This collection holds 12 original and copied documents related to a lawsuit that John Dunlap of Ross County, Ohio, brought against Alexander Dunlap and James Dunlap regarding land along the Scioto River, which was once owned by John Fowler. The documents include receipts, legal depositions, and surveys.
Fowler initially claimed his right to the land under military warrants, and sold the land to Alexander Dunlap around 1795. In 1818, John Dunlap sued Alexander Dunlap and James Dunlap over the boundaries between their tracts of land, which had been established in 1808. The case, heard by the Seventh Circuit Court, was not resolved until after 1820. This collection contains original receipts between Alexander Dunlap and John Dunlap, Sr., for surveying work done between 1797 and 1811, as well as later documents used in the legal case, including depositions of 4 witnesses: John and James Stevenson (August 17, 1818), Benjamin Hough (January 2, 1819), and Price F. Kellogg (January 7, 1820). The collection also contains 5 surveyors' maps of the disputed lands, including copies of Richard Clough Anderson's original surveys (March 6, 1820 and November 18, 1820), as well as surveys made explicitly for the case. The contemporary copied documents are authenticated by Josiah Meigs.
In 1796, Virginia native John Dunlap (1776-1865) traveled to the Northwest Territory, where he and his brother Alexander allegedly purchased a tract of land along the Scioto River in what is now Ross County, Ohio, a tract originally owned by John Fowler. Dunlap returned to Virginia before permanently relocating to Ross County in 1825 with his wife, Dorcas Dowell, and their children. His son, John Dunlap, Jr. (1811-1879) became a prominent farmer and stock raiser in Ross County, where he lived with his wife, Mary A. Minear.
