Dr. Stephen Duncan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Duncan

Stephen Duncan (1787-1867) was an American plantation owner and banker in the antebellum South. He became the wealthiest cotton planter in the South prior to the American Civil War, and the second largest slave owner in the country.

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Dr. Stephen Duncan was a native of the Keystone state, born in Carlisle March 4, 1787, and was educated at Dickinson College, in his native city, from which he graduated in medicine in 1805. Three years later he came to Natchez, and practiced his profession there with marked success for a number of years. He subsequently became very extensively engaged in cotton planting, and was one of the largest cotton planters in the South. He was one of the most successful and thorough business men in the Union, and from a small capital amassed a great fortune, being one of the leading capitalists of the South. He was president of the State Bank at Natchez during the most prosperous days of Adams County, and was a man of strong and vigorous mind, rare sagacity, wonderful ability, great enterprise, and was noted for the interest he took in public affairs. He was not alone noted for his acumen as a business man. He was a litterateur of more than average attainments, and he arose to a prominent position in the first rank of physicians. He was twice married, first, to Miss Margaret Ellis, a descendant of one of the prominent pioneer families of Adams County, and after her death, or in 1819, he was married to Miss Catherine Bingaman, a very intelligent and refined lady, who was born at Natchez in February, 1801, and who died October 1, 1868. She was a sister of the lamented and distinguished Col. Adam L. Bingaman, who graduated with high honors in belles-lettres from Harvard, and who became one of the wealthiest planters in Adams County. He was born in 1793, and died about 1867. His wife was a Miss Julia Murray, the daughter of a celebrated Unitarian clergyman of Boston. Colonel Bingaman was the acknowledged leader of the Democratic party for many years, and was a member of the Legislature with Hons. S.S. Prentiss, who was perhaps his only superior in the state as a debater and politician. Mr. Bingaman was a man of rare qualifications for a popular leader, being gifted by nature in mind and personal appearance (which was most dignified and commanding), with a polished education and fascinating manners; he was a natural orator. Dr. Duncan continued to reside in Natchez until 1863, when he removed to New York, and there his death occured January 29, 1867.