A. J. Duckett Obituary
A. J. Duckett Dies
Came to Barton County 73 years ago.
Our well known Townsman had suffered from an insidious and incurable disease for years - Had been confined to his bed for five months - Born near Bowling Green, Kentucky, 81 years ago - Came to Barton County when he was a lad of eight, 73 years ago - Father settled on present Mrs. Bob Rector Farm east of Milford, nearly three quarters of a century ago - Mr. Duckett was in the Mercantile Business at Newport, Cedarville, and finally at Lockwood, retiring twenty years ago and coming to Lamar.
A. J. Duckett who came to Barton County when he was a lad of eight 73 years ago died at his home on South Poplar Street at 2:30, Tuesday morning, after a long wasting illness of 5 months, and several years of frail precarious health. Mr. Duckett suffered from a sort of creeping palsy or paralysis which medical science has no real means of combating. For several years he has been growing weaker and more feeble, not only because of his years but from this insidious abdication of the nerves.
One day last May, Mr. Duckett went to a property he owned, here in town, to do some "fixing up." He mowed the weeds and did other things about the place, taxing too far his failing strength.
The effect of the over-exertion sent him to his bed, and he was never again able to be up and about. He was conscious up to Saturday afternoon when he fell into a coma which ended his life.
Funeral services were announced to be held at the Christian Church, at 2:30 Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Duckett was a lifelong Baptist but because of repairs not yet completed the Baptist Church was not in a condition to accommodate a funeral service.
A. J. Duckett was the son of Thomas Duckett, who was one of Barton County’s best known pioneers. He was born near Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1848. Eight years later he moved to Missouri with his parents. Thomas Duckett settled on what is now the Mrs. Bob Rector farm, two miles east of Milford, where he bought a section of land and proceeded to make extensive improvements. When the Civil War came, Mr. Duckett was compelled to move his family to a place of greater safety, so they spent three years in Pettis County, near Sedalia. When they returned to the farm after the close of the war, all of the improvements including their farm house, barns and fencing had been burned to the ground.
The Duckett boys and girls went to school, following the war, in a school house, built on their father’s farm. It was the only school in Milford township.
In 1878, the deceased and Miss Molly Teague were married at Cedarville. Mr. Duckett farmed for a time near Cedarville. But shortly he went into the mercantile business at Newport. He went from Newport to Cedarville, where he ran a store for some time, and from there, he went to
Lockwood, where he and his brother, the late James Duckett were in business for a good many years. First they ran a hardware store. Later they were in the dry good business
About twenty years ago, Mr. Duckett retired from business and moved to Lamar, where he has resided ever since. He was one of a family of ten children, of whom his younger brother, our townsman, Dr. T. H. Duckett, is the only one living. An older sister, Mrs. Jemima Haines, died about six weeks ago, near Bolivar, at the age of 95.
Mr. Duckett is survived by his faithful and devoted wife and by a foster daughter, Mrs. Myrtle Burroughs.
A man of unbending integrity, unshaken convictions, quiet, kindly, unobtrusive, but ever faithful, this was our late townsman, who had laid down his burden and fell into that last long peaceful sleep.
Lamar Democrat
Friday, October 11, 1929
Submitted by Phillip Rector on January 18, 2002.