William Duncan



S. of James Duncan & Ann Kinnaird

William Duncan
Born 11.10.1846 at Gamrie, Banff. Scotland (Bap. 27th November)
Occ. Tailor/Farmer/Store & Land Owner
Marr. (1st) Martha Hall 18.4.1868 at Sebastian Co., Arkansas, USA
Died 6th June 1921 at Bremerton Ward 2, Kitsap, Washington (Apoplexy and Senility)
Buried at Ivy Green Cem., Bremerton, Washington


Children

James Monroe (Big Jim)
Lusey A.
Ruth A.
Christina
William A. (Red Bill)
Griggor Cameron (Gregg)


Marr. (2nd) Sally Fraker (Aunt Sally) in 1879 at Stonewall, Oklahoma, USA


NOTE

Birth also recorded as 'Macduff'. Martha (1846-1878) of Sebastian Co., Arkansas. William A. (1876-1939) marr. Ina Webster. There is a William Duncan Jr., who lived at Seattle, Washington (1910-30) but I'm not sure if it's the above William or not.

I couldn't find William in the 1870 or 1880 census', although I'm not sure if they have survived. The 1890 census is not available & I did find them in 1900 living at Duncan, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, Oklahoma. Also present was Niece, Agnes Kelman, 1882, Scotland & daughter, Maggie Duncan, 1895, Scotland ??? Who were these ???

Again, I couldn't find William or Sally in the 1910 census but William is recorded at Bremerton Ward 2, Kitsap, Washington (1920) with his Niece, Agnes Sadler.

"I noticed that the birth date of William Duncan on his death certificate is 27 Aug 1846. That is different from that on your website. I suspect his son, the informer, had the wrong date ?" (by Paula Wolkerstorfer)

William Duncan, b 27 Aug 1843 in McDuff, Scotland. Came to America in 1860s and first settled in Sebastian Co, Arkansas. There he married Martha Hall, and had children: James, Lusey, Ruth, Christina, Bill and Greg. Moved to Stonewall, Indian Territory between 1870 and 1873. There Martha Hall duncan died in 1878. In 1879 William Duncan married Sally Fraker Johnson, a quarterblood Chickasaw Indian. In March 1888 he sent to Scotland for his parents (Mr. & Mrs. James Duncan) and his two oldest sisters to join him. The oldest sister was Agnes (Mrs. Charlie Birnie), and they came with their two children, Bill and Annie. The other sister was Barbara (Mrs. Joseph Horn), and they came with their young son, Joseph Jr., who was soon joined by a baby daughter, Lillie. About the same time that Lillie was born, William's mother died, and she is buried there at Duncan. Two of William's daughters, Ruth and Christina, died in 1892 from typhoid fever, and were buried next to their grandmother. Later, the three teen-aged children of one of William's other sisters arrived from Scotland. They were Agnes, Alex and Barbara Kelman. Agnes married Clyde Whitcomb, Alex married Mary Yates, and Barbara married Will Hine. William's oldest son, James, married Kate Priddy, a niece of his wife Sally. Son Bill married Ina Webster, and son Greg married Ada Yates. In 1907 William and Sally Duncan moved to California, and a few years later moved to Bremerton, Washington. Sally Duncan died in Bremerton in 1914. William Duncan died in Bremerton in June of 1921. Both are buried in Ivy Green Cemetery in Bremerton. (By Jerri, from Ancestry.com)

The Chisholm Trail passed to the east of Duncan prior to the town's founding. An estimated 9,800,000 Longhorn cattle were herded up the trail between Texas and Abilene, Kansas during its existence. After learning that an extension of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was being built from Kansas to Texas, Scotsman William Duncan brought his wife, parents, and other relatives and created a trading post situated at the intersection of the north-south Chisholm Trail and the east-west military passage between Fort Arbuckle and Fort Sill. The first train arrived on June 27, 1892; that date is considered the official birthdate of the town. (As the county seat of Stephens County, a post office named Duncan was established on April 7, 1884 at the William Duncan Store, about 1 mile east of the present city limits, which was near the Chisholm Trail. When the Rock Island Railroad was built in 1892, Mr. Duncan moved his store to what is now the corner of 3rd and Main, and later moved to 7th and Main. Duncan was organized into a town in 1898. The first Courthouse was built in the middle of Main Street.)

The town persevered despite several setbacks; a devastating tornado destroyed almost every store and building on Main Street in 1898 and there were four fires in 1901, not to mention the Depression and Dust Bowl years. In 1908, a 14-year-old black youth visiting from Chickasha, Oklahoma, a town 30 miles north, was accused of "accosting" an 11-year-old white girl. He was taken into custody and a lynch mob formed. Sheriff's deputies had to surround the courthouse to prevent the lynching. The crowd turned its anger on the 200 or so "negro" inhabitants of the southeast section of town, posting notices in that quarter that every person of color had to leave town immediately. These inhabitants gathered up their belongings and boarded a south-bound Rock Island Railroad train immediately. They were met on arrival in Fort Worth, Texas, by the Tarrant County Sheriff, who told them they were welcome to stay as long as they didn't get into trouble and found work immediately. The black youth was tried, found guilty and served a prison sentence. The citizens of the town were praised by the newspaper for their "restraint and good sense." 60 years later, Duncan's school system was finally integrated as the blacks-only Douglass School was closed and its students were absorbed into white schools. The integration of the community swimming pools occurred at about this time as well.

Centrally located in Stephens County, OK, Duncan was made the county seat in the first years of the 20th Century. As a compromise between residents of the northern and southern parts of the county, the county courthouse was located in the middle of Duncan's Main Street, half of it in the northern part of the city and county and half in the southern. Main Street made a wide circle around it on both ends. This arrangement ended in the late 1960s when a new courthouse was built a few blocks away; the old courthouse was demolished and Main Street once again ran straight.

Duncan once adopted the slogan, "The Buckle on the Oil Belt." Its main claim to fame is as the birthplace of the Halliburton Corporation. Erle P. Halliburton perfected a new method of cementing wells, making oil production much easier and more profitable, and established the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company in 1919. He died in 1957, at which time the company had 201 offices in 22 states and 20 foreign countries. Its reach has, of course, grown far beyond that. Operations have largely shifted to Houston, Texas but a large manufacturing center, energy institute and other endeavors are still ongoing in Duncan.

Oil and gas were discovered in the region in 1921.


Also see the William Duncan Letter , the Duncan Pictures vol 1 & 2 & the Duncan History Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5


I cannot thank Paula Wolkerstorfer enough who has provided me with many details, pictures (including the one above & the linked ones) & leads concerning the Duncan line, thank you Paula.

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