JOHN D. T. DUKE

JOHN D. T. DUKE, a carpenter by trade, was born in Ohio County, Ky., January 17, 1835, and is a son of Thomas Duke, who still survives at the age of seventy-eight years. He also is a native of Ohio County, Ky., and was born March 17, 1807. His vocation in life has been that of a farmer. He married Elizabeth Taylor, of Ohio, Ky., who died April 18, 1836, leaving two children, Margaret and John D. T.  Afterward married Darcas Ann Addington, who died June 21, 1884, leaving eight children. John Duke, the grandfather of John D. T., was a native of Maryland, born in 1773. John D. T. Duke had but few advantages of early education, but by close application, has obtained a fair business education, and is quite an expert at the carpenter trade. At the age of twenty-one he began farming for himself. Rented land until 1866, when he bought thirty three acres of land from Henry Thomson. He afterward bought 108 acres of land from Q. C. Shanks and John Stevens, and fifty-two and one-half acres from Frederick Schroader. In 1880 he bought an interest in a saw-mill, and was engaged in the manufacturing of lumber for two years, when he sold his interest in the mill and went into the drug business, with A. V. Thomson, at Horton, Ohio Co., Ky. Mr. Duke has not inherited any part of his possessions, but has gained it all through his own exertions and close application to business. Mr. Duke still retains a state of single blessedness. Politically he is a stanch Democrat; a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he holds the office of trustee, and favors the cause of temperance by example and precept.

Source: J. H. BATTLE, W H. PERRIN, & G. C. KNIFFIN 1895

Note:  Mr. Duke died 8 Jan 1917 and is buried in Bethel Cemetery, near Horton, Ohio County, KY.