[NFBMO] Meet Francis Duncan

Thu May 10 22:18:21 UTC 2018

This is in no way to criticize you, but I find repeated posts both on email and on social media in which I cannot trace the origin of the writer. Sometimes my interest is selfish; I'm looking for something to use in the Braille Monitor. At other times it is because I want to explore some mystical comment that has been made about angels or spiritual intervention, and I would like to verify that it really happened. At other times it is because I see things that make a political statement, and I want to explore it to determine whether or not it is true or false.

In the case of what you have forwarded, I can't see one thing that is objectionable to it. In other cases I find people forwarding things, and I cannot for the life of me determine whether they have forwarded it because they think it is ridiculous or represents the best in logical thinking. My first tendency is to assume that they endorse it, but very often when I follow-up I get what I consider to be the most inadequate answer: well, I don't really have an opinion about it. I just forwarded it because I thought it was interesting. This throws me, because I assume that unless otherwise specified forwarding something means that you supported and that it represents a view you are willing to stake your reputation on.

I guess this is just a plea to have people think about things that they forward or post and to try to know from whence they come. The source doesn't make or break statement, but it certainly does help in starting to evaluate it.

Warmly,

Gary

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBMO [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of nancy Lynn via NFBMO
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2018 1:16 PM
To: NFB of Missouri Mailing List
Cc: nancy Lynn
Subject: Re: [NFBMO] Meet Francis Duncan

I don't know. I just got it from somebody just that way.

Nancy Lynn seabreeze.stl at gmail.com
-----Original Message----- 
From: Gary Wunder via NFBMO
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2018 12:23 PM
To: 'NFB of Missouri Mailing List'
Cc: Gary Wunder
Subject: Re: [NFBMO] Meet Francis Duncan

Hi, Nancy. Who wrote this? I think they need attribution.

Thanks.

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBMO [mailto:nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of nancy Lynn via 
NFBMO
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2018 9:18 AM
To: mcb chat; nfbmo list; NFBC List
Cc: nancy Lynn
Subject: [NFBMO] Meet Francis Duncan

I got this from a friend and thought you’d like to see it.
So many of our blind ancestors left us so little to remember them by.  For 
many, the hopelessness of blindness and the times they lived in led them to 
succumb to the popular view that blindness was a shameful condition or that 
they no longer had worth to themselves, family or society.  Too often the 
blinded family member was rarely discussed or participated in any events 
outside of family and so they are lost to us forever.

Men, far more than women made the news as they, being a man were expected to 
support themselves someway.  Women were to be cared for and if that woman 
was blind, then the expectations of society was that family would care for 
her.

In reality, families could not care for dependent adults if the family were 
poor, large or many other reasons. This left the blind adults in the poor 
house or asylum, if the asylums would take a blind man.  Many would not take 
a blind woman because it was just not safe.

Blind men took to begging, peddling and anything else they could find for 
survival.  They lived in the backs of buildings, on the streets and below 
bridges.  Some were arrested for vagrancy and left a trace of their lives in 
the local newspapers.  A blind woman would not have been able to live so 
with any sort of self-protection.

Today we have the story of a man who left a few bread crumbs to help us 
learn just a little about his life and how he kept himself together after 
losing his sight at the age of about 30.

Francis E Duncan was born in Ireland about 1843, but no one really knows for 
sure.  He was the second son of Hubert and Christine Duncan.  The family 
immigrated to the United States about 1848.  The couple had four sons and 
one daughter, the two youngest being born in Delaware.  According to the 
1860 U. S. Census, neither parent could read or write.  But their children, 
according to the census,  all were educated and could read and write.  Yet, 
his older sighted brother James, in his petition for naturalization in 1882, 
signed his name with an “X”, just as Francis did in later years when Francis 
had               been blind for years.

Francis went to work at a young age and became a boilermaker for Harland and 
Hollingsworth Corporation, (H&H Co.). Much of his excess, earned funds went 
to purchase property in the Wilmington area that he would later build upon.

In 1866, his taxes on a piece of his property located at 121 Washington 
Street in Wilmington was assessed at $25.  Many others on that tax roll paid 
less in taxes, indicating that Francis had developed and held successful 
land holdings.  At least for that listing.

In 1863, he was a co-founder of the Shields Library Association of 
Wilmington Delaware.  The libraries during that time were membership 
organizations.  Members of the Shields Library paid a fee of five cents a 
week to be able to read and to take out books from the library.  IF he was 
not educated, he still showed a love for learning.

While working for H & H Corp, he was involved in an accident at work in 
1872.  The injuries were such that he was considered totally disabled by the 
company and the community.  Members of the Boilermakers and Iron Ship 
Builders Union held a picnic in August of that year to do what they could 
for their fellow brother. What other injuries he may have had were never 
mentioned.  It might have been that eventually, Francis was healed of the 
additional wounds.

As a result of that accident, he lost the sight in one eye.  Three years 
later, he lost the remaining sight in the second eye.  His father had died 
in 1867, leaving him and younger brothers to support his mother.  Older 
brother James already had a family to support.  There was no family to care 
for him.  Sitting at home, feeling sorry for himself was not an option for 
Francis.

With the property that Francis already owned, and the funds he had saved, he 
continued to invest in the land and build on them.  In 1878, he obtained a 
permit from the city of Wilmington to build another home on his land at 
Wright and Cedar streets.

Although many documents do not indicate that Francis worked at a job after 
becoming blind, in 1880, he was listed as having some sort of work in the 
steel industry.  The notation included his blindness.  Did the census taker 
not understand that a blind person could have a job and therefore questioned 
the employment?  We will never know.

At the time when Francis went blind, the state of Delaware had no 
rehabilitation services for blinded adults.  Yet decades later, Francis who 
loved to read, learned “blind reading” and secured books through the library 
for the blind in Delaware, after it was founded in 1909 when the Commission 
for the Blind Bill was passed by the state legislature.  He was one of their 
most voracious readers.

By the turn of the 20th century, Duncan applied for a peddler’s license from 
the city of Delaware to ply wares on the streets of Wilmington. The license 
was $12.50  a year.  The local newspapers announced his confirmation of a 
license along with others, assuring the citizens that they, as peddlers had 
a right to work on the streets  There was no indication what wares Francis 
sold to the public.

When the workshop for the blind in Wilmington opened, Francis applied to 
work in the shop, making brooms, rugs and the like.  This he did for more 
than ten years, almost until the day of his death.  Each day, he would walk 
alone to and from the shop, putting in  a full day’s work.  By this time, 
Francis was more than 70 years old.  The only alternatives for a blind 
person at that time to receive financial support other than working was 
charity.  Obviously, Francis was not willing to be a charity case of the 
county, church or the state.  Welfare systems for the blind were not yet 
established in the state of Delaware until after 1909.

Francis is an excellent example for us that it is never too late to learn a 
new skill or build on old ones.
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