John W . “ Dub ” Duncan spends much of his time at the computer , compiling a history of Wolfe City and the surrounding area .
the public .”
It is probably not surprising that a couple involved in so many professions and occupations tended to move around … a lot .
“ Dora and I sold our farm named Duncan ’ s Retreat that was located between Wolfe City and Bonham in 2009 and purchased a two-story house in Rowlett with a swimming pool ,” Duncan said . Two years later the couple added a second home in Heath .
“ In 2018 we decided to downsize due to our ages , so we sold the Heath house and downsized down to one home in our Rowlett house ,” he said . “ Then our son , Steve , said that we had sold the wrong house .”
Duncan said Steve was worried about his parents having an upstairs as well as having to maintain a swimming pool .
“ We began looking and purchased our one-story house in Rockwall , which caused us to move two times in less than six months ,” Duncan said .
Having finally settled down … at least for now … Duncan found more time to focus attention on his lifelong love of the history of his family , which has been a part of Wolfe City since its inception .
“ When I was about 25 years old , I began researching my family history and found that they were living in the future Wolfe City area ,” Duncan said . “ My great aunt , my grandfather ’ s sister and her family had moved from Belgreen , Franklin County , Alabama to Wolfe ’ s Mill in 1881 before the railroads came through and was about a half mile north of the Wolfe ’ s Mill , so they moved the town to be near the two railroads that crisscrossed in the area and named it Wolfe City in February 1888 . Then about four months later my grandparents , John Wilson and Suzy Quinn
Duncan moved from Belgreen to Wolfe City and purchased a farm southeast of town where the Cotton Belt Railroad had been installed in the middle of the farm , so they had land on both sides of the railroad . After I found such a connection of my family and Wolfe City , I began to also research the local area of approximately a 10-mile radius around Wolfe City , including the cemeteries .”
Duncan said he has spent thousands of hours probing into the past , as the story just keeps getting more interesting to him .
“ First if I ’ m doing a story , I do a lot of research about it and I always want a photo or photos to go with the story ,” he said . “ I do the history of 39 cemeteries in the same 10-mile radius around Wolfe City . Not only do I try to post all of the obituaries , but I ’ ve walked most of the cemeteries checking my postings of what the tombstones
HOLIDAY 2022 29 GREENVILE LIFE