McDuffie
|
Death of W. S. M’Duffie
Passed Away at home in Sherman at 7:25 last Evening A Collin County Pioneer Born in Georgia in 1818, Settled Near Vineland in Early 50s War Record The Democrat, September 4, 1902 William S. McDuffie, aged pioneer of Collin County, and Mexican war veteran passed away at his home in Sherman Wednesday evening at 7”25 after a few days illness of general debility incident to old age. The deceased, who was a near relative of George McDuffie, ex-governor and ex-United States senator of Georgia, was born near Columbus that state, Nov. 4, 1818, being therefore 83 years, 9 months and 23 days old at the time of his death. He was a son of John McDuffie and was one of a family of six children, three sons and three daughters. His brothers John and George McDuffie and sisters Bettie and Marium are all dead. His sister Sallie, now Mrs. Puckett, of McKinney, is the only surviving member of the family. She is in feeble health and unable to be with her brother when he died. William S. McDuffie emigrated to Texas in the early fifties, settling in the Horn community near the present site of Vineland. On April 25, 1858 he was married to Mrs. Mary Jane Duncan, who was Miss Henry, and ate his wedding dinner in the City Hotel in McKinney which is yet standing just west of the square on Virginia street. The following named children were born to this union: Texana, Bettie, Eliza Jane, Marium, William Henry, Harvey lee, Mary Etta, John C., Allie and one child that died in infancy. Texana, the oldest child died several years ago. The rest are all living and were with him at the hour of death except William, who is conductor on a passenger train with headquarters at San Luis Potosi, old Mexico. The youngest daughter, Allie, married F. C. Thompson, editor of The Democrat and one of the Courier proprietors, who was also at the bedside when the end came. The deceased came to Collin County when it took courage to face the trials and struggles of frontier life, with the Throckmortons, Newsomes, Footes, Wilsons, Kincaids, Herndons, Halls, Wilmeths, Shains, Stiffs, McGarrahs, Henrys, Waddills, Muses, Graves Witts, and number of others. Thus, one of the old familiar faces are passing o’er leaving behind the richest domain of earth as fruits of this heroic band of pioneers. Mr. McDuffie, the last one to pass over, was a man of the most temperate and exemplary habits, zealously devoted to his church and was always found championing the cause of loftier citizenship and strictest integrity among men. In his latest hours he talked of going to his Heavenly home. In the same room of the old home which he devoted wife died years ago, he, too, breathed his last which was in accordance with his oft expressed wish. The funeral services were held at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Houston St. Christian church where his membership was held for many years and where his wife’s funeral was also held. The burial took place at West Hill cemetery under the auspices of the masonic fraternity of which he was long a member. |
William Stoker McDuffie was born on 9 November 1818 in Thomson, Columbia Co., Georgia. He was a son of John and Sarah Jane Stoker McDuffie and a grandson of John and Mary Jane Gilmore McDuffie. He was married to Mary Jane Henry Duncan (widow of James Duncan) in McKinney, Texas in April 1858. He was a Mexican War veteran. He bought 114 acres of land in October of 1858. There is some confusion about whether his relative for governor of Georgia or South Carolina.
Alice A. McDuffie married Francis Carl Thompson in Collin County about 1890. Their children were: Frances M., who married Dewey Rolf Brandt, Mary Ann, and William L. Thompson, who married Virginia C. Jones about 1930. Sarah Ann Elizabeth McDuffie, sister of William S. McDuffie, married John Magner in Collin County on 16 Jan. 1872. After John died and Sarah married Socrates Puckett after 1881. She died in 1910. |
