THOMAS JEFFERSON DUNCAN was born in the borough of Bridgeport, Fayette county, Penn., February 11, 1845. On his mother's side, his ancestry, which had been American-born for several generations, was of English extraction. Dr. Benjamin Stevens, his grandfather, emigrated from Maryland to Fayette county, where he was a widely known practitioner of medicine, and where he established and for many years operated an iron forge. Though dying before he attained old age, Dr. Stevens left to survive him several children, of whom one, Priscilla, was the mother of the subject of this sketch. His immediate paternal ancestors were Irish, but of Scotch origin. The latter part of the eighteenth century was not only a period of general European wars but of profound discontent among the sons of Erin, and open rebellion against English rule. The successes of Sir John Jarvis and Admiral Duncan on the water, the overthrow of the United Irishmen and the complete suppression of the revolt by the storming of the camp on Vinegar Hill, established the supremacy of England, and many a brave Irishman preserved his life and his liberty by flight from his native land. It was during these stormy times that Arthur Duncan sought refuge in America and settled in Fayette county, Penn. There he pursued his vocation of an iron worker at the forge of Dr. Stevens, already mentioned. He left a family of eight children, of whom the following are still living: Enos Duncan, Mrs. Jane Stanford, Mrs. Elizabeth Doolittle, and Hon. Thomas Duncan, who was the oldest, is now (1893) eighty-seven years of age, lives in Bridgeport, Fayette Co., Penn., and is the father of the subject of this memoir. He was at times an active politician and was elected commissioner of his native county (Fayette), and for ten years served as one of the judges of its courts. Some years ago he withdrew from business and public affairs, and is now leading a retired life. In early manhood he married Priscilla Stevens, who died in 1873 at the age of sixty-six years. She was a woman of more than ordinary strength of character, took a lively interest in the charitable and benevolent enterprises of the community in which she lived, and left a monument in the memories of the people with and for whom she labored. The fruit of this union was five children, viz.: Sophia, now deceased, who was married to W. H. Laning; Elizabeth, now widow of William Worrell (deceased), and a resident of the above mentioned borough of Bridgeport; Dr. W. S. Duncan, a physician and surgeion of wide reputation and extensive practice, who died in 1892; Arthur Duncan, whose death occurred as he was about entering manhood, and Thomas Jefferson Duncan, whose name stands at the opening of this article. His boyhood days were spent in his native town, where he attended the graded public school. Soon after leaving his school, he was placed under the tuition of E. N. Hartshorn, an enthusiastic and successful instructor, who afterward became a professor in the college at Mt. Union, Ohio. It was at this time in his career that young Duncan, at about the age of eighteen years, first turned his attention to pedagogism. He was elected teacher of a school in Wharton township, one of the mountain districts of Fayette county. In this region, "far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife," he passed one winter and experiences that were as novel to him as the rugged and snowclad scenery of the mountains was grand and imposing. He not only labored for the children but lived among the people. Here were social customs, phases of life, and revelations of fact that were as strange to the new "master" as they were real. As he once expressed the situation: "He not only taught lessons in the three R's from the books, but learned lessons from the pages of life and the volume of nature." Having completed this engagement, he entered Mt. Union College, Ohio, and was there during the bitter contest in 1864 between the faculty and the students relative to the authority of the former over the literary societies. The college authorities, of course, triumphed, and several of the undergraduates who were most active in the affair were dismissed from the institution. Others voluntarily withdrew. Duncan was among the latter and with one of his friends, now Rev. John H. Hartman, was soon afterward pursuing his studies in Vermillion Institute, at Haysville, Ohio. His name appears for two years in the published catalogue of this school, which, under the supervision of Rev. Sanders Diefendort, was then a flourishing academy, attended by hundreds of students from Canada and eleven States of the Union. While here his health became broken, and he was forced to return home for its recuperation. He was able to resume his studies in the spring of 1866 and matriculated in Washington and Jefferson College, at Washington, Penn., from which he was graduated two years later. The class of 1868 was one of the largest ever sent out by this institution, and on its role of membership are the names of gentlemen who have since attained distinction in their several professions. Among them are Prof. D. J. McAdam, Hon. H. J. Eckly, S. B. Fisher, C. E., James S. Morrhead, Esq., Rev. T. J. Sherrard, Rev. L. M. Gilleland, Hon. W. B. Sutton and others. During his senior year he was both student and teacher in the college (officially tutor), and, as such, had partial charge of the classes of the preparatory department. After graduation he was invited to continue this relation, but, declining so to do, accepted the Superintendency of the public schools of his native town, and continued in that position for two years. Throughout his term of service he was energetic in the administration of both the methods of instruction for use by the assistant teachers and the affairs of discipline among the pupils; and it is said there are now men in the community, whose heads begin to show the silvery touches of years, who when as boys on mischief bent, learned by experience, at this time, that the way of the transgressor was hard. His next move was to East Liverpool, Ohio, where he had been elected Superintendent of Schools. The condition of education affairs here required a complete reorganization of the system. His plans were, however, supported by the Board of Control and he had the co-operation of a corps of efficient teachers. The schools grew rapidly in both membership and reputation under his management, which continued two years. He had, when at college, registered himself as a student of law in the office of I. Y. Hamilton, Esq., and he gave up his position at East Liverpool with a view to the completion of his professional studies. The fall of 1872, however, found him in the ranks from which he had so recently withdrawn. This time he was located in Pittsburgh, Penn., where he continued four years, having supervision, as Principal, of the public schools of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Wards of that city. As a disciplinarian he was considered firm if not rigid; in methods of instruction he was progressive; and his schools were frequently visited by teachers from other sections of the city. His field of labor was, however, more extensive than the district. He was an active member of the College of Principals, a frequent instructor at teachers' institutes of the city, at times accepted invitations to render similar services for conventions in other counties, lectured at the Teachers' State Association, and was an occasional contributor to the press on subjects relating to the profession in which he was engaged. During the preceding years, he had devoted what time could be appropriated from other duties to his legal studies, and in the fall of 1875, was admitted to practice law in the courts of Washington county. Subsequently he was admitted to the Supreme Court of the State, and such of the United States Courts as business or other matters rendered desirable. In the summer of 1876 he first located and offered his services as a lawyer at Washington, Penn., where, without interruption, he has continued the practice of law ever since. This was the year of the memorable Presidential campaign in which Tilden and Hayes were the rival candidates. Mr. Duncan threw his energies into the contest, and proving an acceptable speaker addressed numerous meetings throughout the county, making acquaintances and friends as he went. It was not long until he found himself with a fair clientage, and his practice has steadily increased until he is now one of the hardest- worked members of the bar. As a lawyer he is faithful and devoted to his clients and persistent for their welfare and success, or, as has been sometimes said, stubborn in the advocacy of causes entrusted to his care. His library is well supplied with books, which, in the preparation of cases, are brought into frequent requisition, and his briefs usually tend toward elaborateness rather than otherwise. He is an earnest, persistent worker, valuing time according to the results that may be wrested from it; and people who know him attribute whatever success he has attained as largely to level-headedness and patient work as any other elements of his character. In politics he has always been a Democrat, and in the campaigns preceding general elections usually stumps his own and other counties in behalf of the party with which he is identified. While thus interested in politics, and often a participant in the counsels and conventions of the party of his choice, he has never sought for himself the reward of office but has uniformly refused to be a candidate for positions of a political character. The only apparent exception to this statement was in 1876. That year he was the nominee for district attorney, an office, which falls within the line of his legitimate professional life and to which only lawyers are eligible. In 1888 the Democratic Convention of the Twenty-fourth Congressional District nominated him as the party candidate for Congress in opposition to his known wishes. The convention had been in session two days, during both of which in response to inquiries he had telegraphed forbidding the use of his name and stating his unwillingness to accept the position, if tendered him. Disregarding his protest, the convention proclaimed him the candidate and appointed a committee to give him formal notice of its action. His name was at once published throughout the district as the party representative, and it was said created enthusiasm under the belief that it indicated party success. The committee of notification just mentioned consisted of James H. Hoover, of Fayette county; Joseph A. Skelly, of Allegheny; James Smith, of Greene; and John P. Charlton, of Washington. When waited upon by them, Mr. Duncan adhered to his original resolution and declained to accept the nomination. The prospects of his election were considered flattering, and the district is now represented by a Democrat. The reasons assigned by him were of a personal and private character arising chiefly from a desire to apply his time and energies to the welfare of his family and to business affairs. In his letter of declination, which was widely published and quoted from, he stated that "among his party associates he did not recall a single individual toward whom he entertained the slightest feeling of political animosity or whose advancement he would willingly impede in the least, that he united with unabated interest in the efforts of the people to maintain their liberties against the encroachments of power unjustly exercised whether manifesting itself in the form of monopolizing combinations and trusts, corporate aggregations or official usurpation, that he was uncompromisingly opposed to legislation in the interest of favored classes, to the squandering of the public domain, to oppressive and unnecessary taxation direct or indirect, and to the tendency during the past few years to a centralization of power in the adminstration of governmental affairs, and that he adhered to the principles of just government administered wisely and economically for the peace, safety and prosperity of its citizens as a whole, without preference or favor as to class, location, race or other basis of distinction." In religion Mr. Duncan is more immediately associated with the denomination of Methodists, in which he has been a communicant for many years. At the time this sketch is written (1893) he is connected with the First M. E. Church of Washington, Penn., and has for years past been a member of its Board of Trustees and Treasurer of its Stewards' Fund. In addition to his professional duties Mr. Duncan is connected with various business and other organizations of the community and county in which he resides, to some of which he sustains official relations. Among them are the following: Director and Vice-President of the Farmers and Mechanics National Bank of Washington, Penn.; member of the Board of School Directors; Trustee and chairman of the Finance Committee of the Dime Savings Institution of Washington, Penn.; Chairman of the Board of Examiners of the Courts of the county; Trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association; President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Children; Curator and Treasurer of the Citizens Library Association and others. In July, 1880, he was married to Miss Eleanor Morris, for a memoir of whom and for reference to his domestic life see the article immediately succeeding this. MRS. ELEANOR M. DUNCAN is the wife of T. J. Duncan, Esq., whose life is outlined in the last preceding sketch. She was born in West Brownsville, Washington Co., Penn., December 11, 1856, and is a descendant from two families well known in Revolutionary and Colonial times, of whom, perhaps, the most noted representatives are Capt. Jonathan Morris, a soldier of the Revolution, Dr. Jonathan Morris and Benjamin West, the celebrated artist. Her maternal grandfather was W. H. Miller, a native of Barren county, Ky., who was born in 1800, and died in Hart county, said State, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. His wife, Elizabeth, died at Louisville, Ky., in 1857. They had issue five children, all girls - Mary E., Emily, Louisa, Julia, and Sarah J., who was born in February, 1825; she is the mother of the lady whose name commences this article, and now resides with one of her daughters at Bennett's Station, Penn. She is said to have been a young woman of rare beauty, and at the age of nearly eighteen years was married to Capt. Benjamin F. Morris, who was fifteen years her senior. Mrs. Duncan's paternal ancestry includes two distinguished Quaker families, the Wests and the Morrises. David Morris emigrated from Wales, and married Mary Phillipine in or about the year 1685. Their home was on the west bank of the Delaware river, below Philadelphia, where their children, David, Isaac, Elizabeth, Mordecai and Jonathan, were born. The family increased rapidly and was distributed through several eastern counties of the State. A recent historian says: "Every branch of it retained the names David, Jonathan, Isaac and Mordecai. Notwithstanding the fact that they were Quakers, they took part in the Revolution, several members of the family serving throughout the war in the Continental Line." Among the early settlers of western Pennsylvania was Jonathan Morris, a grandson of David (the Welshman), who, soon after the Revolutionary war, came with his family from the East and settled in Washington county among the Quakers, in what is now East Bethlehem township. He had previously married a sister of Benjamin West, the famous painter. The Wests were also Quakers, and members of that family came, about the same time, to Washington county, the name still being borne by later generations in the eastern party of the county. Judge William West, the blind orator of Ohio, is a descendant of Jonathan West and a relative of the Mrs. Morris already named. Jonathan Morris died about 1788. Four sons survived him. In a late publication it stated that three of them were soldiers in the war for American independence. They were Joseph, David (who was for many years keeper of the celebrated hostelry the "Globe Inn," of Washington, Penn.), Jonathan (a captain of the Revolutionary war, who is said to have equipped, at his own expense, a full company of Continental soldiers; was wounded at the battle of Brandywine, and died in Fredericktown, Washington county, in 1838), and Jesse (who was born in 1771). On April 12, 1749, Jesse Morris married Sarah Blackmore, the day before she was seventeen years of age. Their children were eleven in number, viz.: Rebecca, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Sarah, David, Almira, Martha W., Benjamin F., Cynthia, Adelia M. and Jesse J. Benjamin F. Morris, the father of Mrs. Duncan was born in Washington county, May 3, 1809, and died at Fredericktown, said county, June 18, 1882. He was for many years a steamboat pilot and captain on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, where he was known not only as a genial, kind- hearted man, but also as a courteous, prompt and efficient officer. He abandoned river life about the commencement of the late Civil war. Capt. Jonathan Morris, of Revolutionary fame, at the time of his death, in 1838, had willed or given his nephew (Capt. B. F. Morris) his blue military cloak. For it the latter seemed to possess a peculiar affection, and, in accordance with his request, this cloak became his shroud and was buried with his body in the Quaker burying ground of Westland. During one of his trips on the Ohio river, Capt. B. F. Morris met Miss Sarah J. Miller, at Louisville, Ky., and they were afterward married August 15, 1842. Their married life was spent chiefly in Pittsburgh, West Brownsville and Fredericktown. The product of this union was nine children, viz.: Jesse J., married to Nancy E. Sharpneck; Mary E., married first to Leroy Hiller, and, after his death to W. W. Reeves; Adelia M., who died at the age of about two years; Sarah Louise, married to John Crumrine; L. Franklin, married to Jennie Cowden; William B., who died in infancy; Samuel, married to Annie Reece; Eleanor, the subject of this sketch; Lorena M., married to John V. Stathers, and died September 21, 1883. All whose deaths are not mentioned are at this time (1893) living in or near Pittsburgh, Penn., except Mrs. Duncan. When Mrs. Duncan was about two years of age, her parents changed the family residence from West Brownsville to Fredericktown, where she received the first elements of her education in the public school. In 1869 the Morris family removed to Pittsburgh. Here she attended the schools of the Seventeenth Ward, in which she completed the course of study in 1873. At this time her present husband was Principal of the schools, and she came under his surpervisory if not immediate control. The acquaintance thus formed soon grew to a friendship and ripened into that more ardent passion that culminated in their marriage in 1880, after Mr. Duncan had established himself in his legal practice at Washington. They have resided there ever since. She is a reader of books, takes an interest in the political as well as other current news of the day, is a ready and entertaining conversationalist and a pleasing entertainer at her handsome home where she receives her many friends. They have one child, a daughter, called Ina, who is now (1893) past eleven years of age. Soon after completing her studies in 1872, the subject of this sketch, then in her seventeenth year, was elected teacher of one of the schools of the Thirty-first Ward of Pittsburgh from which she accepted an invitation to a position in the Fifteenth Ward, where she continued until her marriage in 1880. During this time she held a Professional Certificate, received a Teacher's Permanent Certificate from the State, and was elected a member of the Pittsburgh Academy of Teachers. She is a member of the M. E. Church and is identified with various benevolent enterprises conducted in its behalf. As an amateur she has for own pleasure devoted a portion of her time for several years to art studies, and has produced a number of paintings in oil, which have received favorable comment from critics and professional artists. During the past year, Mrs. Duncan served as a member of the Ladies Auxiliary Committee of Pennsylvania for the World's Fair. She was an active worker, and rendered efficient services in promoting an interest and securing statistics or exhibits of women's work for the Columbian Exposition from the district to which she was assigned.

Text taken from page 286 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed June 1997 by Marilyn K. MacKendrick of N. Charleston, SC as part of the Beers Project. Published June 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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