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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Yell County, Arkansas published by Southern Publishing Company in 1891.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Henry W. Duncan, a citizen and mill-owner, of Dutch Creek Valley, was born in Cherokee County, Ga., July 30, 1852, and is the son of Elijah and Amanda (Church) Duncan, also of Georgia, and who had a family of eleven children. Our subject was raised on a farm, and received but a slight education, and on becoming of age, started for the greatest State in the Union (at that day), Arkansas, and located in this county, and pre-empted 160 acres of land on Dutch Creek, in what is now known as Danville. This he improved until he had about fifty acres under a fine state of cultivation, and has a comfortable dwelling house and barn. He has increased his original 160 to 209 acres of as good land as will be found in the valley, and his unimproved land contains some of the finest wagon and stave timber in the State, and in 1885 built a saw mill and cotton-gin, which he operated in connection with his farm, in 1869, erecting the saw-mill and cotton-gin situated about a mile and a half from his first mill site, and he now has a milling plant estimated at something over $200, and is a good source of revenue, his gins turning out nearly 500 bales of cotton annually. He was married October 18, 1874, to Etta, daughter of Isaac Hutchinson, formerly of Alabama, but now a resident of Scott County. To them have been born five children: William Elijah, Charles H., Emerine, Robert W. and Francis M., all born on the farm. Our subject votes with the Democratic party politically, and as a man and citizen possesses a character above reproach, and is noted for the hospitable manner in which he entertains his guests.

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This family biography is one of 124 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Yell County, Arkansas published in 1891.  For the complete description, click here: Yell County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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