Warren County OhArchives Obituaries.....Dunlevy, Francis October 6, 1839 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Marcy Slaughter Marcy0116@hotmail.com May 16, 2008, 1:11 am Western Star 27 Dec 1839 “The late Francis Dunlavy, The subject of this notice, one of the first settlers in the Miami country, departed this life at Lebanon, on the 5th of November 1839, having nearly completed his 78th year. He was born near Wittenberg, VA on the 31st day of December 1761. About ten years after, his father removed to Western Virginia. As was supposed, but on the running of the Mason and Dixon’s line, his residence fell within the state of Pennsylvania. At the age of 14, the deceased shouldered his rifle and served a campaign against the Indians, and continued a great part of his time in the service until the close of the revolutionary war and Indian difficulties. He assisted in building fort McIntosh on the Ohio side, about the year 1776 or the beginning of 1777, being, it is believed, one of the first regularly built forts within the territory now comprising the State of Ohio. He afterwards, in the disastrous defeat at Crawford, on the plains near Sandusky, and with two others, had to make their way from the place of defeat to Pittsburgh alone through the wilderness and without provisions. This occurred from them being on the extreme flank of the army, and engaged in battle where it grew dark when they found that the main army had retreated and being pursued by the Indians their junction with it was interrupted. In 1787, he removed with his family to Kentucky, where he remained until the year 1791, when he came to Columbia __ miles above Cincinnati, where he lived until 1797 , when he removed to the neighborhood of Lebanon, ever after the place of his residence. Notwithstanding the heavy (Very?) scenes of Indian warfare in which most of his youthful days were spent, the deceased , by great perseverance and industry, acquired a good education. He was a shirt time under the tuition of Dr. Magee of Virginia, and afterwards at Carlisle College, but most of his knowledge was acquired at odd hours, alone and without any instructor but his books. At Columbia in 1791 he opened a Latin School and continued to teach occasionally, and at other times, to survey new lands for purchases in the North Western Territory, until the year 1800. as early as 1796, he spent most of one year surveying lands for the French settlers in the now states of Illinois and Missouri. The state of Ohio, having acquired a population which authorized the admission into the Union, he was returned a member of the Convention from Hamilton County which formed its present Constitution. He was also a member of the first legislature, and in 1803 was appointed Presiding Judge of the 1st Circuit, at the first organization of its judiciary. This place he held for 14 years and though his circuit embraced Hamilton , Clermont, Warren, Butler, Montgomery, Miami, Champaign and Green Counties from the first, and soon after Clinton and Preble, he never missed one court throughout his whole term. He permitted no obstacle to prevent his attention to his duties, and the Miamies being those without bridges or other means of crossing, he frequently swam on or by the side of , his _____ rather than fail to be at his post. After his term on the bench, as a means of supporting his family, he went to the bar and practiced law for about 15 years, when he retired to the quiet of domestic life and the uninterrupted enjoyment of books and study. Until within a few days of his decease, it is believed he read more daily than almost any other individual of whatever age or pursuit and notwithstanding the rapidity with which he would dispatch a book, his memory was remarkably retentive of everything he read, ____ to the last. The deceased was a true philanthropist. He was ever devising good to his fellow creatures and was ready to make almost any sacrifice, or incur any personal convenience to render assistance to others. He in truth rejoiced with those that rejoiced, and wept with those that wept. Good tidings from any part of the globe gave him joy, while accounts of suffering from want, war or civil disorder gave him unspeakable pain. The language of the poet was emphatically applicable to him. “His ear was pained His soul is sick with every day's report of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled..’ (transcribers not: from “The Task” William Cowper, p 418)) Among these matters of mental pain, the evils of African Slavery was prominent. Born in a slave state, and knowing their oppression and suffering, independent of the deprivation of personal liberty which to him was dearer than life, he had been an abolitionist, open and avowed, for more than sixty years. At first he stood almost alone, but his efforts never ceased and his opinions gained strength every succeeding year. At all times, and in all places, whatever unpopularity or scorn it subjected him to, from the reckless and unthinking, he proclaimed his abhorrence of slavery. In the Conventions which formed the Constitution, he was one of the principal and most ardent supporters of those provisions which were intended to secure equal civil and religious rights to every inhabitant. Subsequent unconstitutional legislation and unwarranted decisions of our courts, produced bya fear of offending our slaveholding neighbors have, in a great measure, rendered these provisions of the Constitution nugatory, and in effect legalized a limited Slavery in Ohio, but he had hopes of a speedy return to the true principles of the Constitution. The deceased had been a member of the Regular Baptist Church for upwards of fifty years and was one of those who constituted the first Baptist Church in the North West Territory. This was at Columbia about the year 1791. In his religious walk and views he was remarkable for his uniformity. He was never, for a moment, led away by newly propagated sentiments, however specious in theory or general in their reception. The Bible was his standard with which he had early in his life made himself intimately acquainted, for the last eight or ten years, more especially this was his daily study. On few minds do the great truths of revelation exert so great and permanent an impression as they did on him. They removed all fear as to himself, of evils in this world or the world to come. Death had no terror for him, and he often spoke of the Final Judgment as the most glorious event, in his view, which revelation unfolded. That he considered as the consummation of the moral government of Jehovah__ there truth and innocence shall be made manifest— There shall the homeless stranger find a home, And there shall be no (hurry?)_ at last repose Additional Comments: The date of death in the obituary differs from the date of death inscribed on his Grave Marker. 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