THE DUKE FAMILY
1 Thomas Marshall DUKE
+ Elizabeth January TAYLOR 1800 - 1818
.. *2nd Wife of Thomas Marshall DUKE:
.. +Nancy ASHBY
.. *3rd Wife of Thomas Marshall DUKE:
.. +Jane WILKINS
............2 Alice DUKE
............2 Mary Frances DUKE
............2 Stephen Austin DUKE
............... +Sarah Alice PASCAL
....................... 3 Jimmy DUKE
........................3 John DUKE
........................3 Edna DUKE
...........................+W. C. BRYSON
........................3 Mary Alma DUKE
...........................+Henry PAXTON JORDAN
.................................. 4 LeMay JORDAN
...................................4 Vernon Elton JORDAN
......................................+Gertrude Bailey MURRAY
..............................................5 Vernon MURRAY JORDAN
..............................................5 Anita Gertrude JORDAN
......... 2 John Marshall DUKE b: November 28, 1842 in Matagorda Co., TX d: January 02, 1921
............. +Elizabeth J. "Betty" KUKYNDAL b: Sept 24, 1849 in Haynes Bay, TX d: Aug 19, 1932 in Brady, TX
.................... 3 Schollott G. "Lottie" DUKE b: February 07, 1868 d: June 03, 1940 in Brady, TX
.................... 3 John Gibson DUKE b: July 09, 1869 d: 1870
.................... 3 Eva Lena DUKE b: March 14, 1871 d: Dec 26, 1904
........................ +J. Tom BAKER
............................... 4 Farris BAKER b: Jan 11, 1902 d: Aug 1954
.................... 3 Viola DUKE b: Jan 17, 1873 d: Jan13, 1896 in Brady, McCulloch Co., TX
........................ +R. A. KING
............................... 4 Robert A. KING b: August 27, 1891
............................... 4 Vera KING b: August 15, 1893 in Brady, McCulloch Co., Texas
.................... 3 Basil W. DUKE b: December 25, 1876 d: April 19, 1958 in Brady, McCulloch Co., TX
........................ +Annie
.................... 3 Eula DUKE b: Dec 25, 1876 d: Feb21, 1937 in Brady, McCulloch Co., TX
.................... 3 Mary E. DUKE b: October 25, 1879
........................ +G. Chester JONES
............................... 4 Berna JONES b: January 07, 1901
.................... 3 Nannie Dixie DUKE b: December 15, 1882 in Brady, McCulloch Co., Texas
........................ +A. C. MATTHEWS
............................... 4 Charles MATTHEWS b: April 30, 1909
............................... 4 Clarice MATTHEWS b: September 26, 1911
.................... 3 Lois DUKE b: April 12, 1885
........................ +Sidney R. GRUMBLES
.................... 3 Willie Alfred DUKE b: February 04, 1889 in Brady, McCulloch Co., Texas
........................ +Jeff R. HARKEY
.................... 3 Marshall John DUKE b: April 02, 1893 in Brady, McCulloch Co., Texas
........................ +LeEtta Mae DAVIS
............................... 4 Margaret Ellen DUKE b: June 04, 1917 in Oklahoma
................................... +Charles Henry PENCE b: Jul 10, 1917 in TX d: Jul 27, 1996 in Brady, TX
.......................................... 5 Charles E. PENCE
.......................................... 5 Marsha L. PENCE
.......................................... 5 Kathy L. PENCEThomas Marshall Duke (1795-1867), the first constitutional alcalde of Austin's colony and one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, the son of Dr. Basil and Charlotte (Marshall) Duke, was born at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1795. His mother was a niece of Chief Justice John Marshall. Duke served in the War of 1812 under Gen. William Henry Harrison and was in the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813. In 1818 he married Eliza J. Taylor of Newport, Kentucky. She died about six months after the marriage, and by 1819 Duke was in Natchitoches, Louisiana. In 1821 or 1822 he sailed to Texas on the schooner Lively to join Austin's colony. The 1823 census of the Colorado District listed him. On July 24, 1824, he received a sitio of land on Caney Creek in what is now Matagorda County. When the Baron de Bastrop arrived to organize the Austin colony, Duke acted as his secretary and accompanied him on the inspection tour. At one time Duke and Stephen Richardson were partners in a mercantile business at San Felipe. The census of 1826 listed a Thomas Duke as a single farmer and stock raiser, but sometime later that year or the next Duke married his second wife, Nancy Ashby of Lexington, Kentucky. They had one child. Around 1828 or 1830 Duke married his third wife, Jane McCormac (McCormic or McCormick; some sources have Jane Wilkins) at San Felipe; they eventually had six children. Four are documented in the Jordan family tree: Alice, Mary Frances, Stephen Austin, and John Marshall Duke. Stephen Austin Duke married Sarah Alice Pascal and they were parents to Mary Alma Duke, grandmother to Murray and Anita Jordan.
Like most of the colonists, Duke was a soldier and took part in numerous Indian fights. In 1827, while acting as alcalde of the Mina District, he drafted and signed the resolutions condemning the Fredonian Rebellion and attesting loyalty to Mexico. He was captain of one of the companies sent from Austin's colony to help in crushing the rebellion. Also in 1827 he became one of the proprietors of the townsite of Matagorda. In 1828 he was elected the first constitutional alcalde of the jurisdiction of Austin. He was secretary of an 1829 meeting of York Rite Masons at San Felipe and a charter member of the Masonic lodge in Matagorda. After serving as a member of the Convention of 1833, he was elected by the General Council in 1835 to be second judge of Matagorda Municipality. He apparently held that position until Gen. José de Urrea's advancing armies compelled him and his family to seek safety.
Duke was collector at several ports, including Calhoun, Lavaca, and, by 1841, Cavallo Pass. He was also at one time mayor of Matagorda. Around March 1842 he enrolled with the Matagorda volunteers under Clark L. Owen and went to the relief of Bexar when the Mexican army invaded. When Calhoun County was established in 1846, he was appointed one of the commissioners to locate the county seat. By July 1846 his third wife had died. During the late 1840s he moved from Matagorda to Refugio County, where he was one of the few resident slaveowners, and established a ranch in the vicinity of Hynes Bay. After an 1858 visit to Kentucky, he lived at Saluria before returning to his Hynes Bay ranch during the Civil War. As an ardent secessionist, he was a member of his precinct patrol; nearly all his sons served in the Confederate Army. Duke fell victim to the yellow fever epidemic of 1867 and was buried on his Hynes Bay Ranch in Refugio County.
Source: The Handbook of Texas Online
Sarah Alice Pascal Duke, married to Stephen Austin Duke, was known as "Granny Duke". She was a charter member of the First Christian Church in Brady, having one of the stained glass windows in her name. The Communion trays also have her name on them.
Murray remembers having to go out to get her a mesquite root for her to use in her snuff can. She would sit with friends and have a "spit" can beside her chair while she chewed her snuff. Another memory Murray has is Granny Duke asking him to go get a white chicken feather for her to oil her clock.
Granny Duke was the one who sat on the church steps with a shotgun holding off the members of the church who wanted to make the church a Church of Christ. They were going to take the piano out and she wouldn't let them.
When Gertrude Murray and Vernon Jordan were getting engaged, Gertrude took Vernon to meet her grandmother "Big Mama Bailey" (Margaret Donnally) in San Antonio. Vernon and Big Mama were talking and found that Sarah Alice Pascal's (Vernon's grandmother) family had allowed Big Mama to live in their home when she was a young girl. Big Mama and Sarah had become best friends.
