MARION M. DUNCAN was born on farm near Salisbury, in Menard county, Illinois, December 17, 1832. When he was twenty-three years of age he was married to Martha McMurphy, April 16, 1855; she was born in New York, and was the daughter of Archie H. McMurphy, born in New York. He died in 1877. His wife, Elizabeth White, was born in New York and was the mother of eleven children. She is living at Salisbury, Illinois, with her son, Joseph McMurphy. Mr. and Mrs. M. M. Duncan are members of the Christian Church and have had six children, five living, viz: Mrs. Lucy C. Davis, Laura A., Margaret V., Omer L., and Elizabeth E. Duncan. The father of M. M. Duncan and W. T. H. Duncan, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, May 18, 1812; when a young man, learned the hatter's trade; he came to Sangamon county and settled in Salisbury township, in 1831; died in October, 1864. His wife, Eva (Miller) Duncan, was born in Kentucky, and was the mother of twelve children. She is still living and resides with her son, Thomas Duncan, at Salisbury, Illinois. Mr. M. M. Duncan has a farm of ten acres, in section thirty-two where he resides. In politics, he is a Democrat and cast his first vote for Harrison for President. His father, W. T. H. Duncan, was a Democrat, and for nineteen years justice of the peace, and held that office at the time of his death. Mr. M. M. Duncan has been town clerk eight or nine years, and was elected justice of the peace and resigned six months after and went to Springfield, and was engaged in the grocery business one year, when he clerked for Smith & Hay two years; then ran the Junction House, one mile below Springfield, two years, when he returned to Salisbury.