Dunlap Cemetery was established in 1874 on land claimed by Linus Dunlap in 1871. The cemetery is located in Butler county and was the first cemetery established in Pleasant Township.
Many of the early settlers of Pleasant Township are buried here, including the landowner Linus Dunlap.
The first burial here was Ahira McKnight, the fourth known child born to Thomas and Rebecca McKnight. The McKnights claimed the land next to Linus in 1871.
As neighbors and early settlers, the McKnights and the Dunlaps were both were heavily involved in the development of Pleasant Township. Ahira’s grave on the Dunlap homestead was likely within eyeshot of the McKnight home.
Thomas McKnight
A name that will live long in the minds and hearts of the good people of Pleasant Township is Theodore McKnight, noted for his good words and works. One of his sons, Thomas McKnight, of Pleasant Township, was a veteran solider of the Union army. With energy and indomitable will, he succeeded in building a fine home.
Butler county’s eighty years, 1855-1935 : a history of Butler County, biographical sketches and portraits
Thomas Irwin McKnight was born in 1845 Ohio and enlisted in the military when he was just 16. His regiment in the Civil War lost more soldiers to disease than battle, and he was among the sick, suffering from dysentery and chronic diarrhea during his service. He was furloughed in February 1864 and mustered out in December 1864 at age 19, still suffering from chronic diarrhea.
He married Rebecca Morse in Iowa in 1866, and they came to Kansas together in 1871 with two young children. Rebecca birthed at least ten more children in Butler county.
As an early settler, Thomas was later called “one of the heroes who helped build up Butler county.” Pleasant Township was organized in 1873 at his home.
Thomas and Rebecca’s son Ahira died in 1874 at nine months old. It is not known what caused his death, but he died during the height of the Grasshopper Plague of 1874, which was devastating to many farmers in Kansas, and would have been a extremely traumatic blow to the McKnight family at an already difficult time.
Linus Dunlap—friend, neighbor, and leader in the community—donated a portion of his land for the burial of his friend’s infant.
In 1895, when their youngest child was just three years old, Thomas died suddenly on his farm at age 49 of heart failure. Thomas is buried next to Ahira.
Landowner Linus Dunlap
There was the very interesting family of A. H. Dunlap, and as they were all musicians they organized an orchestra and gave us splendid music at our literary society at Old Harmony school house, which was destroyed by cyclone on the last day of March, 1892. L. S. Dunlap was trustee of the township for several years and surely made a splendid officer.
History of Butler County, Kansas
Linus Sedgwick Dunlap was born in Ohio in 1846, and he joined the military in 1864 at age 18. He served with the 34th Iowa Infantry for less than a year. He was later a member of the National Association of Civil War Musicians, so he may have been a musician with the regiment.
Linus came to Kansas as a bachelor around 1871. He was 37 married 29-year-old Sadie Sarah Maple-Stoddard in 1883. She had been married before and had a daughter named Grace. She and Linus would go on to have three children of their own.
Linus was considered “a leading factor in the development” of Rose Hill, and “held many positions of trust and honor” within the county, including trustee. Linus’ father, Absalom, was present when the township was organized at McKnight’s home, and was one of the township’s first officers.
During the last six years of his life, Linus lived in Wichita on Lulu Street. He had been very sick in the months leading up to his death.
Other Dunlaps at Dunlap Cemetery
There are many members of Linus Dunlap’s immediate family here. His mother Rebecca was said to be “a zealous member” of the church. She died in 1903. His father Absalom, an ordained minister and one of Pleasant Townships first officers, died in 1905.
Elizabeth Dunlap-Cochran, Linus’ sister, died in 1881 at age 36.
Christian Dunlap, Linus’ brother, died in 1886 at age 35 “after a long illness from paralysis” and was buried next to his sister.
Linus’ cousin John and his wife Fannie are both buried here. Fannie died from dropsy in 1909, and John died “after several months sickness” in 1920.
Resources:
Death of an early settler, The Augusta Journal, April 12, 1895
Thomas McKnight Dies Suddenly, The Augusta Weekly Gazette, April 12, 1895
L.S. Dunlap Dies, The Wichita Eagle, March 18, 1923
An early settler gone, Douglass Tribune, March 23, 1923
Ancestry Tree for Thomas McKnight
Ancestry Tree for Linus Dunlap
Thomas McKnight Civil War Service
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