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This cache will provide you with a little bit of pioneer history in the area. To log this cache, please provide the name of the person on the monument and her death date. If you have any information about this person please send it to me so I can include it in the description of the virtual cache.
In 1861, a man named Chapman Duncan settled here. Shortly thereafter several other families moved to the area. In 1862 the Virgin river flooded and destroyed most of the town. Many of the inhabitants moved away, but new settlers came. By January of 1863 about 70 people lived here. In 1863 a post office was built. In 1864 a school and a meeting house were added to the community. In 1866 floods took their toll on this town and, over the next few years, high water from the Virgin river destroyed the fields and eventually killed the town. By 1891 the town was deserted. All that remains of the town's existence is this marker. For additional history of the area visit the following website: www.sonsofutahpioneers.info/hs/Q06-duncan.html
I did a search on www.familysearch.com and came up with the following information about the lady buried at this location.
She was born Aug 27, 1822 in Somerset, Pulaski County, Kentucky. She was the sixth child of David Barrow Ferguson and (same first name as woman on marker) XXXXX Rand Pegram. Her father died in Indiana in 1834. Her mother died in Iowa in 1858. She married Fredric XXX on 25 March 1841 in Clay, Indiana. They had two children: David, born in Clay County, Indiana in 1842, who died in Tropic, Utah in 1920; and Fredrick, born July 23, 1844 who died at Winter Quarters Feb 24, 1847. Her husband died in Nauvoo in January 1845. She traveled to Utah in one of the first pioneer wagon trains in 1848. She married an "Elder" Clayborne in 1850. There is no record of children from this husband in her genealogy. She died and was buried at "Duncan's Retreat" (this location) in the year noted on the marker.
Here is some additional information about Duncan's Retreat. Note in the text below the name of son of the person buried here.
DUNCAN'S RETREAT, Washington Co., Utah, was a small settlement located on the north bank of the Rio Virgen, about four miles east of Virgin City, 3 1/2 miles west of Grafton, and 15 miles east of Toquerville.
Duncan's Retreat was first settled in 1861 by Chapman Duncan and others, and during that and the following year some fertile lands skirting the river were taken possession of, but these good lands were soon washed away by the action of high water in the Rio Virgen and most of the settlers became discouraged and moved away. Other settlers moved in until the place contained about a dozen families, who built their first log cabins where the village of Duncan's Retreat later was built. The name of the place was suggested from the fact that the first settler, Chapman Duncan, retreated to other parts of the country after the floods, during the winter of 1861-1862. In 1864 William Theobald acted as presiding Elder at Duncan's Retreat. In 1866 the place was temporarily vacated because of Indian troubles but resettled in 1868.
After the resettling, William Martindale presided in the little settlement for some time; he was succeeded by Joseph Wright, who died in 1873, and was succeeded in the branch presidency by Samuel Stanworth, who was succeeded by Moses W. Gibson, who was succeeded by David B. Ott, who in 1888 was succeeded by William Wright. Later David P. Ott is mentioned as presiding Elder. In April, 1891, Duncan's Retreat was a small branch of the Virgin Ward, and as most of the settlers moved away because of continued floods, which washed away their lands, the place was abandoned. In 1930 nothing was left of Duncan's Retreat except fragments of the foundations of one or two houses and three pear trees, still bearing fruit. The present federal highway passes directly over the site where formerly stood the Duncan LDS meeting house.
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