BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Joshua C. DUNCAN, D.D.S., Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 401-2
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Dr. JOSHUA C. DUNCAN, D. D. S., a skilled dentist of Johnstown, this county, is 
a son of James W. and Rachel M. (Cole) Duncan, and was born February 1, 1862, in 
Indiana county.
    Dr. Duncan is a scion of one of those worthy Scotch families to which 
Indiana county owes her early settlement and development, as well as her present 
thrift. His grandfather, William Duncan, was born in Dauphin county, in 1798, 
and his father, William Duncan, moved to Indiana county, in 1808 showing that 
the family was one of the pioneer families of the county. Their early ancestral 
home is in the vicinity of Buffington. William Duncan was a man of but limited 
education so far as the books go, but he was a man of excellent judgment and 
good business capacity. In his day, farming was about the only pursuit available 
in his section of the country, and he was largely engaged in that enterprise and 
the related one of stock-raising and stock-dealing, and owned large tracts of 
land in the county. He married a Miss Graham, also a Scotch lady, and their 
marriage resulted in the birth of the following children: John, James, William, 
Samuel, who died young; Elizabeth, Jane, and Ann.
    James Duncan (father was born in May, 1826, on the old homestead in Indiana 
county. He was reared in the section of his nativity, and has always lived there 
and followed the arts of husbandry as a means of securing a livelihood; he has 
lived a quiet, unassuming, yet a very useful life. He married Rachel M. Cole, a 
daughter of Joshua Cole and Anna Galbraith, the former of Irish and the latter 
of Scotch blood, of Westmoreland county. This marriage resulted in the birth of 
ten children, two boys and eight girls, as follows; Frances, deceased; William, 
of the old homestead; Lizzie, deceased; Annie M., Dr. Joshua C., Laura B., 
Mollie, Ada, Ella, and Olive.
    Dr. Duncan was educated in Dayton academy, Armstrong county, and in the 
Indiana State Normal school. Like many of our successful professional men, he 
taught for a time, and then took up the study of dentistry in the office of Dr. 
G. W. Simpson, of Indiana. He then entered the Baltimore College of Dental 
Surgery, at Baltimore, Maryland, from which reliable institution he graduated in 
1884. He at once located in Johnstown, and began the practice of his profession, 
and has been uniformly successful, taking rank among the leading and most 
skillful dentists of the county. In addition to his professional work, he does 
some business along the line of real estate. Religiously, he is a member of the 
Presbyterian church, and fraternally of Corona Lodge, No. 999, I.O.O.F., and 
Mineral Lodge, No. 89, Knights of Pythias. On May 9, 1892, Dr. Duncan married 
Agnes M. Murdock, of Johnstown, and to this marriage have been born two 
children; Rachel M., deceased, and John Murdock.