Scott County's first mayor: Joshua Duncan
The county's first executive was a resident of the Buffalo community
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Meet Scott County’s first mayor: Joshua Duncan
Two weeks ago, this piece profiled Scott County’s first sheriff, John Lewallen. How about the county’s first mayor.
The first elected mayor of Scott County — though the office wasn’t called county mayor back then — was Joshua J. Duncan, who served from 1869 to 1873. In those days, the office was called county judge.
If you’re astute in the history of Scott County, you probably know that Scott County was formed in 1849, and the first election was held in the spring of 1850. It was that year that Lewallen, a Glenmary man, was elected sheriff.
So why was the first mayor not elected until nearly 20 years later?
In the early days of Scott County, the county judge was not an elected position. Prior to 1869, Tennessee law dictated that the county’s quarterly court — a forerunner of the modern-day county commission — appoint a chairman from among themselves. The commissioners were called justices of the peace and the chairman was called the judge.
The law changed in 1869, and Duncan was the first man elected mayor of Scott County.
Who was J.J. Duncan?
Born Dec. 16, 1833, Joshua J. Duncan was the son of Champion Duncan and Emily Baker of the Buffalo community. During his childhood, Buffalo was part of Campbell County, but it was added to Scott County when Scott County was formed in 1849. J.J. Duncan was the second-oldest of Champ and Emily Duncan’s 11 children.
The Duncan family was quite prominent in early Buffalo — one of the first families to settle the fertile valley at the base of the Cumberland Mountains. They actually lived on Stanley Creek, which flows into Buffalo Creek.
Champ Duncan was the son of Joshua Duncan and Rutha Daugherty. The Duncan family is traced back for several generations prior to Joshua Duncan — all the way back to John Duncan, who lived in early 17th century Scotland. It was John Duncan’s son, Patrick Duncan — the fifth-great-grandfather of Champ Duncan — who migrated from Scotland to the American colonies, settling in Maryland. From there, the family moved to Virginia and the Carolinas before Joshua Duncan moved to present-day Scott County prior to his death in 1835.
The children of Joshua and Rutha Duncan settled in two places: Buffalo and Winfield. Most prominent among the Winfield Duncans were Josh Duncan Sr. (a son of Joshua and Rutha Duncan) and his wife, Rosie Sartin. They had at least 10 children. And as you might be discovering by now, the name “Joshua” was a popular one in the Duncan family.
While his brother moved to Winfield, settling in the Pleasant Grove area, Champ Duncan stayed at Buffalo. He married Emily Baker in 1831. It’s not clear who her parents were, but the Baker family was another early family in this section of the Cumberland Mountains, settling further north near Jellico Creek.
Joshua J. Duncan, the son of Champ and Emily Baker Duncan, married Mary Cross on Aug. 17, 1854. Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure who her parents were, but she was part of the Cross family that lived at Buffalo in the early 19th century. The Cross family lived on Smith Creek, which is the “next holler down” from Stanley Creek. The patriarch of that family, Louis Micajah Cross, married Lovis Duncan. One of their sons was Larkin Cross, who was murdered by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. He married Henrietta Duncan, one of the daughters of Josh Duncan and Rosie Sartin. Mary Cross was likely a cousin or niece of Larkin Cross.
Joshua and Mary had three children: Julia Ann, Martha and Susannah.
His adult life
Joshua J. Duncan served in the Union army during the Civil War. He was a 1st lieutenant in Company A of the Tennessee National Guard. His father, Champ Duncan, also served in that regiment during the war.
Duncan was a farmer early in his adult life. It was in 1869 that he was elected Scott County Judge. He served in that capacity for four years, and was replaced in 1873 by John Marion Cordell of Low Gap.
Following his tenure as county judge, Duncan owned a store for a period of time.
Mary Duncan died on May 26, 1888 and was buried at Huntsville Cemetery. Joshua remarried to Harriet Cross on Sept. 9, 1888. Harriet was the daughter of Larkin Cross, who had been murdered during the Civil War. She was listed in the 1880 census as a cousin to Mary Cross, living in the Duncan home.
Joshua Duncan died on March 17, 1909, at age 75. He was buried at the Duncan Cemetery on Stanley Creek, where Harriet would later be buried in 1936.
Aftermath
Martha Duncan married James Lay. She died in 1887 at age 29 and was buried at Huntsville Cemetery, where her mother would be buried the following year.
Susannah Duncan died in November 1875 at age 14. She was buried at Massey Cemetery, which is located in the Sugar Grove area near Buffalo.
Julia Ann, the oldest of the Duncan girls, married Jesse Lay and moved to Arkansas. Jesse was the son of Michael Lay and Julia Baird of Straight Fork. Julia and Jesse had five children together: Mary, William, Emily, Ave and John. Julia died in 1939 and was originally buried at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Garland County, Ark. When Blakley Creek was flooded to build Lake Ouachita, her remains were exhumed and moved to Mountain Valley Cemetery.
Scott County continued to elect county judges until the 1970s, when state law changed the title to county executive. The last person to hold the title of county judge was Verda “Buddy” Cope Jr., who served from 1966 to 1982 and is the longest-tenured county mayor in Scott County’s history.
The last person to hold the title of county executive in Scott County was Dwight Murphy, who was also the first person in the county’s history to be elected on two separate occasions. He served as county executive from 1982, when he defeated Cope, until 1990, and again from 1998 to 2005. During his second term in office, the title changed from county executive to county mayor.
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◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)