Stock. Her cousin gave her the names of Samuel's parents, but no further substantiation of his parents is known.
Of coincidental interest, Alexander Dunlap was married in 1806 in Ohio Co., Virginia (now West Virginia), the same county where the marriage of James Dunlap and Mary McCreary occurred 2 Apr 1799 (a marriage identified herein as that of James, son of Samuel Dunlap of Licking Co., Ohio). It probably is one of those frequent coincidences that people of the same surname were in the same area but were not related. Further research in Ohio and Illinois could provide additional detail on Samuel Dunlap of Licking Co., and his descendants.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. Colerain Township Bicentennial Committee, Our Heritage - Colerain Township (1976), unpaged.
2. Henry A. and Kate B. Ford, History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (Cleveland, 1881).
3. Charles Cist, Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in 1859 (Cincinnati, 1859).
4. Colerain, Our Heritage.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Dates: DAR Patriot Index (Centennial Ed., 1990), part 1, 895; also from descendant Hazel Stock, Hamilton,
Ohio, letter 1981 to Ruth L. Dunlap (hereafter referenced as Stock letter); also letter from descendant William Dunlap,
Utica, Ohio, to James Dunlap 1900 (hereafter referenced as Dunlap letter), copy in possession of Ruth L. Dunlap; and from Jack K. Dunlap, Bridgeport, Lawrence Co., IL, descendant of John and Sarah (Goode) Dunlap, correspondence with Ruth L. Dunlap, 1997 (hereafter referenced as Jack Dunlap).
8. Parents names from Stock letter.
9. Bride and groom names and marriage date: John B. Linn and William H. Egle, editors, Pennsylvania Archives
Series 2, Vol. 2 (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1876), 89; DAR Lineage and Revolutionary Records, Collected and Prepared for Newberry Library by DAR of Illinois (1959-1 961), V. 25, 242 (hereafter referenced as DAR appl.). These volumes contain the part of applications from the grandparent of the applicant back to the Revolutionary ancestor. This application is based on descent from Samuel Dunlap's son, John Dunlap (d. 1823, Illinois), and his youngest daughter, Mary Ann and her husband, James Baird Trimble, of Crawford Co., Illinois; also from Stock letter, Dunlap letter, and Jack Dunlap.
10. DAR appl.
11. Dunlap letter.
12. DAR appl., Stock letter, Dunlap letter, and Jack Dunlap all give names of the four sons.
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13. Birthdate in DAR appl.
14. Dunlap letter; also Newark Advocate, Licking Co. Ohio, 15 August 1842.
15. Name and year from Jack Dunlap . Ohio Co ., Virginia, recorded the marriage of James Dunlap and Mary McCreary 2 April 1799. Jack Dunlap says they had 10 children. The oldest four children were born prior to the family moving to Ohio, according to the Dunlap letter.
16. DAR appl. gives James' wife as Jane Boyd; Jack Dunlap gives Jane Boyd as the wife of James ' son, William Dunlap (the writer of the 1900 letter).
17. Dunlap letter.
18 . DAR appl. Birth and death year also given on his tombstone (photo in possession of Ruth L. Dunlap).
19. Dunlap letter mentions complete death date.
20. Muskingum Co., Ohio, marriage records .
21. N. N. Hill, Jr. , History of Knox County, Ohio, Its Past and Present (Mt. Vernon, Ohio, 1881), 445 .
22. Licking Co. Ohio marriage records .
23. Dunlap letter.
24 . DAR appl. and Dunlap letter.
25. A. B. Norton, History of Knox County, Ohio (Columbus , Ohio, 1862), 117,365,412.
26. Jack Dunlap.
27 . Margaret C. Norton, Illinois Census Returns, 1810 and 1818 (Baltimore, 1909).
28. Jack Dunlap.
29 . Ada Miller, Marriage Licenses, Lawrence County, Illinois, 1821-1855 (Dallas, 196 1).
30 . Jack Dunlap.
31. Miller , Marriage Licenses.
32 . Lawrence County Commemorative Edition, 175th Anniversary, 1821-1996.
33 . Colerain, Our Heritage .
My apologies to Catherine Wilson of the Greene County Public Library . She was the author of "Swiss Families in Xenia, Ohio" , which appeared in the Summer, 1997 issue of The Report. In error, her name was given as Caroline Wilson.
The Editor
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