John Holt Duncan

John Holt Duncan (July 7, 1820 – May 27, 1896) was one a founder of Beta Theta Pi, a prominent college fraternity founded at Miami University in 1839 and was its first president.[1] He made a career as a lawyer and judge in Houston and Bexar County, Texas.[2]

Biography

Duncan was born in Cynthiana, Kentucky to John Hicks Duncan and Pauline Randolph Holt.[3] He grew up in Mississippi.[2] He attended Miami University where he studied law and graduated with an A.B and M.A. in 1840.[2][4] While there, he was one of eight founders of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and served as its first president.[1]

After college, he was admitted to the bar.[4] He moved to Houston, Texas where he practiced law.[5] He became Chief Justice of Bexar County from 1857 to 1862.[6][2]

Duncan served as a Confederate Artillery Captain in the 31st Texas Cavalry during the Civil War.[2][4][7] He lost a leg as a result of a battle wound on September 20, 1862, at the First Battle of Newtonia.[5] When the Confederates retreated, the still-recovering Duncan was taken in by farmer and his wife.[7] When he was discovered by the Union troops, the soldiers executed the farmer for aiding the enemy.[7] The farmer's widow and children begged for Duncan's life, saving the injured man's life.[8] They nursed him back to health and, then, helped get him back to the Confederates, some 200 miles south through enemy territory.[7] Duncan spent the rest of his life caring for the family and educating the children; he died penniless as a result.[7]

After the war, Duncan returned to Texas.[5] He was a district justice from 1864 to 1865 and a city attorney for Houston from 1877 to 1879.[2]

He died in the Confederate Old Soldier's Home in Austin, Texas in 1896 and was buried in the Confederate Veterans section of the Texas State Cemetery.[3][1][5] Duncan's prosthetic leg is on display at the national headquarters of Beta Theta Pi at Oxford, Ohio.[7]

See also

References
  1. Shepardson, Francis Wayland (1927). The Beta Book: The Story and Manual of Beta Theta Pi. George Banta Publishing Company. p. 7 and 341 – via Google Books.
  2. "In Memoriam: John Holt Duncan". The Beta Theta Pi. 18 (2). November 1889.
  3. "John Holt Duncan". Texas State Cemetery. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  4. The Alumni and Former Student Catalogue of Miami University: Including Members of the Board of Trustees and Faculty, 1809-1892. Oxford, Ohio: Press of the Oxford News. 1892. p. 33 – via Google Books.
  5. "A Veteran Dead". The Galveston Daily News. Galveston, Texas. May 31, 1896. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-07-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "John Holt Duncan" (PDF). Beta Theta Pi. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  7. Cobb, L. Martin (28 April 2015). Beta Brotherhood: A 175th Anniversary Tribute. p. 32. Retrieved July 22, 2023 – via issuu.
  8. Brown, James T., ed., Catalogue of Beta Theta Pi, New York: 1917
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