DUNCAN, WILLIAM PERCY, B.S., M.D., a thoroughly equipped and rising young physician and surgeon of Jacksonville, Morgan County, Ill., was born in Jacksonville, October 30, 1878, the son of Edward and Emily (Ruddick) Duncan, natives of Pennsylvania and Indiana respectively. The grandfather, Robert Duncan, was born in Beaver County, Pa., in 1809, and the grandmother, Martha (Neville) Duncan, was born in the same county, 1816. The former, who was a farmer by occupation, died when seventy-eight years old, and the latter, at the age of sixty-two years.

Edward Duncan was born in Beaver County, Pa., August 16, 1838, and received his mental training in the district schools and at Beaver Academy, being afterward, for twelve years, a teacher in the schools of Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois. He enlisted August 9, 1862, in Company G, One Hundred and Thirty0fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was connected with the Army of the Potomac during the rest of the war, participating in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. In 1868 he located at Cerro Gordo, Ill., where he followed the occupation of teaching. In 1876 he graduated from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, the oldest institution of the kind in the United States, after which, at Jacksonville, he began the successful practice which he has since continued. He is a member of the State and Morgan County Dental Societies. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Jacksonville Lodge, No. 570, A.F.&A.M., and a member of the Blue Lodge and Chapter. He is an active member of the Centenary Methodist Church of Jacksonville, in which he acts as class leader, and has held the positions of Trustee and member of the Board of Stewards. He has also served one term as a member of the Jacksonville School Board.

On March 16, 1869, at Seymour, Ind., Dr. Duncan was married to Emily Ruddick, a daughter of Solomon and Elizabeth (Fisher) Ruddick. Two children were the result of this union - Helen, who was born September 14, 1874, and died May 4, 1900, and William Percy.

Dr. Duncan received his early education in the public schools of Jacksonville, and at Whipple Academy, later graduating from Illinois college and from the Medical Department of Northwestern University in 1903. He began the practice of his profession in Birmingham, Ala., where he held the position of Trustee of the Birmingham Dental College, and was a member of the faculty of that institution, being in charge of the departments of Practical Anatomy and Physiology. He was also Assistant Professor of chemistry in the Birmingham Medical College and a member of the Birmingham Library Association, of the Jefferson County medical Society and Alabama State Medical Society. In October, 1904, he located at Jacksonville and there began the practice of medicine and surgery, which he is continuing with constantly increasing success. He is a member of the Jacksonville Medical Club, the Morgan County Medical Society, the Sixth District Medical Society, the Illinois State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association, and is a Fellow in the American Academy of medicine.

On July 21, 1903, Dr. W. P. Duncan was married to Florence Tunison, a daughter of Henry Cuthbert and Catherine (Murray) Tunison. One child - Edward Tunison, born June 7, 1904 - resulted from this union.

Religiously, Dr. Duncan is a member of the Centenary Methodist Church of Jacksonville, in which, during 1904-05, he was Superintendent of the Sunday School. During his college years he was very prominent in Y. M. C. A. work, and served two years on the Board of Managers in Chicago. He was President of the local Y.M.C.A. of the college, and in 1902 was camp physician of the Annual Camp, at Lake Geneva.