California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


JOHN T. DUNLAP. Kings county has among its citizens many men of more than the 
average ability and intelligence who are doing a great work for its advancement, and John T. 
Dunlap may with justice be classed among that number. He was born in Somerset county, Me., 
January 29, 1855, a son of Guy Dunlap, also a native of Maine, where as a farmer and lumber- 
man he spent his entire life of seventy-six years. Mrs. Jane A. (Tinkham) Dunlap, the mother 
of John T., was also a native of Somerset county, Me., where her entire life was spent, and 
where her death occurred at the comparatively early age of forty-six years. 

When most other boys were enjoying a freedom from care it fell to the lot of John T. Dun- 
lap to give a helping hand in the support of the family, and when only fourteen years old he be- 
gan working on farms adjacent to the parental home. At sixteen he had his first experience 
at railroad work, being on the construction force, which gave him employment only during the 
summer months, while he found work in the straw hat manufactories at Medway and Fram- 
ingham, Mass., that occupied his time during the winters. After working in the vicinity of his 
parents' home for about ten years he found a better opening in Milwaukee, Wis., and thither 
he went in the fall of 1880, taking a position in the straw hat works in that place. Hard work 
had impaired his health to some extent and he deemed a short respite advisable. Not content 
to be idle, however, he went to Kingsbury county, S. Dak., and pre-empted a tract of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres of land, to which he has since added until he now has four hundred and 
eighty acres of land, which is constantly growing more valuable. The latter acquisition is lo- 
cated in Clark county and was pre-empted in the spring of 1882. He carried on general farm- 
ing in that state until December, 1891, when he sold his stock and, leasing his farm, came to 
California in the employ of the Solano Colony, which owned a section of land five miles north- 
east of Hanford which had been laid out for the purpose of inducing settlers to locate there. The 
first attempt had not proved a success, but Mr. Dunlap gave practical assistance, planting trees 
and vines, and in various ways was instrumental in putting the settlers in a position to become 
independent of assistance. The land was divided into ten and twenty acre tracts. After 
two years spent in the employ of the company. Mr. Dunlap opened a brick yard in Hanford and 
also erected a brick residence. He subsequently sold his property and invested the proceeds in 
town lots, which in turn were given in part payment for his present home of eighty acres plant- 
ed to trees and vines, and valued at $187.50 per acre. He has recently added to the original 
tract, which was forty acres, and now practically all of the land is devoted to fruits and vines. 

Mr. Dunlap was married to Louise Slocum, who was born in Massachusetts, and who was 
taken to Milwaukee, Wis., when a very young child. She received an excellent education in 
the schools of that city, qualifying herself as a teacher of German, and finally became principal 
of the Deaf and Dumb Institute, being connected with the institution when it was conducted as a 
private institution and also after it became a state institution. Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap have 
two children, Marjorie and Carol, both of whom are attending school. Mr. Dunlap has been a 
hard worker all of his life, starting out when only thirteen years old to care for himself, and 
his course throughout life has been one of steady purpose and determination. His success speaks 
for itself in the interests which have grown up around him and in the esteem in which he is 
held by his fellow-citizens. Mr. Dunlap is a director in the Baby King Oil Company, which 
owns wells in Fresno county, and is also a member of the Raisin Growers' Association.