Albert E. Duncan

DUNCAN, HOWE, FAY, NOBLE

Posted By: Rebecca Foster (email)
Date: 9/7/2014 at 09:16:40

Albert Duncan Veteran river Captain, dies
Captain A. E. Duncan, 83, 2102 Roosevelt street, prominent North End resident, and well known former steamboat captain, on the Mississippi river, died at 8:15 o’clock Sunday night in Jane Lamb Hospital.

Death was due to a concussion of the brain, caused by a fall sustained sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning at his home where he was found at 9:45 o'clock Sunday morning by Phillip Shive of Cedar Rapids, who had an appointment with him to take a trip up the river. He found him unconscious at the foot of the basement stairway, where he had fallen.

No funeral plans have been made other than that services probably will be held Wednesday afternoon in the family home. His daughter, Mrs. C. M. Noble, will be unable to attend, as she submitted to a mastoid operation last Thursday in Detroit Michigan Mrs. Edith Duncan Fay will arrive Wednesday morning from Cocoa, Fla.

Albert E. Duncan was born Dec. 24, 1850, near Ogdenburg, M. Y. He came west with his parents when a child, and lived in this city for many years. In 1880 he was married to Miss Ella Austin, who preceded him in death in the spring of 1926. A daughter, Mrs. Helen Duncan Howe, died in 1928. Of his immediate family he is survived by three daughters, Mrs. Edith Duncan Fay of Coca, Fla. Mrs. Charles M. Noble of Detroit, Mich., and Miss Ruth Duncan of Chicago, two grandchildren, Charlotte and Duncan Noble of Detroit, Mich., and two brothers, James Duncan of Moline, Ill., and William Duncan of Clovis, Calif.

Captain Duncan’s life story, as told in sketches and anecdotes from time to time in the Herald, was an epic of life on the upper Mississippi. Renowned far and wide as one of the finest characters in the life that developed that which was best or the worst in a man, he advanced from what might be termed as an apprentice in the art of raft-boating to ownership and operation of his own boat. For many years he made rafting trips for C. Lam & sons, and was a close friend of Chancy Lamb and his sons, Artemus and La Fayette. Capt., Duncan made an enviable season’s record of runs in more than one instance but it was his proudest boast that as a pilot he had a clean record and never had an accident to mar the log of his navigation days.

Source: Clinton Herald, Clinton, Ia., 12 Apr 1933.

Captain A. E. Duncan

Captain A. E. Duncan 83, pioneer river man, died in Jane Lamb hospital about 9 o’clock Sunday night of pneumonia, after a brief illness.

He was born in New York state near Ogdensburg, Dec. 24, 1849, and came here as a young man to engage in farming. Later he began his career on the Mississippi river as a laborer and worked himself up first as a pilot then as a captain in the logging industry. Ambitious and enterprising, he went into the business with a partner and later bought his own boats that plied the upper river from Lake Pepin to the Tri-Cities many years, among them the “Silver Crescent” and the “Nettie Durant” Several years ago Captain Duncan retired because of ill health. His home was at 2102 Roosevelt Street.
Survivors are three daughters, Jeannette, Mrs. Charles Noble of Chicago; Edith, Mrs. Carl Fay of coco Fla.; Miss Ruth Duncan of Chicago; and two brothers, James of Moline, Ill. And William of Clovis Calif.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday, but the time and place were not announced today.

Source: Unknown, Clinton, Ia., 13 Apr 1933.