L. W. & JAMES P. DUNCAN.

DUNCAN—Among the settlers of Allen County who located along the Neosho River in the early seventies and who has maintained his home here since is James P. Duncan, ex-Register of Deeds of his adopted county. In November, 1870, he drove his teams and a small bunch of cattle onto

the premises of Wm. L. Zink, three miles northwest of Humboldt, where he made his first temporary home. He resided in this portion of old Humboldt township till 1881, serving one-half of this time as Trustee of the township, when he removed to Humboldt and it was from this latter point that he was appointed, by the Board of County Commissioners, Register of Deeds to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Jesse Fast. In this position he served nearly seven years, or until January, 1890.

The subject of this review left the wooded country of Indiana in 1865 and made his residence respectively in Cooper County, Missouri, Douglas County, Kansas, and in Grundy County, Missouri, before his arrival in Allen County, as above stated. He was born in Putnam County, Indiana, March 22, 1840, was reared "in the clearing," and "niggering off logs" and burning brush formed a goodly share of his youthful occupation. He was three times enlisted in the Civil war, first in the 78th Indiana Volunteers; second, in the 115th Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Hahn, and third, in the 11th Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Lew Wallace. He served in an humble capacity "with the boys" and when his services were no longer needed he was discharged and returned home.

October 24, 1858, occurred the marriage of the subject of this review. His wife was nee Mary Ellen Bailey, a notice of whose ancestry will appear farther on in this article. Eight children resulted from this union, viz: Annie, who died at one year old; Lew Wallace; Nora C. and Dora C., twins, born November 3, 1863. The former married Orlando P. Rose at Humboldt, Kansas, June 19, 1883, died October 29, 1884, leaving a son, Ora D. Rose, of Kansas City, Missouri; Dora C. married the husband of her sister, Orlando P. Rose, and resides in Kansas City, Missouri; Horace Otho, who died October 30, 1886, at nineteen years of age; J. Edgar, who died in April, 1873 at four years of age; Harry Evert, born February 28, 1874, married Ernest L. Brown and died July 22, 1898, leaving two daughters, Nita and Lois.

In an effort to trace up the Duncan genealogy, as in every other like effort, it will be necessary to bring in the names of heads ot[sic] families remote from the subject hereof, but as this volume is devoted in a measure to the preserving of records along these lines, for the satisfaction and enlightenment of their posterity, none of the family names will be omitted from this record whose strain can be shown to have effected the subject hereof or his posterity.

The earliest record of the Duncans of this strain, finds them located in the counties of Culpepper and Fauquier, Virginia. Our subject's great grandfather was one of two men, Charles or William Duncan, whose father it is believed, was the Scotch ancestor who was responsible for the establishment of one branch of this American family. Three children of this doubtful ancestor referred to above are known to have survived, as follows: Henry, the grandfather of James P. Duncan, Charles, who reared a family in Missouri, and a daughter who married a Covington, after whom the city of Covington, Kentucky, was named. Henry Duncan was born about

1780, and during the last decade of the 18th century migrated to Bath County, Kentucky, where, about 1803 he married Polly Combs. Their children were: Matilda, who married Coleman Covington, her cousin, and a woolen manufacturer; James, father of our subject, born in 1806; Margaret; Miranda, who became the wife of William Barnett; Hiram, Jeptha, Granvil and George. Henry Duncan died in Cooper County, Missouri, where some of his sons reared families.

James Duncan, father of our subject, was married in Kentucky to Annie Proctor, a daughter of James B. and Elizabeth Proctor. The last named married a daughter of an old well-to-do planter, Valentine and Elizabeth (Hicks) Tudor, of Madison County, Kentucky, and went up into Indiana about 1830, and settled in Boone County. His sons-in-law James Duncan, David Hedge and John Blackburn all passed their lives between North Salem and Lebanon and in that section the venerable couple lived honorable Christian lives and died. The children of James and Annie (Proctor) Duncan were: Mary, who married William Woodard, left two children at death, Leonidas E. A., and Froncy; Coleman C., who resides in Clay City, Indiana, married Lizzie Glenn and reared Dr. Walter C.; William, May and Franka; Dr. William, who died without heirs just after the war; Annie, wife of Champ C. Yeager, of Allen County, Kansas, is the mother of three surviving children, James L., of Oregon, Mary E., wife of E. W. Trego, of Allen County, Kansas, and Francis M., of St. Joseph, Missouri; James P. Duncan, our subject; Miranda, wife of Andrew J. Stephens, of Rich Hill, Missouri, with issue as follows: James, Dillon, Annie L. and William; George W. Duncan, who married Nan Davis, has two children, Elmer, of Colorado, and Mrs. Lulu Davis, of North Salem, Indiana; John W. who married Betty Owen and died near Humboldt, Kansas, February, 1898, leaving Pheres, Mrs. Frelia Stewart, Emmert, of the Indian Territory, Mrs. Thella Booe, of Indiana, Bertha, Buhlon and Olin; Almanda (Duncan) Ray, deceased, left five children in Indiana; Nancy Duncan, who married John Gosnold, of Kansas City, has four children: Laura, Bessie, Edna, and Nina; Kittie Duncan, deceased, wife of WIlliam Long, left four children near Holden, Missouri. James Duncan's first wife died in 1855 and a few years later he married Mrs. Amanda Dean, who bore him Ruth, Belle, Elmer and Della, twins, Charles and Minerva. James Duncan and his sons were in the main, farmers. He was one of the old line Whigs of Putnam County, Indiana, and became a Republican upon the organization of that party. His sons were all patriots during the Rebellion and three of them rendered active service in the army. He passed away in 1885 in North Salem and is buried at Maysville, Indiana.

Lew Wallace Duncan, second child of our subject, was born near North Salem, Indiana, June 22, 1861. His mother was a daughter of Zachariah Bailey, who was born in Kentucky in 1812 and was married to Eliza Frame. The father was a son of William Bailey, who was born March 6, 1784, and who married Margaret Green, born in 1790. Their children were: Lucretia, born in 1810, married Hiram Mitchell, and spent her life in Indiana; Zachariah, born January 5, 1812, and died in Topeka,

Kansas, July 7, 1889; John T., born Dec. 14, 1813, and died at Augusta, Kansas, and Chas. W., born January 24, 1816. William Bailey died about 1816, and his widow married Moses Vice, four years his wife's junior. The children of the latter union were: Mahala, Winey, Sallie Ann, Moses, Alafair and Nancy G. Matilda J. Zachariah Bailey reared his family in Indiana and in Johnson and Butler counties, Kansas. His twelve children were: John W.; killed at Winchester, Virginia; Mary E. who married our subject and died in Iola, Kansas, January 25, 1893, was born April 14, 1841; Sallie Ann (Bailey) Welch, born August 2, 1843, died at Lawrence, Kansas, September 11, 1870; William F., born August 24, 1845, served three years in the 11th Indiana Volunteers during the Rebellion, resides in Topeka; Asbury H., born August 27, 1847, resides in Topeka; James M., born March 25, 1850, lives in Topeka, was married to Emma Clark and has a son Arthur; Lucretia M., deceased, married Chris Pickerell and left children: Hattie Fellows of Griswold, Iowa, and George. Lorenzo A. Bailey, of Colorado Springs, married Mary McCartney. He was born June 21, 1854. Matilda J. (Bailey) Nordine, born November 3, 1856, has two sons and resides in Topeka; Zachariah C. Bailey, deceased, born May 17, 1859, was married to Florence Hart and left six children in Oklahoma; Eliza Charlotte (Bailey) Simcock, born January 20, 1862, resides in Topeka and has four children, and Phebe Alice, who died single. L. W. Duncan of this sketch, was reared in Allen County, educated at the Kansas State Normal school, taught school for a time, made abstracts of title two years in Allen County, was with a surveying party on the resurvey of the Utah Central Railway in the spring of 1890, spent the fall of the same year on the flax inspection force of the Chicago Board of Trade and in August 1891, joined the Lewis Publishing Company, of Chicago, and was in their employ in various parts of the United States for nine years. In 1900 he engaged in the business of publishing histories. June 22, 1887, he was married to Annie M., a daughter of Benjamin and Fredrica (Zeigler) Keyser, Maryland settlers who came into Allen County in 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Duncan's children are: Edna L., born May 25, 1888; Alfa I., born May 29, 1889; Lue W., born July 14, 1890, and Clifford Morrill, born Nov. 8, 1894.

September 20, 1893, James P. Duncan married Mrs. Margaret Swearingen, widow of the late well known old soldier, Joseph Swearingen, of Iola. The latter left two children, Fuller Swearingen, who served in the 20th Kansas in the Philippine Insurrection, and Miss Josie Swearingen.

Previous | Home | Next