JAMES McDONALD DUNLOP, a retired farmer and successful business man of Chatham township now residing on his pleasant and highly cultivated farm of 100 acres in Lot 22, 6th Concession, was born in the parish of Draghorn, Ayrshire, Scotland, August 15th, 1820.  His parents, Hugh and Jean (Dickey) Dunlop, of Ayrshire, Scotland, died there the father in 1855, aged 90 years, and the mother in 1865, aged eighty years.  By occupation the father was a farmer, and both parents were members of the Presbyterian Church.  They had children as follows:  John, deceased of Draghorn, Scotland; Margaret, who married John Crawford, of Salcut, Scotland; Hugh, of Draghorn, Scotland; Anna, deceased, who married Daniel Curray, of Salcut, Scotland; Janet, of Glasgow, Scotland, widow of Hugh Grant James McDonald; David, who died in Scotland; Jean, who married Bowman Gibson and died in Scotland; Tahomas, who died in Scotland; and Mary, who married James McCommet and died in Glasgow, Scotland.

On December 16th, 1841, James M. Dunlop married Jean Brown, and children were born to them as follows:  Jane, born April 27th, 1843, of Chatham township, was married twice, first to Amos Potroff, by whom she had six children , and second to James Shaw, to whom she bore three children.  Hugh, born January 12th, 1845, died on the farm adjoining his father's, December 27th, 1893; he married Elizabeth Brigham, and had six children.  Agnes, born April 4th, 1848, married Albert Ridley, of Forest, Ontario, a farmer, and they have five children.  David, born February 15th, 1850, is a farmer of Marlette, Michigan, and is very wealthy; he married Margaret Clarke, by whom he has twelve children.  James, born November 1st, 1852, is a wealthy wholesale merchant of Hamilton, Ontario; he married Mary Wilson, and has four children.  Mary B., born March 9th, 1855, married David Fox, a carpenter of Clare, Michigan, and has one son.  Dr. John W., born April 16th, 1857, a physician of Clare Michigan, married Nettie Bicknell, and they have four children.  Matheison R. born July 1st, 1863, a farmer of Chatham township, married Louisa Turnbel, and has two children, Jean D. and James D.  Mrs. Dunlop was born in the parish of Stuarton, Ayrshire, Scotland, Augusut 15th, 1819, and died August 26th, 1898; she was buried in the Camden cemetery.  She was a daughter of David and Jean (Stinston) Brown, of Ayrshire, Scotland, farming people of that locality who there lived and died.

James M. Dunlop remained with his parents until his marriage, when he began farming on his own account in Scotland.  In 1854 he emigrated to Canada, locating in Hamilton, and worked for the farmers for a few weeks, and thenin the vicinity for 18 months, after which he went to Binbrook, County of Wentworth, South.  After a year he purchased a small farm at Binbrook, and remained upon it two years, employing his spare time working for Paul & Blaine, in the lumber regions.  At the expiration of the two years he settled in Chatham township, County of Kent, and in 1870 bought his present farm, which was then all a wilderness.  He was obliged to make a leaning in the woods for his little home, and out of the forest he hewed his way to a comfortable fortune, and after an active and useful life is now enjoying he fruits of his labours.  When he landed in the Dominion with a wife and five children, three sons and two daughters, he was without funds, but he never lost heart or faltered in his determination to succeed.  In religious matters he is a member of the Presbyterian Church, to which he gives liberally. 

His political sentiment makes him a Grit.  In his young manhood he served as a soldier in the British army, and as such was at the coronation of Queen Victoria, in 1837.  Mr. Dunlop enjoys in the fullest degree the confidence and esteem of his neighbours, and is recognized as an excellent example of the sturdy, thrifty pioneers who have developed the County of Kent and made its present prosperity possible.

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