Amador
County
Biographies
JAMES R. DUNLAP
James R. Dunlap is the proprietor of
the only drug store in Amador City, and is also occupying the position of
deputy postmaster. A native of Ohio, his
birth occurred in West Salem, Wayne County, on the 18th of May,
1845, and he is of Scotch-Irish ancestry.
His grandfather, William Dunlap, located in Wayne County in 1828,
becoming one of the pioneer settlers of that section of the Buckeye state. He was accompanied by his son, William
Dunlap, the father of our subject, who was reared to manhood in Ohio. He was married there to Miss Nancy Finley, a
daughter of Adam Finley, also one of the pioneer residents of the state. The Dunlap’s were originally from England,
while the Finley’s came to America from the north of Ireland. The parents of our subject spent their entire
lives in Ohio, where the father died in 1852 at the age of fifty-two years, the
mother passing away in the forty-third year of her age. They were devout members of the Presbyterian
Church, and their upright lives commended them to the confidence and respect of
all with whom they came in contact. In
their family were ten children, six of whom are yet living.
James R. Dunlap, the seventh in
order of birth, was reared on his father’s farm, early becoming familiar with
the work of field and meadow. His
education was obtained in the public schools of the neighborhood, and when only
sixteen years of age he became thoroughly aroused over the condition of affairs
which precipitated the country into civil war.
Hardly had the echo from Fort Sumter’s guns died away when he resolved
to enlist, but on account of his youth it was some time before he was
accepted. However, on the second call
for three hundred thousand men he enlisted, joining Company E, One Hundred and
Twentieth Ohio Infantry, on the 15th of August, 1862. He participated with his regiment in the
second battle before Vicksburg, in the engagement at Thompson’s Hill, in the
rear of that city, and after the capture of Vicksburg took part in the Red River
campaign and the Mobile campaign, the Union forces closing in on the
Confederate troops until the latter surrendered. After the surrender of General Lee the
regiment returned to Texas and was mustered out at Houston, that state, on the
16th of October, 1865. Mr.
Dunlap’s services covered a period of three years and two months, and yet he
was little more than twenty years of age when he mustered out. He was taken sick with typhoid fever November
10, 1862, and remained in hospital until December 6. He was never wounded and was ever at his post
of duty, defending the old flag and the cause it represented, his bravery being
equal to that of many a veteran of twice his years. His regiment marched to the front eleven hundred
strong, but its numbers were depleted by wounds, sickness and death until only
three hundred of the original number remained.
The command was then consolidated with the One Hundred and Fourteenth
Ohio Infantry, and later having lost so many of its members, that regiment
consolidated with the Forty-eighth Ohio Veteran Battalion, thus serving until
the close of the war.
When hostilities had ceased and the
country no longer needed his services Mr. Dunlap returned to his home and
engaged in teaching in Iowa. He also
worked on the telegraph line until 1870, when he came to Sutter Creek, Amador
County, California. He was first
employed in the mines and afterward successfully engaged in school teaching for
five years, but in 1876 he turned his attention to mercantile interests,
opening a drug store in Amador City.
This is the only establishment of the kind in the town and it would be a
credit to many larger places, so splendidly is it equipped with everything
found in a first-class drug store. Mr.
Dunlap is enjoying a large and constantly increasing trade, and his income is
also materially increased by the revenue from the post office, which is in the
same building with his store. He is a
businessman of enterprise and ability, and is conducting his affairs in such a
manner as to win not only success but also the good will and confidence of his
patrons.
In 1877 occurred the marriage of Mr.
Dunlap and Miss Minnie Kelley, by whom he has one child, William Henry, who is
now a student in the School of Pharmacy in San Francisco. In politics our subject is a Democrat, but
the honors and emoluments of public office have no attraction for him. He is a member of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias fraternity and the George H. Thomas Post,
No. 2, G. A. R. In addition to his store
he owns a good residence in Amador City, and is one of the valued
representatives of the town who contribute liberally to every measure
calculated to prove a general good. He
is as true today to his county, his state and his country as when he followed
the stars and stripes upon the battlefields of the south.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 287-288. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Amador County Biographies