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An Old Monument in Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill And Its Connection to Itawamba County, Mississippi

By Bob Franks

Auburn (above), Absentee Itawamba County landowner Dr. Stephen Duncan’s Natchez, Mississippi home (built 1812) was one of the social centers of antebellum Mississippi. Many notable Americans were entertained here including Henry Clay, John Howard Payne and Edward Everett

Courtesy of The Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (Historic American Buildings Survey, James Butlers, photographer; April 14, 1936; HABS Miss, 1-NATCH. V,4-1) The Duncan Family Lot (left), in Laurel Hill Cemetery

Courtesy of Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

ohn Jay Smith, a Quaker and librarian, penned in his diary during 1835: “The City of Philadelphia has been

increasing so rapidly of late years that the living population has multiplied beyond the means of

accommodation for the dead…on recently visiting Friends grave yard in Cherry Street I found it impossible

to designate the resting place of a darling daughter, determined me to endeavor to procure for the citizens a

suitable, neat and orderly location for a rural cemetery.” It was Smith, along with partners Nathan Dunn, Benjamin

W. Richards and Frederick Brown who founded historic Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.1

1 Laurel Hill Cemetery, “History of Laurel Hill,” Laurel Hill Cemetery, http://www.thelaurelhillcemetery.org (accessed December 18, 2007).

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Today this beautiful seventy-eight-acre cemetery is located in what is now the East Falls section of

Philadelphia. A National Historic Landmark, many prominent people are buried at the cemetery, including many of

Philadelphia’s leading industrial magnates. The cemetery is also the final resting place for more than forty Civil

War-era generals and six Titanic passengers.

Overlooking the Schuylkill River in this historic spot of natural beauty and serenity stands the massive

Stephen Duncan monument and crypt. This impressive monument in the Duncan family lot memorializes an old

Pennsylvania family with strong family ties to the long history of Mississippi from its earliest days, through the

nineteenth century. It represents the life of a man from Pennsylvania who went South and made his indelible mark

in the nineteenth century American and European business community. The story of the Duncan family in

Mississippi is also the story of the early development of Mississippi’s antebellum cotton empire.

After the Chickasaw Cession Stephen Duncan of Natchez purchased over three thousand acres of land in

northeastern Mississippi, including an expanse of land northwest of Ironwood Bluff and west of the Tombigbee

River in southwestern Itawamba County. His Itawamba lands were patented on October 3, 1836. For fourteen years

he paid taxes on this property and on February 8, 1850 he and his wife donated 3,263 acres of his northern

Mississippi lands to Oakland College in Port Gibson – an institution of higher learning he helped establish during

1830. This generous gift included his Itawamba County lands he held for fourteen years. The lands documented in

the deed recorded in the Itawamba County Chancery Court Clerk’s office were located in the counties of

Tishomingo, Tippah, Itawamba, Holmes and Attala.2 The story of one of Itawamba County’s early absentee

landowners is an interesting story about one of antebellum America’s wealthiest men and the story of his cotton

empire rooted in the small Yazoo-Mississippi Delta county of Issaquena.

By the eve of the Civil War, Issaquena County, Mississippi had become one of the wealthiest agricultural

areas not only in the American South, but the nation as well. During 1860 the county had the highest percentage of

slaves per total population than any other county in the United States.3 Made up of several massive cotton

plantations, Issaquena was truly an agrarian county where sizeable fortunes were made with the production of

cotton. The 1860 United States Federal census of Issaquena County enumerated sixty-nine planters, with thirty

planters each having more than one hundred slaves. The makeup of the county included more than seventy percent

of the free population directly involved in large-scale plantation operations, including sixty-nine planters, sixty-nine

overseers, four plantation physicians, two brick masons, one private teacher, one governess, and a gardener.

2 Itawamba County, Mississippi, Deeds, 8:37-38, Stephen Duncan and wife to Trustees of Oakland College, deed, September 2, 1850; Clerk of the Chancery Court, Fulton. 3 Wikipedia contributors, "Issaquena County, Mississippi," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Issaquena_County (accessed July 24, 2006).

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Illustrating the agrarian nature of this antebellum county, the total slave population of Issaquena County during

1860 was 7,244 as compared to only 587 free citizens.4

With the Treaty of Doak’s Stand on October 20, 1820, the Choctaws ceded to the United States an

extensive scope of country, long known as "The New Purchase," north of the Mount Dexter treaty line, and

bounded on the north by the present northern boundary line of Holmes County, and a line running northwesterly,

from the Yazoo River, on the western boundary of Holmes County, to a point one mile below the mouth of the

Arkansas River on the Mississippi River; and on the east by a line running a little west of north, from the eastern

boundary of Simpson County, to the northern boundary of Holmes County. In this cession was included a total of

5,447,267 acres including some of the most productive lands in the entire young nation.

This area was first contained in the county of Hinds on February 12, 1821. Later it was subdivided to form

several counties including Washington in 1827. From Washington County, Issaquena County was formed during

1844.5 Lands in what became Issaquena County were purchased primarily from the Federal government by wealthy

cotton nabobs of the old southwest territory of Mississippi, as well as from other parts of the South. This rich land

was situated in the fertile Yazoo-Mississippi delta region. The soil was rich alluvial loam embracing the most fertile

region of the state and nation. From this newly opened territory, some of the largest and most productive cotton

plantations in antebellum America were created. Many of these large plantations were absentee plantations where

the owners lived at least part of the year elsewhere, as the plantations were operated primarily by paid overseers.

In this group of absentee and seasonal planters in Issaquena County were affluent southern planting

families such as the Balfour families (Holmes County, Mississippi), Wade Hampton (South Carolina), Richard

Christmas (Tennessee and Kentucky), the Turnbull families (South Carolina, Vicksburg and Jefferson County,

Mississippi), and the Hunt, Davis, Eustis, and Chotard families of Natchez. However, the largest landholder in

Issaquena County during antebellum times was perhaps well-heeled Natchez nabob, Dr. Stephen Duncan, who is

considered by many researchers to be the leading cotton planter prior to the Civil War, not only in Mississippi but

the entire United States as well. Duncan’s Issaquena County plantations included Homochitto, Carlisle, Holly

Ridge, Oakley, Reserve, Duncannon, Middlesex and Elleslie in addition to two others owned by his sons Stephen

Jr. and Henry Postlehwaite, and one owned by his son-in-law, Samuel Manuel Davis.

4 1860 U.S. census, Issaquena County, Mississippi, population schedule, pp. 861-875 (stamped), entire county; digital images, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed January 8, 2007); citing National Archives microfilm M-653, roll 582. 5 Dunbar Rowland, Mississippi: The Heart of the South, Volume II (Jackson, MS: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1925), 673-677.

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The Duncan family’s Issaquena County cotton plantations were operated by eight paid overseers and

managed by his son, Henry Postlehwaite and wife Mary, who lived in Issaquena County part of the year. The

Duncan family’s Issaquena cotton plantation empire was the home of 1,139 slaves, including 709 of Dr. Stephen

Duncan’s 1,072 personal slaves.6 The remainder of his slaves were in Adams County at his palatial home Auburn

and at his sugar cane plantations downriver from Natchez in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana.

Dr. Stephen Duncan was born among the rolling hills of Carlisle, Cumberland County, in south-central

Pennsylvania on March 4, 1787. He was the son of John and Sarah C. Postlehwaite Duncan. Receiving his formal

education at Dickinson College in Carlisle, he graduated in medicine during 1805. Shortly thereafter, during 1808

he removed to Mississippi settling in Natchez where he began the practice of medicine. He soon extended his

business interests to cotton planting. Shortly after arriving in Natchez he married extremely successively into the

prominent Ellis and Bingaman families.7 His first marriage was to Margaret Ellis on September 19, 1811, a member

of one of the prominent first families of Adams County, Mississippi. She was the daughter of Abram Ellis and

granddaughter of Richard Ellis, owner of White Cliffs, Homochitto, and Laurel Hill plantations in Adams County.8

Four years after her untimely death in 1815, on May 25, 1819, he married Catherine Binghaman,9 the daughter of

Adam Lewis Bingaman (born 1767, died Oct 27, 1819) and Charlotte Catherine Surget (born 1777, died August 12,

1841). Catherine Binghaman's maternal grandparents were Pierre Surget (born May 12, 1731, died July 27, 1796)

and Katrina (Catherine) Hubbard.

After his marriage to Catherine Binghaman, Duncan continued his cotton planting and began buying

massive amounts of property throughout Mississippi and Louisiana. Assisted by his fortuitous marriages and being

possessed with a sharp entrepreneurial skill, the hard-working Duncan built one of the greatest cotton empires in

the United States. Duncan soon amassed a huge fortune in both land and slaves, as well as bonds – in particular,

northern railroad bonds.

Duncan operated his massive business empire from Auburn, his palatial Natchez home. He was also quite

active in the political and social climate of early Mississippi as well. During the late 1820s he served as the

6 1860 U.S. census, Issaquena County, Mississippi, slave schedule, pp. 420-425 (stamped), Stephen Duncan, proprietor; HeritageQuest Mississippi 1860 M653-598, CD-ROM digital images (Ann Arbor, Michigan: ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 2001); citing National Archives microfilm publication M-653, roll 598. 7 William Kauffman Scarborough, Masters of the Big House: Elite Slaveholders of the Mid-Nineteenth-Century South (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003), 14-15. 8 Louisiana State University, “Ellis-Farar Papers,” Louisiana State University Libraries, http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/ findaid/1000.htm (accessed July 29, 2006). 9 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Volume 1 (Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891), 676.

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president of the Bank of Mississippi at Natchez, was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1832, and

was the first president of the Mississippi Colonization Society.10 Duncan was a generous benefactor to many

Mississippi projects as well. He was a charter donor to Oakland College, a Presbyterian institution founded in 1830

in Port Gibson and through his efforts the Rev. James Pillmore arrived in Natchez during 1822 forming Trinity

Episcopal Church in that city.11

During 1849 Duncan presented Torwood Plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana to his daughter and

new son-in-law, John Julius Pringle.12 Also during the 1840s Duncan began transferring many of his slaves to his

six cotton plantations in Issaquena County north of Natchez, and by the 1850s his son, Henry Postlehwaite Duncan

and wife Mary Sergeant were living in Issaquena County with their plantation overseer, along with six of Dr.

Duncan’s plantation overseers, Samuel Manuel Davis’ overseer, and 1,139 of the extended family’s slaves.13 Henry

Postlehwaite Duncan was educated at Yale University having married Mary Sergeant of Philadelphia prior to

moving to Issaquena County.

By 1850 Dr. Duncan had liquidated most of his planting operations in Adams County having shifted most

all his cotton planting operations north − mainly to Issaquena County, and to his sugar cane plantations in

Louisiana. The rich alluvial soil of Issaquena County, Mississippi produced an average of 3,000 bales of cotton per

year for Dr. Duncan alone, representing a net annual income just from cotton production at $105,000. By 1860 his

personal Issaquena County cotton plantation lands alone were valued at $1,340,700.

During the 1850s the Duncans spent most of their summers at such northern resorts as Newport, Rhode

Island and Saratoga Springs in New York as well as in England and on the European continent. Usually such

leisurely sojourns would begin in April and last until October. These months were considered the “fever” season in

the lower Mississippi valley. To escape the oppressive heat, humidity and dangers of yellow fever, the elite planter

class temporarily removed to the north and to Europe. These trips were a time of leisure when parties and grand

10 Richard Aubrey McLemore, A History of Mississippi, Volume I (Jackson, MS: University and College Press of Mississippi, 1973), 347-349. 11 Trinity Church, “The History and Clergy of Trinity Episcopal Church,” Adams County, Mississippi Historical and Genealogical Research, http://www.natchezbelle.org/adams-ind/trinity.htm#history (accessed July 26, 2006). 12 Richard N. Cote, Mary's World : Love, War, and Family Ties in Nineteenth-century Charleston (Mt. Pleasant, SC: Corinthian Books, 2001), 136. 13 1860 U.S. census, Issaquena County, Mississippi, population schedule, p. 865 (stamped), dwelling 51, family 51, H.P. Duncan; digital image, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed January 8, 2007); citing National Archives microfilm M-653, roll 582.

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balls were hosted by the nation’s business elite. As an illustration of such social life, Duncan was appointed director

of the Grand Dress Ball at the United States Hotel at Saratoga Springs, New York during 1855.14

Shortly after 1860, the life of the southern cotton nabob was about to change with war looming upon the

horizon. Duncan was a strong unionist and the talk of war was extremely disturbing to him, as it was to many of the

elite planter class of the lower Mississippi Valley. The war had dire effects upon Duncan’s Issaquena County

holdings. During May of 1863 Mary Sergeant Duncan, Dr. Duncan’s daughter-in-law (wife of Henry Postlehwaite)

of Issaquena County, wrote President Lincoln a lengthy letter describing the ruination by Union troops of the

Duncan plantations in Issaquena County stating “Before stating my case – permit me to introduce myself to you on

paper, as a northern woman, wife of Henry P. Duncan of Mississippi & daughter-in-law to Dr. Stephen Duncan.

We have all been & are devotedly loyal & when I inform you that my husband has had to conceal himself on

various occasions – to avoid arrest and imprisonment for his well-known loyalty & that Mr. Davis issued orders for

my arrest, I shall have probably said enough in sign & token of our Unionism.” She and her husband had already

removed to Staten Island, New York when the letter was written.15 By late 1863, Dr. Duncan had left Auburn, his

palatial home in Natchez, removing his family and household staff from Mississippi permanently to his New York

City residence on Washington Square. He left the management of his Mississippi and Louisiana plantation

operations in care of his young son, Stephen Jr.

Although the war had ominous effects upon Duncan’s Mississippi financial empire, he was by no means

financially ruined. For years he had invested in northern railroad stocks, bonds, and real estate in the Midwest.

During and after the war years, Duncan lived at his residence at Number 12 Washington Square in New York City.

Dr. Stephen Duncan, perhaps the nation’s most notable planter, died at his residence in New York City on January

29, 1867 only four years after leaving his massive Auburn estate in Mississippi. His memorial services were held at

Grace Church in Manhattan,16 and he was later buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Section R, Lot 163) in Philadelphia,

in his beloved native state of Pennsylvania on February 1, 1867. His remains were later removed to Section T, Lot

145 on May 7, 1867.

A copy of Duncan’s lengthy will was recorded in both the Adams County and Issaquena County

courthouses in Mississippi. These records provide a fascinating glimpse into the life of Dr. Stephen Duncan,

14 The New York Times, August 24, 1855, p. 5, col. 1. 15 Mary Duncan to Abraham Lincoln, May 24, 1863, Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, American Memory Project, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C., http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html, (accessed November 16, 2007). 16 The New York Times, January 31, 1867, p. 3, col. 1.

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Mississippi’s and perhaps the nation’s greatest cotton nabob. Auburn, the palatial Duncan home in Natchez was

kept in the Duncan family until 1911, when, following the death of Stephen Duncan Jr., the heirs of Dr. Stephen

Duncan donated the estate and the surrounding 210 acres to the City of Natchez for use as a city park. Today the

Auburn mansion on Duncan Avenue stands as a silent tribute to Dr. Stephen Duncan.

Issue of Dr. Stephen Duncan and Margaret Ellis

1. John Duncan

2. Sarah Duncan (married Dr. William Armstrong Irvine. He was born September 28, 1803 in Erie, Pennsylvania

and died September 7, 1886 in Irvine, Pennsylvania.).17 Her issue included: Margaret E. (born 1836, married

Thomas Montgomery Biddle. He was born July 9, 1829 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and died January 28, 1884 in

Erie, Pennsylvania), Sarah Duncan (born May 19, 1839, married Dr. Thomas Newbold of Philadelphia, and died

September 23, 1916), and Callender.

Issue of Dr. Stephen Duncan and Catherine Binghaman

(buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia October 5, 1868)

1. Henry Postlehwaite Duncan (born in Natchez, Mississippi ca. 1823, graduated from Yale in 1844, married Mary

Sergeant of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 6, 1847, died during December 1879 in New York City, buried

in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia December 8, 1879).18 Henry Postlehwaite and wife Mary were residents of

Issaquena County, Natchez, and New York City. Henry Postlehwaite and Mary Sergeant Duncan had no issue.

2. Samuel P. Duncan (born about 1828 in Natchez, married Martha Ross Parker on May 4, 1854 in Claiborne

County, daughter of Dr. James P. Parker. Martha Ross Parker was born July 20, 1832 and died June 19, 1859 near

Port Gibson, Claiborne County. She was buried in Wintergreen Cemetery.)19 His issue included: Stephen

Binghaman Duncan (born March 1856). Stephen Bingaman Duncan was living with his Parker grandparents in

Claiborne County during 1860 and 1870. During 1880 he was living on Prytania Street in New Orleans with his

uncle John M. Parker’s family.20 During 1900 he was living on his plantation in Issaquena County with his

17 Warren County Genealogy Project, "Irvine Cemetery,” Warren County, Genealogy Project, http://www.pa-roots.com/ ~warren/cemeteries/irvinecemetery.html (accessed July 26, 2006). 18 New York Evening Post, December 5, 1879, p. 32, col. 2. 19 Mary Ann Duncan Dobson, “Duncan Research Files of Mary Ann Duncan Dobson,” Duncan Research Files, http:// homepages.rootsweb.com/~dobson/ms/msadams.htm (accessed June 28, 2006). 20 1880 U.S. census, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, 11th Ward, New Orleans, p. 109-B (stamped), enumeration district 79, sheet 6-B, dwelling 38, family 38, John M. Parker dwelling, S.B. Duncan; digital image, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed January 9, 2007); citing National Archives microfilm T-9, roll 463.

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plantation manager’s family and two servants.21 By 1910 he continued to live in Issaquena County on his plantation

with Elsie, his Canadian-born wife of two years, and the plantation manager’s family.22 He had married the widow

Margaret Elsie Armour-Bolte of Toronto (widow of Auguste Bolte) during October 1908. She was the daughter of

John Douglas Armour (Chief Justice of Ontario and member of the Supreme Court of Canada) and Eliza Clench.

Stephen Binghaman Duncan died December 15, 1912 while on a trip to Cobourg, Ontario and was buried in

Mississippi.

3. Charlotte B. Duncan (born ca. 1833, buried May 18, 1876 in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia), married

Samuel Manuel Davis (buried September 18, 1878 in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia) of Natchez on June 6,

1846. She resided in New York City after the Civil War. Samuel Manuel Davis was the son of Samuel F. Davis

who was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts during the late 1700s. Samuel F. came to Natchez as early as 1811

where he was a prominent merchant. He married Maria Vidal, daughter of Don Jose Vidal, a colorful Spanish

grandee who held many official titles during the Spanish rule of the Natchez area. One of the titles he held was

secretary to Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, the Spanish Governor of the Natchez District, 1792-1797. Her issue

included: Catherine B. (never married, b. ca. 1848 Natchez, buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia on April

19, 1933), Maria (born ca. 1849 in Natchez, buried December 29, 1877 in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia)

and Charlotte D. (born ca. 1852 in Natchez). Some of the Davis children were living in New York City and Europe

by the 1890s.23

4. Maria Linton Duncan (born January 1, 1826, died October 15, 1908, buried Sabaou Cemetery, Biarritz, France),

married on March 20, 1849 at Auburn in Natchez to John Julius Pringle (born September 2, 1824, died October 30,

1901, Biarritz, Basses-Pyrenees, France, son of South Carolina rice planter William Bull Pringle and Mary Motte

Alston of Charleston. John Julius Pringle was educated in the private schools of Charleston, in England, and was a

member of the first graduation class of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1846.24 He served in the Mexican War at Vera

Cruz). After Pringle married Maria Linton Duncan, Dr. Duncan gave the new couple Torwood Plantation

(consisting of 1,600 acres of improved lands and 314 slaves) on the Mississippi in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana

21 1900 U.S. census, Issaquena County, Mississippi, population schedule, Beat 4, p. 61 (stamped), enumeration district (ED) 33, sheet 7-A, dwelling 141, family 142, Tom R. Kirkland dwelling, Stephen B. Duncan; digital image, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed January 8, 2007); citing National Archives microfilm T-623, roll 811. 22 1910 U.S. census, Issaquena County, Mississippi, population schedule, Township 12, Range 8, p. 260 (stamped), enumeration district (ED) 60, sheet 10-A, dwelling 11, family 11, Stephen B. Duncan; digital image, ProQuest, HeritageQuest Online (access through participating libraries : accessed January 9, 2007); citing National Archives microfilm T-624, roll 734. 23 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Volume 1, 624-25. 24 Cote, 134.

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where they made their home, and later during 1861, Duncannon Plantation in Issaquena County, Mississippi.

However the young family spent much of their time in New York, Newport, and in Europe. They had a residence in

Paris on the Rue Balzac and later, after the Civil War, built the Villa Pringle, a three-story mansion in Biarritz,

France, and a summer home at Versailles. However, frequent trips were made to their Louisiana and Mississippi

plantations. Issue of Maria Linton Duncan and husband John Julius Pringle included: Stephen Duncan (born

January 17, 1854, died July 13, 1917, never married), Catherine "Cassie" Duncan (born February 22, 1850, died

October 29, 1923, buried in Versailles, France, never married), Mary Motte (born January 13, 1852 at the Auburn

estate in Natchez, died May 6, 1945 in Biarritz, France, never married), Maria "Maizie" Duncan (born May 4, 1856,

died January 15, 1940 in Biarritz, France, never married) , Susan (born June 4, 1857 in Newport, Rhode Island,

died January 21, 1942 in Biarritz, France, never married), and Charlotte Duncan (born August 21, 1859 in Newport,

Rhode Island, died 1945, married ___ Radcliffe of Devon, England. No issue).

5. Stephen Duncan Jr. (born 1836, never married), oversaw the Duncan and Pringle Mississippi River plantations in

Louisiana and Mississippi during and after the Civil War.25 He did this so profitably that by 1873 he was free to

leave the operation of the plantations to others and spend the rest of his life a wealthy, globe-trotting expatriate in

Europe.26 He made his headquarters in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany but traveled extensively and often kept

company with his brother-in-law, John Julius Pringle in his travels to Paris, London, Louisiana, and Mississippi.27

As late as the 1890s he had returned to Natchez where he lived at Auburn, the family estate, but continued to travel

extensively throughout the world.28 He died during 1910.

Ancestry of Dr. Stephen Duncan

John Duncan, father of Dr. Stephen Duncan married Sarah C. Postlehwaite. He was the son of Stephen

Duncan and Ann Fox. He was killed in a duel with James Lamberton during June of 1793, after a hotly contested

militia officer election in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 29

Issue of John Duncan and Sarah C. Postlehwaite:

1. Dr. Stephen Duncan (absentee landowner in Itawamba County, Mississippi and resident of Natchez) 25 Ibid., 202. 26 Ibid., 222. 27 Ibid., 202. 28 Catherine Duncan Smith, The Story of Thomas Duncan and His Six Sons (New York: Tobias A. Wright, Inc., 1928), 108-109. 29 Ibid., 43-50.

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2. Dr. Samuel P. Duncan (never married, born October 28, 1788 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, died January 17, 1830 in

Natchez). His obituary reads: At Natchez, his late residence, on the 17th of Jan. 1830, Samuel Duncan, M.D., much

regretted, as he was greatly beloved by his relatives, and highly respected and esteemed by his numerous friends

and acquaintances. Dr. Duncan was a native of Carlisle Pennsylvania. 30

3. Mary Anne Duncan (married Dr. James Gustine on April 5, 1808 at the First Presbyterian Church in Carlisle,

Pennsylvania), moved to Natchez. Her issue included: Lemuel (born 1816, died 1856 in New Orleans), Sarah (born

1809 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, married Dr. John Potts of Mississippi and New Orleans, died in Terre Bonne Parish,

Louisiana during 1857), Rebecca A. (born 1812, married William F. Minor of Natchez, son of Don Estevan Minor,

Spanish governor of Louisiana, died in Terre Bonne Parish, Louisiana), Matilda D.(born 1814, married Charles P.

Leverich of New York City), and Margaret Duncan (born 1818, married Henry Leverich of New York City, died

1886 in New York).31

4. Matilda Duncan (never married, buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia January 24, 1848)

5. Emily Duncan (never married)

Parentage of John Duncan Stephen Duncan, father of John Duncan was born during 1729. He was a prominent merchant and

landowner in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He married Ann Fox and died on March 30, 1794 in

Carlisle.

Issue of Stephen Duncan and Ann Fox:32

1. Margaret Duncan (married Judge John Carson)

2. Thomas Duncan (married Martha Callender)

3. John Duncan (married Sarah C. Postlehwaite)

4. Lucy Duncan (married Judge Jonathan Hoge Walker)

30 The National Gazette, Philadelphia, January 30, 1830, p. 4, col. 2. 31 Gustine Courson Weaver, The Gustine Compendium (Cincinnati: Powell and White, 1929), 88-90. 32 Smith, The Story of Thomas Duncan and His Six Sons , 43-50.

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5. Ann Duncan (married Rev. Samuel Mahon)

6. Robert Duncan (married Eleanor Duncan)

7. James Duncan

8. Stephen Duncan (married Harriet Elliott)

9. Mary Duncan (never married)

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An Old Monument in Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill and It’s Connection to Itawamba County, Mississippi

Copyright © 2009 Bob Franks All Rights Reserved