Pueblo County Biographies

Pueblo County, Colorado
HON. PERRY C. DUNLAP

Contributed by Karen Mitchell.

Fidelity in citizenship and devotion to the public welfare have led to the selection of Hon. Perry C. Dunlap for the position of state senator from the Pueblo district and he is now serving as a member of the upper house of the Colorado assembly. Moreover, he is well known in the business circles of Pueblo as a plastering contractor and has built up a trade of extensive proportions. Mr. Dunlap comes to the west from Indiana, his birth having occurred in Anderson, that state, on the 3d of October, 1866. He is a son of John T. and Lula (Paris) Dunlap, who remained residents of Indiana until 1872 and then removed westward with their family to Kansas. In that state the father engaged in farming and also took up the occupation of stock raising, concentrating his efforts and attention upon those branches of activity for a number of years. His well directed energy and effort brought to him substantial success, enabling him ultimately to retire from active business. His last years were spent in the enjoyment of a well earned rest at Pratt Center, Kansas, where he passed away. Perry C. Dunlap was the elder of two children. At the usuaJ age he became a pupil in the public schools and continued his education until he had mastered the branches of learning taught in the high school of Eldorado, Kansas. Through vacation periods he assisted his father with the work of the home farm. He began the study of law in the office and under the direction of George A. Gardner, of Eldorado, Kansas, but discontinued this on account of impaired health caused by indoor work. Therefore, in order to be out-of-doors, he turned his attention to the plastering trade, which he followed in Eldorado, Butler county, Kansas, for seven years. At the age of twenty-four he came to Pueblo. He has done work all over southern Colorado and his business has become a very extensive one, his patronage perhaps being greater than that of any other man in the same line of business in his section of the state. He has taken important contracts, which he has promptly and carefully executed, and he is at present engaged in plastering the new Young Men's Christian Association building and also the new Central high school at Pueblo. In other words, he is retained for service in this connection on the most important buildings of the city and his activities have brought to him well earned prosperity. He is a director and vice president of the Pueblo Builders' Association, whose slogan is "We work for a greater Pueblo." On the 4th of December, 1889, Mr. Dunlap was united in marriage to Miss Edna Marble, of Eldorado, Kansas, and to them have been born the following named: Charles M., who is now engaged in business with his father; W. A.; E. M.; Nellie; Minnie; Sherman; and Freddie. The family is widely and prominently known in Pueblo. Mr. Dunlap while residing at Eldorado served as captain of the Sons of Veterans for five years. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and fraternally he is well known, having for a quarter of a century been connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, for twenty-six years with the Woodmen of the World and also with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He has always voted with the democratic party, which has found in him a stalwart champion. For five years he occupied the office of justice of the peace in Otero county and was then called upon for higher political service, being chosen to represent his district in the twentieth general assembly. In September, 1916, he was elected to the state senate for a four years' term and is now a member of the upper house of the Colorado general assembly, representing the second senatorial district comprising Pueblo county in the twenty-first session. He strongly championed the firemen's pension bill and also the movement to secure an appropriation for the state fair. His position upon any vital question is never an equivocal one. At this time he is rendering patriotic service to the government as one of the four-minute speakers and has gained a statewide reputation, having delivered stirring addresses in almost every city in the state. He stands loyally for what he believes to be the best interests of the community and does not hesitate to express his honest convictions, so that over the record of his public career there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil. History Of Colorado Illustrated Volume II Chicago The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company 1918

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