Thomas B. Dunlap 1840-1914

DUNLAP, SPEERS, GILLISPIE, PHILLIPS

Posted By: Kathy Kurth Holtry
Date: 1/17/2010 at 19:02:05

Manchester Press-26 March 1914
DEATH OF VETERAN-T.B. Dunlap, Civil War Veteran and Pioneer of County, Passes Away at Ripe Age.

On Monday, March 23, 1914, at his home in Hopkinton, occurred the death of one of the grand old pioneers of this county, Mr. T.B. Dunlap, father of County Recorder A.E. Dunlap of this city. The funeral of Mr. Dunlap was held yesterday afternoon from the Golden Congregational church, and his body was laid to rest in the little cemetery near by. Mr. Dunlap was in his 74th year.

Thomas Bruce Dunlap was born in Lodonderry, Ireland, October 10, 1840, and was brought to America when a lad of only eight years. After spending several years with relatives in Ohio, in 1854 he came west to Iowa, and has resided in this locality ever since. In April 1862, Mr. Dunlap enlisted in Company K, 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry and was mustered into service in August of the same year. He participated in the battles of Hartville, Fort Gibson, Champion's Hill and Black River Bridge, the seige of Vicksburg, Jackson, Spanish Fort and Blakely, and the capture of Mobile, being honorably discharged July 15, 1865.

October 15, 1867, Mr. Dunlap was married to Miss Rose Speers, and to them four children were born. These were A.E. Dunlap, Mrs. Myra Gillispie of Genoa, Nebraska, Robert and Elizabeth. On October 23, 1880, the circle was broken by the death of the mother and her two youngest children, Robert and Elizabeth have since joined her.

November 24, 1881, Mr. Dunlap took as his second wife Miss Ermina Phillips. To this union were born four children--Herman, Vivian, Jessie, and Raymond, all living at home.

In the summer of 1904 Mr. Dunlap became a member of the Congregational church at Golden, and continued faithful in his attendence upon its services. In the fall of the same year he retired from his farm in Hazel Green township on which he had so long resided, and removed with his family to Hopkinton, where he lived in retirement.

The editor of this paper has known Mr. Dunlap for many years, and we know whereof we speak when we say that no community ever had a better citizen, a more genuine or upright man, or a more kindly and helpful neighbor than he. He was one of the most earnest and consistent men we have ever known, honest to a hair, modest and unassuming, but imbued with a patriotism and love of country that could not have been more fervent had he been born on American soil. His family is honored by his life and this county is the better for his living in it.