Champaign County IL Archives Biographies.....Dunlap, M L 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Celia Snyder cgsnyder@uiuc.edu September 1999

Biography of M L DUNLAP, Champaign County, Illinois

From:  "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878


M. L. DUNLAP - The subject of this sketch was born in Cherry Valley, New
York, September 14th, 1814.  His youth was spent on a farm and was
uneventful.  His father's family moved about on he then frontier, and
finally located near Pulaski, Oswego county, where they remained for
several years.  The summers were spent in working on a farm, and a few
weeks in winter were devoted to attending school.  At an early age he
developed a strong liking for the sciences, and finally decided to study
medicine.  This determination was never carried out, for the family moving
west, in 1835, he followed them and settled at a place now called Troy
Grove, in LaSalle county, about ten miles from Ottawa.  He remained only
one winter at this place, which was devoted to teaching a school.  The next
spring he secured a clerkship in a store in Chicago, then a village of a
couple of thousand inhabitants, where he formed the acquaintance of many
young men who have seen become leading citizens and millionaires.  From
Chicago he went as book-keeper for a firm of contractors, on the Illinois
and Michigan canal, at Lemont, where he remained two years.  Before this
time he married Emeline PIERCE, at Chicago.  Having amassed a fortune of a
few hundred dollars, he determined to devote himself to agriculture and
entered a piece of government land in what is now Leyden, Cook county,
about twelve miles west of the city limits.  For many years he followed
farming and surveying.  About 1845 he first turned his attention to
horticulture, and, in the course of a few years, built up one of the
largest nurseries in the west.  He held the office of township supervisor
for a number of years, and was elected a member of the legislature from
Cook county in 1854, when it had but four members.  He presided over the
caucus of Free-soilers, which, by a small majority, nominated Lyman
Trumbull to the United States senate, and delegated Lincoln to private
life, until four years later, when the nation called him to the highest
office in its gift.  In politics, Mr. Dunlap had been a democrat, casting
his last Presidential vote for Frank Pierce.  He was always a 
"free-soiler," and during the Kansas war warmly espoused the side of
freedom in the territories.  His house was one of the depots on the
underground railroad, and no refugee from slavery ever knocked at his door
in vain.  In 1855, becoming impressed with the idea of extending his
business and securing more land, he purchased the half-section three miles
south of Champaign, now known as "Rural Home."  Two years later, he removed
his entire family to the place and resided there until his death, February
14, 1875.  After his removal to this county he became deeply interested in
its prosperity, and furthered its settlement by every means in his power.
He was a man of indefatigable energy, and when defeated at one place he
lost no time in repining, but at once projected something new.  During the
struggle for the location of the Industrial University he aided materially
by his widespread acquaintance among the public men of the state, in
securing its location in the county.  Mr. Dunlap was a contributor to the
press of the west, almost from the first day of his arrival.  When the
Democratic Press, a republican newspaper, and the leading free-soil
newspaper of the west was established in 1853, he was engaged as its chief
agricultural writer, and his weekly letters, "The Farm and Garden,"
attained a wide popularity.  His nom de plume of "Rural" was well known all
over the west.  He continued as agricultural correspondent of the Press
after its consolidation with the Chicago Tribune until the day of his
death, a period of 22 years.  It is unnecessary in this brief notice to
speak of the success of Mr. Dunlap as a farmer and fruit-grower.  His
monument stands in the orchards planted under his direction and which
testify to his faith in the prairies as a fruit region.  His family,
consisting of a wife, seven sons, and two daughters, still survive him.
They are carrying out, as far as possible, the plan laid down by him for
making "Rural Home" one of the attractive spots of earth.  Its hospitable
doors are always open, and the public is welcome to share in such knowledge
of agriculture and horticulture as may be developed there.


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