The Barber County Index

Wednesday, April 8, 1914

Front Page  Column 1

A.  L.  Duncan At Rest

After Three Months of Suffering,

Death Relieves   Was an Early

Settler and Excellent

Citizen

A. L. Duncan died at his home four miles south of the city on Thursday, April 2, 1914, at 11:00 A.M., after suffering with lung affection since December 25, and after having been bad fast two months.  Two weeks before his death Dr. Basham of Wichita was called in consultation with Drs. Gilbert and Coleman and performed a surgical operation by tapping the base of the lung.  This seemed to relieve Mr. Duncan temporarily but in a few days after the operation it became very apparent that death could not long be stayed.  Dr. Basham, after analyzing the fluid at Wichita, pronounced it tubercular and abandoned all hope for recovery.  Up to the time of the sickness, however, Mr. Duncan was an unusually strong and healthy man for one of his years.

The funeral was held at the residence at three o'clock on Friday afternoon.  Elder Chas. A. Murray, pastor of the Christian church, and Delta Lodge, No.  77, A.  F. & A.  M., conducted the services.  The Christian choir furnished music and wreaths and flowers were tendered as tokens of love and sympathy by the Masonic order, the church and friends in abundance.  The day was quite cold at the funeral was very largely attended notwithstanding.  The people of the entire neighborhood, who had known Mr. Duncan so long and well, were in attendance, bowed with grief.  Many of his friends from the city also were there to pay their respect and add their words of esteem to those of his neighbors for this good citizen and friend.

A.  L.  Duncan was born at Bristol, Tennessee, June 6, 1841; died at Medicine Lodge, April 2, 1914, aged 72 years, 9 months and 26 days.

He was married to Miss Fannie Kinslow at St. Louis,  Mo., on March 6^th, 1871.  This union was blessed with 7 children, 6 sons and 1 daughter, two sons having preceded him to the spirit land.  He enlisted in the Confederate Army and was honorably discharged after three years of service.  He became a Mason while yet a young man and has been a member of Delta Lodge No. 77 A. F. & A. M. for many years.  He united with the Medicine Lodge Christian Church in 1896 and remained a member until his death.

His family have lost a true husband and father, the community a good citizen, the Christian church and Masonic Lodge a devoted member.  He leaves to mourn the loss, a wife, four sons and a daughter, Ralph Duncan, Ray Duncan, Ed Duncan, Brice Duncan and Mrs. Elizabeth Coombes; two grandchildren besides a large number of friends.

Mr. Duncan and family lived in Barber County 41 years.  They came here in the days of the Indian risings and endured untold hardships, experienced all the droughts and other scourges that were visited on the frontier country in those dark days, but through it all they were hopeful, cheerful and patient and acquired a competence in their declining years.  Mr. Duncan's sterling honesty, his industry and his observance of the Golden Rule have endeared him to all who knew him.

Aside from his other qualities of good citizenship, his devotion to his invalid wife during her several years of affliction is a most beautiful tribute to his memory, and while this good woman will be tenderly cared for by her loving and praiseworthy children, her grief at losing her companion when he was of so much comfort, assistance, and consolation to her in her bodily affliction, is indeed a sacred grief, but his kindly care for her is a commendation to the departed one more eloquent than words can portray.

To the widow, sons, and daughter, The Index desires to extend most profound sympathy, assuring them that the publishers, who knew Mr. Duncan nearly a quarter century, are immeasurably saddened at his death.