Fayette County PA Archives Biographies.....Duncan, Dr William Stevens May 24, 1834 - ????
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marta Burns marta43@juno.com September 20, 2024, 6:41 pm

Source: Gresham and Wiley, 1889: Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia, Fayette Co, PA, page 264
Author: John H. Gresham & Samuel T. Wiley

    Dr William Stevens Duncan of Bridgeport, a widely known and highly
esteemed physician and surgeon, was born in Brownsville, May 24, 1834.  He
is a son of Judge Thomas Duncan and Priscilla Stevens Duncan.
    Dr Duncan's great grandfather, Thomas Duncan, and his wife emigrated
from Scotland to County Donegal, Ireland, in 1775.  They had four
children, all born in Scotland: George Duncan, John Duncan, Arthur
Duncan, and a daughter whose name there is a doubt about whether it was
Jane or Nancy Duncan.
    Arthur Duncan, when twenty years of age, engaged in the Irish rebellion
of 1792 and immediately after its suppression sought safety in flight
from the English authorities.  He was placed in a cask, which was filled
with straw, the head replaced thus was smuggled on board a vessel bound
for the United States and landed at Philadelphia, January 10, 1793.  In
1795 he joined Washington's troops that were sent out from the Capitol to
suppress the Whiskey Insurrection.  After his discharge, he settled near
Plumsock, now Upper Middletown, in September, 1802, and took out his
naturalization papers.
    He married Sophia Wharton, a daughter of Arthur Wharton of Franklin
township.  Arthur Duncan died at Moundsville, Virginia, in 1850, and his
wife in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1845.  They had ten children: Thomas
Duncan, George Duncan, Arthur Duncan, James Duncan, Benjamin Duncan, Enos
Duncan, Mary Ann Duncan, Jane Duncan, Elizabeth Duncan, and Nancy Duncan.
    Judge Thomas Duncan was born in Franklin township, August 22, 1807,
and received his early education in the Thorn Bottom School.  He engaged in
the Plumsock Rolling Mill for a time, but at eighteen years of age made
arrangements to learn the trade of cabinet maker.  He engaged with an
expert mechanic, Thomas Hatfield, with whom he remained three years as an
apprentice, and afterwards three years more as a partner.  He then removed
to Bridgeport, and has continued successfully in the same business.
    Judge Duncan was married in May, 1829, to Miss Priscilla Stevens,
daughter of Dr Benjamin Stevens of Uniontown.  Her father, Dr Benjamin
Stevens, was born in Maryland, February 20, 1737, read medicine with his
father, Dr Benjamin Stevens, and graduated at Annapolis Medical School,
Maryland.  He came to Plumsock, engaged in the practice of medicine where
he also owned and operated an iron forge and slitting mill till his death
in 1813.
    Judge Duncan has held the important offices of Bridgeport.  He is a
prominent democrat and takes an active part in public affairs.  He served
as county commissioner from 1843 to 1845.  In 1851 he was elected
associate judge of Fayette county for a term of five years, and was
re-elected in 1856.
He has been a bank director, and since 1834 has belonged to the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  He stands high in the Masonic Order of
which he has been a member for thirty seven years; is now a Knight
Templar of St Omer's Commandery No 7, and has been a member of the
Methodist Episcopal church for forty eight years.
    Judge Duncan and wife have five children, three of whom are living:
Mrs Elizabeth Duncan Worrell; Dr W C Duncan, both of Bridgeport; and
Thomas J Duncan, a practicing attorney at Washington, Penna.  Judge Duncan
assisted his father, Arthur Duncan, in 1822 in manufacturing the first
coke made in this county, and no man has been more honorably prominent in
Fayette county than Judge Duncan.  He is now an octogenarian in years, and
is in good health.  Mrs Duncan died in February, 1873, aged sixty six
years.
    Dr William Stevens Duncan received a thorough literary education in
Mt Union College, Ohio, read medicine with Dr M O Jones, then of
Brownsville, but now a resident of Pittsburgh.  He attended two full
courses of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, and was graduated
from there in the spring of 1858 with the degree of MD.  In June, 1858, he
formed a copartnership with his preceptor in the practice, the
partnership ending in 1861 by the removal of Dr Jones to Pittsburgh.  From
1861 to the present time, Dr Duncan has occupied the office in which he
wrote his first prescription.
    March 21st, 1861, Dr Duncan married Miss Amanda Leonard, daughter of
Benjamin Leonard and Mary Berry Leonard.  They have one child, a daughter
Helen Duncan, a pupil in Lenna Female College in Pittsburgh.
    He is a public spirited citizen and is always interested in the material
welfare of his community.  He has been a director of the Brownsville
Dollar Savings Bank and was director of the Brownsville Railway Company,
which he assisted to organize.  Dr Duncan is a member of the Fayette
County Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the Rocky
Mountain Medical Society, and an honorary member of the California State
Medical Society.  He owns one of the largest medical libraries in the
State.
    He is a hard student and has contributed many able papers to the leading
medical journals of the day, among which are: "Belladonna as an Antidote
to Opium Poisoning," (1962); "Medical Delusions," (a pamphlet, 1869);
"Iliac Aneurism Cured by Electrolysis," (1875); and the "Physiology of
Death." He has in his practice skillfully treated difficult cases, as
well as ably described such in the medical journals of the day.  In
surgery he has performed many important operations: for tracheotomy a
number of times and trephining skull repeatedly, and excision of the head
of the humerus and the lower half of the radius.
    He served as a volunteer surgeon at the battle of Gettysburg, and was
take prisoner by the Confederates.
    Dr Duncan has but few equals, is well read, and a skillful physician and
surgeon.  As a medical author, he is broad and liberal in his treatment of
subjects.  As a citizen he is justly entitled to the high esteem in which
he is held.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2000.

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