Hugh Dunlap was born in Londonderry Ireland on Nov 5, 1769. He came to the colonies as a child, living possibly in Philadelphia. By his own account, in Dec 1791 he left Philadelphia with wagon loads of goods and steered a course along the Great Wagon Road for Tennessee, arriving in an embryonic Knoxville "about the first of February 1792." He described the town at that time as a thicket of brushwood and grapevines, and he deposited and sold his goods in a shanty by the river where all the business was done. He married Susannah Gilliam, daughter of Devereaux and Edith (Ellis) Gilliam, in Knoxville June 12, 1794.
Around 1798, Hugh became determined to capture some livestock thieves who had been selling meat to the butcher in Knoxville. These thieves were brothers by the name of Harp who were recent arrivals to Knox County. They killed a man named Coffee, thinking he was Hugh Dunlap. There were other murders in the region that the Harps committed as well, to no purpose other than amusement. They left the county for Kentucky and left a trail of murders across the frontier rarely seen, until a posse caught and eventually punished them for another despicable crime.
Hugh bought and sold land all over Tennessee, some of which included Cade's Cove and the area near Rockwood, Tennessee which included Oak Ridge, where nuclear material was processed for the world's first atomic bomb 130 or so years later.
He moved his family west on rafts along the Tennessee River about 1826, settling in Paris, in Henry Co. and spent the remainder of his years there. He was the father of numerous sons, all lawyers, prominent in government and the courts of TN, and several daughters, totaling 15 children.

(bio by: Census taker)