Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kościuszko was born near Kosów, Poland (now Kosava, Belarus), in February 1746, the son of Ludwig Tadeusz Kościuszko and Thecla Ratomska. From 1765-1769, he attended the Royal Military School in Warsaw, Poland, and from 1769-1774 he studied military subjects and art in Paris, France, before returning to Poland. Kościuszko traveled to the United States in 1776, where he received a congressional appointment as a colonel of engineers. He served in the Continental Army throughout the war. In 1783, he became brevet brigadier general, and in 1797, the United States Congress awarded him monetary compensation and 500 acres of land in Ohio for his wartime service. Kościuszko returned to Poland, where he became a lieutenant general in the Polish Army. He served in the Polish-Russian War of 1792 and led the Revolution of 1794 (the unsuccessful "Kościuszko Uprising"). He spent two years in Russia as a prisoner of war, and later lived in the United States, Paris, and Switzerland. Tadeusz Kościuszko died on October 15, 1817.
From the guide to the Tadeusz Kościuszko family legal documents, Kościuszko, Tadeusz family legal documents, 1843-1860, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
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.
From the guide to the Dunlap legal papers, 1797-1820, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
