DOUGLAS CO. KS
HISTORIES before 1923
 

1899 "Portrait and biographical record of Leavenworth, Douglas and Franklin Counties, Kansas : containing portraits, biographies and genealogies of well known citizens of the past and present; together with portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States" pub. by Chapman Bros. (FHL film 1,000,036 item 1)
      No Duncan biography
      Pg.140-141: NELSON O. STEVENS. Among those who have acted in the capacity of traveling auditor of the southern Kansas division of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad system, few have filled the position so efficiently and none has held it so long as did Mr. Stevens. It was in 1884 that he became connected with the company in this office, which he held for eight years and four months, a much longer period than it has ever been held by any other man. The position was one of great responsibility, and taxed both the mental and physical powers of a man. The division included, at the time he resigned, eleven hundred miles, and during the entire time of his service there were three days and three nights of every week that he never took his clothes off, but had to snatch a little rest and sleep now and then as he had a moment's leisure. Four times he presented his resignation to the company, feeling that the work was a heavier burden than he could bear, but each time they refused to part with him, believing him to be too valuable an officer to lose. Finally, however, his fifth resignation was accepted, January 1, 1893, since which time there have been four traveling auditors in his former division.
            A son of Capt. James T. Stevens, late of Lawrence [MAD: Douglas Co.], the subject of this sketch was born in Princeton, Ill., May 11, 1854. He was thirteen years of age at the time the family left Illinois for Kansas, settling in the city of Lawrence. He graduated from the high school in 1873 and later from McCauley's Commercial College. Afterward he became local editor and business manager of the "Spirit of Kansas," which position he held until he was elected county clerk in 1879. He filled this office with such efficiency that, in 1881, he was re-elected by double the majority he had ever received, and continued in office until January, 1884. Just prior to his election as county clerk, in September, 1879, he was elected secretary of the Kansas Valley Fair, and filled the position until after the fair held that fall, when he resigned. Shortly after he retired from the county clerk's office he became travelling auditor of the Santa Fe road. Since his retirement from the latter position he has given his attention to the supervision of his various property and moneyed interests, and has recently been devoting considerable attention to the oversight of the building of his elegant residence, a find structure with modern appointments, on the corner of Louisiana and Pinckney streets. At this writing he is treasurer of the Lawrence Commercial Club, and secretary and treasurer of the Lawrence Vitrified Brick and Tile Company.
            In politics Mr. Stevens has always been a member of the Republican party, and believing in its principles, he has always zealously advocated them. He is identified with the Plymouth Congregational Church and a member of the choir. His marriage, in Lawrence, March 22, 1882, united him with Miss Lucetta Duncan, who was born in this city, daughter of Wesley H. Duncan, a pioneer of 1855 in Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens have two children, Lois R. and Myra.
      Pg.249-250: DANIEL MARK HILL owns and occupies a farm of two hundred acres at Big Springs, one of the most delightful locations, not only of Douglas County, but of eastern Kansas as well. On the land are thirty-one mineral springs possessing health-restoring mineral properties that will at some future day without doubt make the place a noted health resort. Nor is the presence of the springs the only claim which the place has to public notice. Those interested in the early history of the state regard it as an historic landmark, for it was the site of the first territorial convention and served as the headquarters of "Jim" Lane during the exciting days of border ruffian warfare.
            Mark Hill (for by his middle name our subject is best known) was born in Bedford County, Pa., August 4, 1836, a son of Jacob and Rosina R. (Byer) Hill. He was one of eleven children, five now living, viz.: Margaret, wife of Louis Kellerman, a retired stockman of burlington, Kans.; William, who is with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and resides at Bard (Bend?), Pa., where he is an extensive holder of farming lands; Daniel Mark; Anna, wife of Ellis Miner, who is engaged in the wholesale dry-goods business at Heppner, Ore.; and Kate, wife of Samuel Zike, who is engaged in the hotel and livery business in Nebraska. Jacob Hill was born in Bedford County, Pa., where he early became prominent in political life, although he was educated for the Lutheran ministry. He was a power in his party and filled many offices in his section of the country.
            When our subject was nine years of age his father died and he was taken into the home of an older brother, a farmer and business man of Bedford County, who owned a farm of four hundred acres, also a sawmill, blacksmith's and shoemaker's shop. He was fourteen when he began teaming for his brother and became so expert in his work that he could drive six horses with a single line; his skill as a driver caused his associates to say: "Show Hill a knot hole and he will drive the team through." In 1854 he married Miss Delilah, daughter of John Boone, who was a great-nephew of Daniel Boone. After his marriage he continued teaming and also engaged in farming. In 1862 he left the business in the care of his brother and visited Iowa with a view to locating there. After a year he came to Kansas and spent some months, then returned to Iowa. His brother sold out in the east and located in Anderson, while our subject, settling at Weston, Iowa, became the leading business man of the town, where he operated a brick yard, a shoe store, a meat market and a general contracting business. In 1867 he disposed of his business there and came to Kansas, settling at Cherry Mound, Anderson County, where he embarked in farming and the stock business. On account of his wife's ill health he came to Douglas County in 1869 and settled in Lecompton Township, two miles south of the village of Lecompton, where he planted and carried on a fruit farm, also engaged in raising sheep and cattle. Some ten years later he removed to Jefferson County and for four years was foreman of the Elliott farm of nine hundred and sixty acres, meantime clearing the farm of mortgage. From there he returned to Douglas County and bought his present farm in Lecompton Township.
            By his marriage Mr. Hill had seven children, namely: William, a prominent business man of Oklahoma City; Charles, who is with the Poehler Mercantile Company in Lawrence; George, a rising young business man of Kelso, Wash.; Jesse B., who is a partner of his brother in Kelso; Frederick, who is in the Klondike; Anna, wife of C.T. Spencer, a farmer of Douglas County; and Lulu, who married E.M. Duncan and resides upon a farm in this county. The wife and mother died in July, 1897. She was an earnest worker in the United Brethren Church and was highly esteemed by all who knew her. Mr. Hill has contributed to the support of the church and also to other worthy movements. He is a supporter of the Republican party and, had he so desired, might have been elected to any of the local offices, but he prefers to devote himself to his private interests.
      Pgs.586-587: JOHN G. McCLANAHAN, one of the earliest of the Douglas County pioneers, was born in Lexington, Ky., June 18, 1826, a son of William S. and Elizabeth T. (Triplett) McClanahan, of whose eight children, one son and three daughters, Amelia, Mary and Elizabeth, survive. His father, who was born in Kentucky about 1800, went to West Virginia in early manhood and engaged in farming in conjunction with his work as a teacher in the public schools. After some years he went to Lexington, Ky., in order that his wife, who was not strong, might have the benefit of medical attendance. After her recovery he returned to West Virginia, where he remained until 1833. He then removed to Boone County, Mo., and engaged in farming and teaching. In 1848 he established his home in Linn County, the same state, where he resided until his death. He gave up teaching about 1850 and was elected county surveyor, which office he filled for six years. Soon after resigning from that position he was elected clerk of the county court, and served in that capacity for fourteen years. He was a prominent member of the Mission Baptist Church. In politics he was first an ardent supporter of the Whig party and later a stanch Republican. In character he was upright, a man respected wherever known.
            Under his father's private tutorship our subject acquired an excellent education. From eighteen to twenty-one years of age he worked in a sawmill. Afterward he learned the carpenter's trade. In 1850 he married Miss Mary A. Zinn, a native of Illinois, and daughter of George W. Zinn, who for some years had been a prominent farmer near Danville, that state, but in 1839 (sic) removed to Linn County, Mo. After Mr. McClanahan's marriage he settled upon a farm which he purchased in Linn County, and there he followed farming and carpentering. In the fall of 1854 he came to Kansas in company with his father-in-law, arriving in Douglas County September 1(?). He took up land four miles west of Lecompton, where he still resides. He was the first settler in this part of Douglas County. Upon his property he first built a hut, and in the latter part of September returned to Missouri for his family. November of the same year found them domiciled in their new home, and they have since continued to reside upon the same farm.
            During the border warfare days Mr. McClanahan experienced all the excitement caused by the slavery agitation. In 1856 he was a member of the grand jury and at that time carried his life in his hand. During the Civil war he was a corporal in the militia and was called out to cut off General Price in his Kansas raid. He is a friend of education and has served on the school board for twenty-six years. In politics he is a Republican, and in religion a member of the Mission Baptist Church. He is one of the oldest living pioneers of Douglas County, and has witnessed the gradual development of this county from early days. Not only did he pass through all the dangers and trials of antebellum days, but he also has witnessed the subsequent growth of this section of the state, and has gained for himself a place among the most highly esteemed citizens of the county. In this esteem his wife also shares. Both recall the days when Douglas County was sparsely populated and of little importance in the commercial life of the state, and they have witnessed its prosperity with pride and have contributed not a little to its advancement. They became the parents of ten children, seven of whom survive, viz.: Martha A., wife of William A. Duncan, of Lyon County, Kans.; William S., who is engaged in farming in Douglas County and also operates a threshing machine; Sarah E., widow of Hiram Gibbons, of this county; John H. and Franklin A., who are farmers of this county; Mary Emma, wife of Thomas Hoog, of Shawnee County; and Nancy E., who married John Austin, proprietor of a cheese factory in Douglas County.
 

1895 "A history of Lawrence, Kansas : from the first settlement to the close of the rebellion" (Douglas Co.) by Richard Cordley; pub. Lawrence, Kan.: E.F. Caldwell (LH11791, HeritageQuest images 5/2007)
      Pg.160: Charter for Lawrence ... February 20th, 1858, charter was accepted. The following city officers were elected: ... treasurer, Wesley H. Duncan; ...
 

1879 "The United States Biographical Dictionary: Kansas Volume, containing accurately compiled biographical sketches into which is woven the history of the state and its leading interests" pub. Chicago and Kansas City : S. Lewis & Co. (FHL book 978.1 D3u v.1&2; FHL film 874,388, items 1&2)
      Pg.629-630: WESLEY HARVEY DUNCAN, Lawrence [Douglas Co. KS]. Wesley H. Duncan, a pioneer business man of Lawrence, was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, April 18, 1817. His father, Willis Duncan, was a Virginia planter, rather extensively engaged in tobacco-producing, a leading man in his neighborhood, a soldier in the war of 1812, and the son of a Revolutionary soldier. The family were Baptists and four of the uncles of Wesley H. Duncan were Baptist ministers, the one for whom he was named being in the Baptist ministry for over fifty years. His mother's name was Jane (Bailey) Duncan, and her father was a large stockraiser in Kentucky, where they were married. She was an active, useful member of the Baptist church.
            Wesley H. Duncan was educated in the country school houses of Lincoln county, Kentucky, to which place his father removed when he was only nine years old, embracing only about thirteen months schooling. Being of an adventurous spirit, he started out for himself at an early period, spending about nine years in the lead mines of Galena, Illinois, and a short time in Missouri, where he was married.
            In 1850 he immigrated with his family, a wife and one child, to California, crossing the plains with ox teams, being about four and a half months on the road. He opened a miners store at Cold Spring, Eldorado county, and was quite successful, mining only enough to say that he dug some gold. In the spring of 1853 he returned from California to Monroe county Missouri, and in the spring of 1855 came to Kansas, locating at Lawrence, and at once opened out a large store of general merchandise, in company with Charles Duncan, his brother-in-law and second cousin. In Lawrence he carried on that business until 1860, when the partnership of W.H. & C. Duncan was dissolved by mutual consent, and he entered into the dry goods and grocery business with Columbus Hornsby, since deceased, until 1862. He then entered into the same business with Duncan Allison and continued with him until he [MAD: Allison] was murdered in the Lawrence massacre of August 21, 1863. In this massacre he lost twenty-five thousand dollars in money and goods, eight thousand dollars being in cash.
            Immediately after the massacre he entered into business with Robert Morrow, in a dry-goods house in Lawrence, continuing in that occupation for about three years. Selling out, he devoted himself to the settlement of his business and collection of accounts until 1868, when he removed to California and resided at San Jose for a year. He then returned and entered into the hardware and agricultural implement trade with Charles Duncan and G.W.E. Griffith, as Griffith, Duncan & Co. With some changes in the firm he has continued to carry on that business until the present time.
            He has been a Mason for about twenty-one years. Mr. Duncan is a believer in the Christian religion, generally attending the Methodist church with his family, but never having associated himself with any church organization, but has been a liberal contributor to the erection of churches and religious enterprises. To Wesley H. and Charles Duncan is to be credited the largest portion in the erection of the first Methodist Episcopal church in Lawrence.
            Mr. Duncan was originally a Whig, casting his first presidential vote for General Harrison in 1840, and, since the organization of the Republican party, has been a Republican. He was an early free-state man, contributing liberally to the cause, and still retains some of the old free-state script as mementos of the sacrifices of the free-state struggles.
            Mr. Duncan has been twice married. He was married to Miss Margaret Duncan, in Johnson county, Missouri. She died in California, leaving one son, William T. Duncan, now a promising young business man. In May, 1854, he was married in Johnson county, Missouri, to Miss Elizabeth Watts, by whom he has had five children, only two of whom survive -- Lucetta, fourteen years old, and Wesley Harvey, five years old.
            Mr. Duncan is an energetic, upright business man, who has had many ups and downs in the world, retaining a character for the highest integrity. He has never failed to contribute to any worthy cause as far as he felt able.
 

1883 "History of the State of Kansas : containing a full account of its growth from an uninhabited territory to a wealthy and important state; of its early settlements; a supplementary history and description of its counties, cities, towns and villages, their advantages, industries and commerce, to which are added biographical sketches and portraits of prominent men and early settlers" ed. by William G. Cutler, A.T. Andreas; pub. Chicago : A.T. Andreas (FHL book 978.1 H2hi 1976 & v.2; FHL film 982,248 items 1-2)
      Pg.352: Douglas Co., Lecompton Twp. GEORGE W. DUNCAN, farmer, Section 12, P.O. Big Springs, born in Brown County, Ind., November 6, 1835. Mr. Duncan came to the State in 1855, and settled in Lecompton Township, where he still resides. He owns 120 acres, which he has improved. In 1871, he erected a good substantial dwelling house, at a cost of $1,000. During the Price raid Mr. Duncan was called out to serve in the State militia, and was in the engagement at Big Blue in Missouri, and was taken prisoner, and was subsequently paroled. Mr. Duncan was married in Indiana May 5, 1859, to Miss Hettie J. McIlvain, daughter of McLain McIlvain, Esq. They have four children -- Minnie A., John S., Edward M. and Mills. Mr. Duncan is a prominent member of the Christian Church, and one of the Board of Trustees.
 

1901 "History of Allen and Woodson Counties, Kansas : illustrated : embellished with portraits of well known people of these counties, with biographies of our representative citizens, cuts of public buildings and a map of each county" by L. Wallace Duncan and Chas. F. Scott, Iola, Kan. Pub. by Iola Register 1901. (from Kathy Cawley 8/2004 and FHL film 1,000,033 item 2)
      Pg.127-130: DUNCAN -- Among the settlers of Allen County who located along the Neosho River in the early seventies and who 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 but 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 December 24, 1871, is practicing dentistry in Humboldt, Kansas, and M. Agnes, born February 28, 1874, married Ernest L. Brown and died July 22, 1898, leaving two daughters, Nato 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 of 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 Indiana 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 to 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 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; Ashbury 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 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, 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 was 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 Morril, 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.
 

1912 "Kansas : a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc..." ed. by Frank Wilson Blackmar; pub. Chicago : Standard Pub. Co. (FHL film 1,000,027)
      Vol.1, pg.551: Duncan, Norman, author and educator, was born at Brantford, Ontario, Canada, July 2, 1871, a son of Augustus and Susan (Hawley) Duncan. He was educated in the University of Toronto, where he was graduated in 1895. From 1897 to 1901 he was on the staff of the New York Evening Post, and in 1902 was appointed professor of rhetoric in Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pa., which position he held until 1906, when he became adjunct professor of English literature in the University of Kansas. In 1907-08 he was correspondent of Harper's Magazine in Syria, Palestine, Arabia and Egypt, and prior to that time had made several trips to Labrador and Newfoundland. Prof. Duncan is a contributor to several of the leading magazines. His best known published works are "The Soul of the Street," "The Way of the Sea," "Every Man for Himself," "Going Down from Jerusalem," "Dr. Greenfell's Parish," and "The Adventures of Billy Topsail."
      Vol.1, pg.551-552: Duncan, Robert K., professor of industrial chemistry in the University of Kansas and brother of the above, was born at Brantford, Ontario, Nov. 1, 1868. He was graduated at the University of Toronto as a member of the class of 1892, taking first honors in physics and chemistry. During the years 1892-93 he was a fellow in chemistry in Clark University, and was then instructor in physics and chemistry in the Auburn (N.Y.) academy and high school until 1895. He then became an instructor in Sach's Collegiate Institute at New York, and in 1897-98 was a graduate student in chemistry at Columbia University. From 1898 to 1901 he was professor of chemistry in Washington and Jefferson College, and in 1906 came to his present position in the University of Kansas. On Dec. 27, 1899, he married Miss Charlotte M. Foster. Prof. Duncan is the discoverer of a new process of manufacturing phosphorus, of melting glass at a low temperature, and of decorating glass. In 1901 he was sent abroad by the publishers of McClure's Magazine to study radio activity; in 1903 he again visited Europe in the interests of the publishing house of A.S. Barnes & Co., and in 1905 he again crossed the Atlantic as a representative of Harper's Magazine. In 1910 he was appointed professor of industrial research in the University of Pittsburgh, and holds this position in connection with a similar one in the University of Kansas. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Kansas Academy of Science, and other similar organizations; is a contributor to scientific journals and magazines; editor of the New Science series, and editor of "The New Knowledge and the Chemistry of Commerce." (MAD: 1910 Lawrence, Douglas Co. KS, census index)
 

c1912 "Kansas : a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc... with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence." Vol.I-II ed. by Frank Wilson Blackmar; Supplementary Volume (Vol.III) Parts 1-2; pub. Chicago : Standard Pub. Co. (FHL film 1,000,028)
      Supplementary Vol.(III), pg.136-139: WILLIAM DUNKIN, of Independence [Montgomery Co.], Kan., became a law student in the office of Thacher & Banks, at Lawrence, Kan., in March, 1872. About one year thereafter, through the kind influence of Judge N.T. Stephens, then associated with the firm of Thacher & Banks, at Lawrence, Kan., in March, 1872. About one year thereafter, through the kind influence of Judge N.T. Stephens, then associated with the firm of Thacher & Banks, Mr. Dunkin was admitted to the bar of Douglas county, and thereafter, on April 1, 1873, opened a law office and entered upon the practice of his profession at Independence, Kan. He has since then continuously occupied the same office. At the time he located at Independence he was wholly unacquainted in the county and spent the first few months in assiduous study, with little or no professional work.
            He was then appointed city attorney and at once vigorously took up the pending litigation concerning the entry of the town site, the patent to which had been for several years withheld on account of contests between the city and claimants to portions of it. The next year (1874) he became a candidate on the Democratic ticket for county attorney. ... After his unsuccessful race for county attorney Mr. Dunkin soon acquired a lucrative practice, singularly, in a large measure, from political opponents. In 1876 he married Miss Elizabeth Browning Hull, of Kalamazoo, Mich. She is a native of Stonington, Conn. Their children are Florence E., Cora Hull Kimble (nee Dunkin), and William Latham, all residents of Independence, Kan. In 1877 Mr. Dunkin was elected by an overwhelming majority over Judge James DeLong as mayor of Independence, and shortly afterwards, through the aid of Senator John J. Ingalls, secured the patent to the town site, which had been held back by the contests and litigation for six or seven years. ... At the end of his term Mr. Dunkin declined to become a candidate for reelection ... In 1888, while spending the summer with his family on Lake Michigan, and over his telegraphic protest to the Democratic convention, Mr. Dunkin was nominated as a candidate for state senator. He was defeated by something less than 400 plurality, while the Republican ticket carried the county by over 1,000. During his residence at Independence he has accumulated a comfortable fortune, consisting largely of a number of river bottom farms, business and residence buildings in the city and elsewhere, and personal property, to the management of which his time is in the main devoted.
            Mr. Dunkin was born at Flint Hill, Rappahannock county, Virginia, April 7, 1845. His father, Dr. William Dunkin, was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, April 5, 1797. After studying medicine and attending medical lectures in Baltimore, he was graduated in 1822 and for about twenty years thereafter practiced his profession in Rappahannock county, Virginia, where he was wedded to Mrs. Elizabeth Late (nee Woodside), a widow, who was the mother of two children -- a son, William Michael, and Mary Catherine -- by her deceased husband, John Late. Dr. Dunkin was descended from Scotch parentage and his wife was of Irish extraction. The ancestry (MAD: sic) of both lived in Virginia for many years during the Colonial period and through the Revolutionary war, in which some of them participated. In the spring of 1846 Dr. Dunkin, with his family, then consisting of his wife, two step-children, a daughter (Anne) and a son (William) then less than a year old, moved in covered wagons with his numerous slaves across the Alleghany mountains to a new home in Harrison county, Virginia. Their home was a farm situated between Bridgeport and Clarksburg, which in time he increased to about 1,000 acres. At the time of his arrival there typhoid fever was prevalant in the county. At his former home Dr. Dunkin had had much recent experience in the treatment of this dreaded disease. He therefore at once acquired an extensive practice and soon won an enviable reputation as a physician, which endured to the time of his death, June 22, 1868. Soon after locating he began the erection of a large stone house, in which he resided until his death. At this house were born the following children: John, James, Elizabeth and Amanda, the last in 1854, all of whom are yet living. About 1855 the stepson, William M. Late, after studying medicine at home, attended medical lectures one year at Baltimore and then two years at the University in Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1858, and on his return Dr. Dunkin gradually retired in favor of his stepson, who held the practice and added to it till his death, in 1906.
            Owing to the excited state of the public mind preceding the Civil war, and the unsettled conditions along the line of hostility, where the doctor and his family lived during the war, educational facilities were sadly neglected. During a portion of the time the older children were periodically instructed by the doctor, by private tutors at home, and by inferior teachers at subscription schools. At times the home was between contending armies and often not far from the seat of hostilities. While the doctor and his wife were slaveowners, as had been their ancestors during and since the Colonial days, he was an uncompromising and aggressive Union man, and felt if the preservation of the Union should result in the destruction of slavery it would be an additional blessing, ... In those never-to-be-forgotten days along the border it was not unusual to find brothers in opposing armies and fathers arrayed in deadly conflict against their sons. In the case of Dr. Dunkin his brothers and relatives were without exception loyal to the government and many of them served in the Union army, while his wife's relatives were equally devoted to the cause of the Confederacy and a number of them fought in the Southern army.
            When about sixteen years of age William Dunkin, Jr., became greatly concerned about an education. He wanted to go to the academy at Morgantown, W.Va., afterwards the West Virginia University, to take up a classical course, and finally, after graduating from Princeton or Harvard, study and practice law. He persistently, but unsuccessfully, importuned his father on the subject till at last, when about nineteen years of age, he ran away from home and went to New York City, where, after weeks of effort, he secured a position as errand boy in the office of Edward P. Clark, a distinguished lawyer on Lower Broadway, with whom he remained some three months, when he returned home with the understanding that he was to enter the academy. His father, however, seemed unalterably opposed to that part of the plan respecting the practice of law, ... After some six or eight months at the academy, where the son had made fine progress in a classical course, he returned home in broken health, which did not become fully restored for several years.
            After his father's death, in 1868, Mr. Dunkin administered on his estate and settled that portion of it in Michigan, where he spent the winter of 1871-72 for that purpose. In March, 1872, at the instance of his cousin, Maj. Wyllis C. Ransom, of Lawrence, Kan., he entered the law office of Thacher & Banks, as before stated.
 

1918-1919 "A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans" by William E. Connelley, pub. by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, IL, Vol.1 to 5 (CA State Library, Sutro Branch; FHL book 978.1 H2c and film 1,000,029; also 5/1999 on the Internet)
      http://www.combs-families.org/combs/assoc/duncan2.htm
      Vol.5, pg.2724-6: LEW WALLACE DUNCAN. The close of the Civil war launched a new era of settlement in the West. ... James P. Duncan ... dropped down near Gooch's Mill in Cooper County [MO] in the wilderness of forest and wild turkeys.
      Mr. Duncan's stay in that semi-hostile region was a brief two years before he moved on to Kansas. He chose his location at Lawrence [Douglas Co.] when the classic crown of "K.U." was being added to the dome of Mt. Oread and he settled on the Colmore farm whose early owner was one of the victims of the Quantrell raid. Two years later the call of the Missouri wild beckoned him back among the "pukes and mossbacks" of Grundy County where he spent a season and raised a crop on the banks of Grand River near Trenton. But having once breathed the Kansas air and learned the Kansas tongue, Missouri environment failed to soothe and charm and the privileges and opportunities of the "Sunflower State" were again sought, and this time he settled along the Neosho River near Humboldt. In Allen County [KS] he has since lived and grown old in humble service as a farmer and as a public official and when he became a county officer he established his home in Iola where it has since been maintained.
      James Proctor Duncan was born near New Maysville, Putnam County, Indiana, March 22, 1840. ... Mr. Duncan married during the period of his youth and established his humble home not far from the Red schoolhouse which subsequently figured in the local events of the Civil war.
      He enlisted in 1862 in Capt. A.J. Haun's company of the 78th IN Infantry, commanded by Colonel Farrow. He saw service in KY, TN, VA, and in Ft. McHenry, Maryland, and was discharged at the expiration of his enlistment. He re-entered the army later as a member of Captain Allison's company in the 115th IN Infantry, under command of his old captain, now Colonel Haun. During his service with this regiment he was in Burnside's corps and was under rebel fire twenty-five days in the siege of Knoxville and was again discharged when his time expired. In 1865 he enlisted in Company "K," 11th IN Zouaves, the old regiment of Col., later Gen. Lew Wallace, and his company commander was Captain Palmer. He served again amid the scenes of active operations in the East and was discharged at Baltimore, Maryland, at the end of the war. He identified himself with the patriotic order of the veterans of the rebellion, the Grand Army of the Republic, when the organization reached Kansas and has been a frequent attendant upon its State and National encampments.
      Mr. Duncan identified himself with the republican party ... He served Humboldt Township many years as its trustee and was appointed Register of Deeds to succeed Jesse Fast in May, 1883. He was elected three times to that office and retired from it in January, 1890.
      Mr. Duncan married September 20, 1858, Mary Ellen Bailey, a daughter of Zacharia and Eliza (Frame) Bailey, the former of whom was born in Bath Co. KY in 1812, a son of William Bailey, and settled in Hendricks Co. IN as a young man. (more on Bailey family and their children, not copied here)
      The issue of James P. and Mary E. Duncan, are [p.2725] Lew Wallace, of Iola, Kansas; Lenora C., who died in Iola in 1884 as the wife of O.P. Rose and left a son, Ora D.; Eldora C., twin sister of Lenora, is now Mrs. O.P. Rose, of Kansas City, MO; Horace Otho who died as a dental student in Iola in October, 1886; Harry E., a dentist of Eureka, Kansas; and Millie Agnes who passed away in July 1898, as Mrs. Earnest Brown and left daughters, Mrs. Nita Primmer and Miss Loise Brown. Mrs. Duncan pased away January 23, 1893, and Mr. Duncan then married Mrs. Margaret Swearingen who had children, Fuller and Josie. The former served in the Twentieth Kansas under Colonel Funston in the Philippine insurrection and died in Iola in August, 1916, while Josie is now Mrs. Kuhlman, of Iola.
      James P. Duncan was a son of James Duncan, born in Bourbon Co. KY, October 12, 1806, and resided in that state till twenty-three years of age when he followed the course of empire northward and settled in Putnam County, Indiana, when the state was but twelve years old. He resided and carried on his work of the farm near New Maysville till just before the rebellion when he moved to Hendricks County and passed away near North Salem in August, 1885. ...
      James Duncan married his first wife in Kentucky and was the father of eleven children by this union. Mrs. Duncan was Anna, a daughter of Jas. Buchanan and Lizzie (Tudor) Proctor. The Proctor family abandoned Kentucky for Indiana when the forests of the latter were still virgin but were Mississippi settlers of Kentucky. Valentine Tudor married a Miss Hicks and was himself a descendant of the English "house of Tudor" and was a slaveholding farmer in Kentucky. Mrs. Duncan died in 1855 and was the mother of Mary who married Wm. Woodard and died near North Salem, Indiana; Coleman C. who died in Clay City, Indiana; Dr. William whose death in Indiana resulted from ill treatment and winter exposure at the hands of the Hickory County, Missouri, rebels during the war; Annie died at Humboldt, Kansas, as the widow of Champ C. Yeager; Miranda married A.J. Stephens and both died at Rich Hill, Missouri; Amanda married Frank Zimmerman first, a union soldier whose own pistol accidentally killed him, and she subsequently married Allen Ray and died in Indianapolis; George W., of North Salem, Indiana, one of the heroes of the battle of "Ft. Red"; John W. who died at Humboldt, Kansas; Nancy passed away as Mrs. John Gosnold, in Kansas City, Missouri; Kittie was Mrs. Wm. Long when she died at Holden, Missouri. James Duncan married Mrs. Amanda Dean for his second wife and their issue were Ruth who married William Peck; Benjamin, of North Salem; Belle, wife of Geo. Davenport; Elmer and Della, twins; Charles, a Nebraska ranchman; and Minerva.
      James Duncan ... was first a whig, then a republican, and his name was on the roll of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He passed away as the roll of Indiana pioneers was being called "up yonder."
      The father of James Duncan was Henry Duncan whose family formed a part of the exodus to Kentucky from Fauquier and Culpeper counties, Virginia. Madison County, Kentucky, received them and he subsequently lived in Bourbon County. In 1835, or about that date, Henry Duncan brought his numerous family, yet at home, to Missouri and settled in Cooper County where he passed away. The family was a member of the Lone Elm locality of the county and there he is buried. Henry Duncan married Sally [sic] Combs and among their numerous children were Matilda who married Coleman Covington, of Covington, Kentucky; Miranda became Mrs. Wm. Barnett and Margaret died as the wife of Wallace Stone, of Cooper County. The sons of Henry and Sally Duncan were James, the only one to settle in Indiana; Hiram, a Missouri colonel of Confederate troops in the Civil war; Jeptha, Jackson, Granvil and George whose posterity is numerous throughout Missouri and the West.
      In reviewing further the history of this numerous and colonial family we present Wm. Duncan as our remote American ancestor and family founder. He was born in Dumfrieshire, Scotland, December 28, 1690, and was a grandson of Rev. Wm. Duncan who lost his life by refusing to take the "Jacobite oath" during the reign of Charles the Second. The name "Duncan" means "brown chief" and as clansmen the tribe was a neighbor of the McDougals and tradition says they were enemies from every point of view. Their meeting accidentally or by design always meant a battle until the Duncans were vanquished for lack of numbers. The Duncans finally denied their name when they fell into the clutches of the McDougals but the latter had prepared themselves for this eventuality with a test that never failed. The Duncan clan was equipped with a large and generous mouth, a distinguishing characteristic, and the McDougals made a born spoon just the size to forcibly fit the Duncan mouth so that when they captured a strange clansman who denied the Duncan name they said "by the great horn spoon we will test you" and if the spoon fit he paid the penalty of their wrath for his carelessness in being caught.
      William Duncan of Dumfrieshire settled in Virginia in 1724 and married there Ruth Rawley, a daughter of Matthew Rawley, a Church of England man who came from Wales in 1720. William and Ruth Duncan's children were Margaret Haldane, Mehitable, Ruth Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Rawley, William, Jr., Charles, James and Townsend. Rawley and Charles served in the command of young George Washington in the British army in the battle which General Braddock lost in 1755 and when Benedict Arnold, as a traitor, led a column of Cornwallis' army into Virginia the brothers responded for the defense of their capital. Although many of these Scotch Presbyterian pioneers were tories and aided the British against the colonies all of William Duncan's posterity was true to the cause of American liberty.
      The sons of William and Ruth Duncan were born in Culpeper County, Virginia, where Rawley married [p.2726] Sallie McLane, James married Sina Browning and Charles married Susan Bourn. Rawley Duncan was the father of Margaret, Elizabeth, Charles, Edward and James, and it is believed that James, who was murdered by the Indians at the mouth of Paint Lick Creek in Kentucky, November 7, 1792, leaving a widow and three children, was the father of Henry Duncan, the grandfather of James P. Duncan, the founder of this Kansas branch of the family.
      Lew Wallace Duncan was born near North Salem, Indiana, June 22, 1861, and came to his majority in Kansas. ... For a time he was ... a field man on the flax inspection force in the Chicago Board of Trade in the fall of 1890 and, early in 1891, he engaged with the Goodspeed Publishing Company as a solicitor and biographical writer in Mississippi and Louisiana. In August of that year he entered the service of the Lewis Publishing Company and went to Texas in the same work. He has continued with this old and progressive firm of publishers almost wholly since.
      In 1901 he formed a partnership with Chas. F. Scott and the firm of Duncan and Scott published a history of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas. He continued the business alone for two more years and published editions of history embracing Neosho and Wilson and Montgomery counties. Having satisfied his thirst for fame and for profit as a publisher he resumed his position with the Lewis Publishing Company where he is still doing time. And it is only just to add that his labors have brought together some of the most interesting and historically valuable personal data published in these volumes.
      Mr. Duncan married in Iola, June 22, 1887, Miss Anna M. Keyser who accompanied her parents to Kansas in 1882 from Frederick Co. MD, where she was born March 9, 1862. Her parents were Benj. and Frederica (Zeigler) Keyser, both natives of Frederick Co. MD, and farmers there and in Kansas. Mr. Keyser was born October, 1821, and his wife November 16, 1824. He was a son of Philip Keyser and she was a daughter of Henry and Joanna (Schaffner) Zeigler, Wurtembergers or Schwabenlanders who came to the United States in 1819 and settled in Frederick County. Mr. Keyser died January 9, 1888, but his wife survived till August 31, 1904, and both are buried at Iola. (more on the Keyser family and children, not copied here)
      L.W. and Mrs. Duncan are the parents of Edna L., Alfa I., Lue W. and Clifford Morrill Duncan. ...
 

Return to the Douglas Co. KS Research File
 

END

Return to Index to Duncan Research Files in Kansas

Return to The Genealogy Bug's Home Page