Duncans in Chemung NY

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Duncan research files of
Mary Ann (Duncan) Dobson
the Genealogy Bug

Last revised July 15, 2012

CHEMUNG CO. NY
Formed 1836 from Tioga
Schuyler formed 1854 from Tompkins, Steuben, Chemung
 

CENSUS RECORDS

1840 Chemung Co. NY Census; semi-alphabetic
Veteran
Pg.298  Joseph Duncan      0000,001  -  0000,01

1850-1860 Chemung Co. NY Census
      No Duncan indexed

1870 Chemung Co. NY Census
6th Ward Elmira
Pg.292, #69-69, DUNKEN, Howard 50 IRE vetiranary surgeon $600-$0, mother of foreign birth
                  Maria 51 IRE K.House (not parents of foreign birth)
Town of Horseheads, P.O. Millport
Pg.364, #516-519, VANGORDER, Jeremiah 59 NY & family & many others
                  (many people, including)
                  DUNKEN, Mahaley (f) 67 NJ
Town of Southport, P.O. Elmira
Pg.383, #178-172, GRORER?, Joseph 62 NY farmer $20,000-$6,000
                  Sarah 63 NY keeps house
                  William 27 NY
                  PRICE, John 22 NY teamster
                  PATTERSON, John 23 NY teamster
                  HOMER, Matilda 15 NY
                  DUNCON, James 16 VA MULATTO
                  GRORER, Defry (f) 21 MI
 

HISTORIES before 1923

"History of Tioga, Chemung, Tompkins, and Schuyler Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers." by H.B. Pierce; pub. Philadelphia: Everts & Ensign, 1879, 922 pgs. (LH2748, HeritageQuest images 6/2007; FHL book 974.7 H2pe and film 934,851 item 5 and 1,597,736 item 6)
      Pg.25: Some of the larger tracts granted in the old town of Chemung, were as follows: John Jackson, Benj. Jackson, John Donton, Joseph Elliott, Reuben Hopkins, James White, Daniel Jackson, Phineas Case, Timothy Duncan, Wm. Elmer, Wm. Thompson, and Anthony Dobbin, lots 177, 171, 182 to 187, inclusive, 9360 acres, Nov. 6, 1788.
      Pg.624: Alexander Wilson, a name well known among American naturalists and readers of natural history, with two friends of like tastes and pursuits, started one bright autumn morning, in 1804, from the city of Philadelphia for a trip on foot through Western New York. ... to Niagara Falls ... he followed the old path to Burdett, arrived about five miles below North Hector, in Lodi, where their guide, Duncan, unexpectedly found relatives in William Duncan and his family, who was an old settler, and whose descendants are still in Seneca and Schuyler Counties. ... (MAD: Lodi, Seneca Co. NY)
 

"History of the Western Reserve" Volume 2, by Harriet Taylor Upton, and Harry Gardner Cutler, ed. of Lewis Pub. Co.; pub. 1910 by Lewis Publishing Co. (image of page from Honey Lee Miller 4/22/2012; her file History of the Western Reserve Vol. II.pdf, (editions:aZJNEhIEJVoC))
      Pg.899-900: Samuel Duncan, of this memoir, was one of the early pioneer settlers of the Western Reserve, and was a man who made his life count for good in all its relations. For many years he was numbered among the representative farmers and citizens of Mentor township, Lake county, where he reclaimed his farm from the wild state, and both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives in Ashtabula county, where he died at the age of sixty-eight years. His wife, whose maiden name was Betsy Lapham, was eighty-four years of age at the time of her death. Both were natives of the state of New York and members of families founded in New England in the colonial era of our national history. They came from Chemung county. New York, to Ohio, about 1820, making the trip from Buffalo on a sailing vessel and disembarking at what is now Fairport Harbor, Lake county. There Mr. Duncan remained four years, at the expiration of which he removed to Mentor township, where he purchased a tract of heavily timbered land, from which, in due course of time, he developed a productive farm, in the meanwhile living up to the full tension of the pioneer days. His wife's father, Thomas Lapham, had located in Lake county at an even earlier date, removing here from Canada, though his family was originally established in Dutchess county, New York. Late in life Samuel Duncan removed to Ashtabula county, where, as already stated, he passed the residue of his life. He was a man of superior mentality and of impregnable integrity, and his name merits an enduring place on the roster of the honored pioneers of the historic old Western Reserve. His son Frank now owns and resides upon their old homestead in Ashtabula county.
         Samuel and Betsy (Lapham) Duncan became the parents of thirteen children, of whom six are living at the time of this writing, in 1909. Jane, the eldest of the children, was born in Fairport township, Lake county, Ohio, on the opposite side of Grand river from the well known Skinner homestead, and the date of her nativity was Christmas day, 1827. She was reared to maturity in Lake county, where she had the advantages of the pioneer schools, and at the age of eighteen years she was united in marriage to Louis M. Wilson, who was a tailor by trade and vocation and who had come from the east and settled in Painesville. He and his wife finally removed to Unionville, Madison township, Lake county, where he died. His widow later became the wife of Miron Canfield, and she survives him also, having maintained her home in Unionville for nearly forty consecutive years, and being now one of the venerable pioneer women of that locality, where she is held in affectionate regard by all who know her. Of her nine children, seven were born of the first and two of the second marriage, and of the number four daughters are now living, namely: Mary, who is the wife of Frederick Holden, a passenger conductor on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, residing in Collinwood, Ohio; Laura, who is the wife of Albert J. White, of whom individual mention is made on other pages of this publication; Anna, who is the wife of Charles Hancock, manager of the homestead farm of his mother-in-law, at Unionville; and Victoria A., who is the wife of Edward Green, of Clear Lake, a favored summer resort in Iowa, where he has a large boat livery. In the community which has so long represented her home Mrs. Jane Canfield has been popular in social activities, holding precedence at the present time as being one of the most venerable of the native daughters still resident in Lake county.
 

END

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