Dunlap, Adams

Born: 1805-XX-XX Pennsylvania

Died: 1883-XX-XX Schuyler County, Illinois

Flourished: Rushville, Illinois

Adams Dunlap was a physician, presidential elector, soldier, military surgeon's assistant, county treasurer, newspaper owner, justice of the peace, postmaster, cavalry captain, and farmer. He moved to Rushville, Illinois from Pennsylvania in February 1831 at age twenty-six and began practicing medicine. Soon after, he was chosen to serve as one of the Democratic Party's presidential electors in the presidential election of 1832. On April 23rd of that year, he enrolled as a private in the Fourth Regiment of the Brigade of Mounted Volunteers, and served in Captain Moses G. Wilson's company during the Black Hawk War. A week after his enrollment, Dunlap was also appointed first surgeon's mate. He mustered out of military service on May 28, 1832. In September 1833, he married Susan M. Henley. A year later, he resumed a public servant role as treasurer for Schuyler County, a position he held until 1835. In July of 1836, he purchased a Rushville newspaper called the Journal, and, in August of that year, he married Cynthia B. Carter. The couple eventually had two children together. Dunlap sold the Journal less than a year after he purchased it, potentially because he obtained another public service job. In 1837, he became Schuyler County's first justice of the peace, and held that position for three consecutive terms. Then, from 1841 to 1847, he served as Rushville's postmaster. He also ran for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly in 1846 as an independent candidate, but lost to Democrat John Brown. In May 1847, he entered military service again–this time as the captain of a cavalry company during the Mexican War. His company primarily conducted scouting work, but also participated in several skirmishes with Mexican scouting units and guerilla fighters. Dunlap and his entire company were discharged in November 1848, after serving the longest of any company from the state of Illinois. By 1850, he was working as a farmer and owned real estate valued at $3,000. A decade later, he was still farming, had a personal estate valued at $800, and owned $9,000 in real estate.

Combined History of Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois (Astoria, IL: Stevens, 1882), 67, 109, 112-13; Franklin William Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879, vol. 6 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1910), 307; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1841 (Washington, DC: Thomas Allen, 1841), *353; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, from the Thirtieth September, 1841, to the Thirtieth September, 1843 (Washington, DC: J. & G. S. Gideon, 1843), *555; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1845 (Washington, DC: J. & G. S. Gideon, 1845), *396; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1847 (Washington, DC: J. & G. S. Gideon, 1847), *423; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 408; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Schuyler County, 18 September 1833; McDonough County, 25 August 1836, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Isaac H. Elliott, Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846-8 (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1882), xxix, 98; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Buena Vista Township, Schuyler County, IL, 159; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Buena Vista Township, Schuyler County, IL, 140; Illinois, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1772-1999, 8 October 1883, Schuyler County (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2015).