Bartholomew-Marion-Brown County IN Archives Biographies.....Duncan, Washington C. 1851 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 24, 2007, 4:37 pm

Author: B. F. Bowen (1904)

WASHINGTON C. DUNCAN.

   Washington C. Duncan is a son of Alexander and Sarah F. Duncan, both of whom
lie buried in Garland Brook cemetery, at Columbus, Indiana. The father and
mother were born, reared and married in North Carolina and were of Scotch-Irish
descent. After coming to Indiana they lived first in Fayette county and then
several years in Marion county, where the subject of this sketch was born, June
24, 1851. In i860 Alexander Duncan was about to remove from Indiana to the Grand
Prairie in Illinois, where he had purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land,
then a new and undeveloped country, when the breaking out of the Civil war led
him to remain in Indiana, and to settle (temporarily as he intended) in Brown
county, where he resided, however, until a few years prior to his death.

   Here upon the farm the subject of this sketch was reared to habits of
industry, frugality and honesty, attended the country schools and in the years
1869 and 1870 taught school in Brown county and in the years 1870 and 1871
taught at the Lawless school-house in Harrison township in this county. On June
24, 1871, he was examined and admitted to the freshman class in the State
University at Bloomington, Indiana. He attended the university without
intermission except in the junior year, when he taught school for a time, but
continued to work and was graduated with his class in 1875. The ensuing year was
spent in teaching school at Brush Creek, this county, and the succeeding year,
1877, he entered the law office of Richard L. Coffey, in Nashville, Indiana,
where he studied law for one year. In 1878, although not a candidate at the
time, he was nominated and afterwards elected by the Democratic party as
prosecuting attorney of the ninth judicial circuit, composed of Bartholomew and
Brown counties.

   Mr. Duncan was married July 26, 1880, to Jennie E. Buskirk, of Monroe county,
Indiana, and this marriage resulted in the birth of five children, Edith,
Jessie, William, Oma and Grace. They are all living except Oma, who died July
22, 1903.

   At the end of his term as prosecuting attorney Mr. Duncan resumed the
practice of law at Nashville and in 1882 he was nominated and elected to the
Indiana senate, representing Bartholomew, Brown and Monroe counties. The
campaign of 1882 was a spirited one, in which Judge Richard L. Coffey, of
Nashville, and Henry Doup, of Bartholomew county, were also candidates and there
was great factionalism and party rancor throughout the campaign. Mr. Duncan soon
gained recognition as an active and progressive business member of the state
senate, and his services were so satisfactory to the people that he was
re-nominated and re-elected to the senate in the campaign of 1886, without
opposition. He was chairman of the committee on finance, also chairman of the
committee on education, and was a member of many other committees during his
services in the senate. He takes great pride in the fact that his legislative
services gave him opportunity to record his voice and his vote in helping to the
building up of the state's great educational and charitable institutions and £0
help inaugurate ballot and school-book reforms, and to assist in the passage of
the laws organizing the board of state charities. As a member of the senate, he
was noted for his diligence and industry and the record of that body will
perhaps show that he answered to more roll calls than any other member of the
senate serving with him.

   Prompted by a desire for a wider field of activity, Mr. Duncan removed from
Nashville to Columbus in 1892 and continued in the practice of the law. He was
selected as a member of the Democratic state central committee from the fifth
congressional district in the campaign of 1894. As a committeeman he was most
diligent and active and traveled over the whole district three times during that
campaign and earned the special plaudits of the chairman of the state committee
for his efficient services. On the recommendation of Congressman George W.
Cooper, and without his knowledge or solicitation, Mr. Duncan was appointed, in
1895, state statistical agent for Indiana in the United States department of
agriculture. It was during the campaign of 1894 that he became familiar with the
free silver and other heresies rising like a gathering storm within his own
party, which he and others tried vainly to stem. He quit that campaign without
complaint, but, filled with forebodings for the future, did not afterwards
render his party policies or ticket an ardent support. He did not, however,
withdraw his allegiance therefrom until the re-adoption of the national platform
of 1896, in the campaign of 1900, since which time he has been identified with
the Republican party. He was recently appointed by Judge Francis T. Hord a
member of the board of children's guardians of Bartholomew county, and by that
board was elected as its president. He has been called upon to fill many minor
places of trust and there stands against him no record of a breach of the
confidence reposed. He is a member of the Tabernacle church, a Mason, Odd Fellow
and Knight of Pythias.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY
INDIANA

INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA

ILLUSTRATED

1904

B. F. Bowen PUBLISHER


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