Chapman Duncan (July 1, 1812 – December 22, 1900) was an early Latter-day Saint pioneer, missionary, and colonizer whose brief settlement attempt in southern Utah gave the name to the ghost town of Duncan’s Retreat in Washington County.
Early Life and Conversion
Duncan was born in Bath, Grafton County, New Hampshire, to John Duncan and Betsey Taylor Putnam. His family later lived in Barnet, Vermont. In 1830, at about age 18 and suffering from poor health (he later recalled consumption), he left home intending to travel to South America for recovery. While on the Ohio River, he experienced what he described as a spiritual impression directing him instead toward the gathering place of the Latter-day Saints. He arrived in Independence, Missouri, in late 1831 and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in December 1833 (some accounts say late 1831) by Titus Billings and confirmed by Bishop Edward Partridge.
He lived through the Missouri persecutions, including events in Jackson County and at Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman. He worked various jobs (farming, clerking, teaching school, hat-making), was ordained a teacher and later an elder, and participated in the Kirtland Temple endowment. He also served in Joseph Smith’s 1844 presidential campaign mission in Virginia.
Marriages and Family
Duncan married Rebecca Rose on May 21 (or the first Monday in May), 1838, in the Far West area of Missouri. She and two young children died in the Montrose, Iowa, area in the mid-1840s. He then married Lockey (or Lauratha/Lorthy/Martha) Jones on March 12, 1846, in Burke’s Garden, Tazewell County, Virginia. They had children including Emily Deseret Duncan (born in Utah Territory). Secondary sources also record a later marriage to Rosanna Taylor on August 23, 1862, with children Taylor and Becky (or Rosilla). He reportedly adopted a Native American boy named Charles Litt.
Pioneer Trek and Utah Settlement
Duncan crossed the plains to the Salt Lake Valley in 1848 with the Willard Richards / Amasa Lyman / Barney Adams company (arriving around October 16–17), serving as captain of a ten. He and his brother Homer initially lived in the Big Cottonwood area. He helped colonize Iron County (appearing in the 1850 census in Parowan/Cedar City area as a farmer) and was involved in early Iron Mission efforts. Some secondary accounts list him as a Mormon Battalion member, though primary muster rolls do not clearly confirm this.
Missions
Duncan served missions in Vermont, Virginia, and China. In late 1852 he was called with Hosea Stout and James Lewis to open missionary work in China. They sailed from San Francisco in March 1853 and arrived in Hong Kong on April 28. Civil unrest (the Taiping Rebellion), language barriers, limited funds, and local resistance restricted their efforts largely to Hong Kong. They left in June 1853 after less than two months. He returned to the United States by August 1853. In 1857 he traveled again as company chaplain with the Chester Loveland company.
Duncan’s Retreat
In 1861, as part of Brigham Young’s “Utah’s Dixie” cotton-growing initiative, Duncan settled with Alma Minnerly and a few others on Mukuntuweap Creek (a Virgin River tributary) about three miles east of present-day Virgin, Washington County, near what is now Zion National Park. The Great Flood of 1862 destroyed much of the farmland and settlement (as it did nearby Grafton). Duncan and most original settlers left early that year, selling claims to later arrivals including William Theobald, Joseph Wright, and others. Remaining residents named the place Duncan’s Retreat.
A local legend claims Duncan’s departure was hastened by a surveying error: he allegedly laid out a canal from the Virgin River that ran uphill when dug, prompting his “retreat.” Versions place the botched survey at Virgin or Rockville. The settlement later grew to about 70 people by the end of 1862, with a post office (1863), schoolhouse (1864), and LDS meetinghouse. It produced cotton, corn, wheat, and sorghum in good years but suffered repeated floods and was evacuated during the Black Hawk War (1866). It was largely abandoned by 1891–1895 and is now a ghost town with scant remains (a few graves, including that of Nancy Ferguson Ott, an old ditch, and dead fruit trees) along Utah State Route 9.
Later Life and Death
Duncan continued pioneering and community work in southern and central Utah (including areas around Cedar City, St. George/Washington County, and later Wayne County). Contemporary accounts describe him as generous—giving away livestock to those in need—and steadfast in his faith despite hardships, mob violence, and frontier challenges. He died December 22, 1900, in Loa (or nearby Cainsville), Utah, at age 88 and is buried in Lyman Cemetery, Wayne County.
Duncan left an autobiography/reminiscences covering much of his early life (to the mid-1840s/early Utah period), preserved in Church and university collections. His descendants lived primarily in Utah. He is remembered mainly for his role in the short-lived Duncan’s Retreat settlement and as a representative early Utah pioneer and missionary.