monroevillehistorical.org

Henry and Rebecca Monroe Duff

Descendents of John Duff (1786-1850)

 John MciIlduff was born about 1744 in Belfast, Ireland, immigrated to America in 1776, and settled in Export (Pennsylvania), where he died in 1816.  He fought in the Revolutionary war and is said to have had some of his whiskers cut off by a musket ball in the Battle of Brandywine.

 His son, John Duff was born in Westmoreland County (Pennsylvania) in 1786.  In 1795, he bought a parcel of land in what was to become Patton Township from John Sampson, who had, in turn, bought it from John Penn in 1774.  John Duff would go on to serve as Township Supervisor, Tax Collector, School Director and Justice of the Peace.  It was at his home in that the congregation of what was to become Beulah Church first met.  John married twice; the second time to Mary Ann Patterson.  The couple had three children (Mary Ann, John W., and Henry Duff). 

 Henry Duff (1816-1873) was to marry Rebecca Monroe (1820-1903), daughter of Joel Monroe and Margaret Bing Monroe.  Joel Monroe was an early landowner and later a postmaster of the village that was to bear his name.  In 1854, Joel Monroe sold his farm to his son-in-law, Henry Duff.  Henry and Rebecca were to have five children (Joel, Rebecca, Margaret, John and Annie)

 Henry and Rebecca Monroe Duff and their children worked the farm for many years; the Duff farm, located near the core of what would become Monroeville became well known in the area.  By the 1920s, gas stations, greenhouses and roadhouses had sprouted up along the road on the Duff farm.  In 1940, Annie Duff is said to have sold a strip of land along William Penn Hwy. for the sum of $1.00 per acre.  In 1963, the Duff farm house and the remaining land was sold to Sampson developers.

 The Duff family, like many others across the country, was to personally feel the impact of the nation’s Civil War. Henry’s son, John, fought in the Union Army, and died from wounds he received in the service of his country in 1864, at age 18.

 There is a story of family lore that begins in a military hospital during the Civil War, where a Lieutenant Aaron Treher of the 107^th Pennsylvania Regiment, lay in a ward recovering from wounds he received at Dabney Mills, Va. It is said that during long hours spent with fellow soldiers, he heard John Duff describe his sister, Margaret, who lived in Western Pa.  It must have been an intriguing description, for he began writing to her.  And upon his release from the hospital, Lt. Treher journeyed to the Duff Farm, there to meet, and in May 1865 marry, young Margaret Duff.

Many of the Duff descendants stayed in the area, intermarrying with other pioneering families of Monroeville such as the Monroes, the Gillis, the Carlisles, and the McMasters. 

____________________________________

Sources: 
STinchcomb Maryland and Ohio Branch, Ancestry World Tree Project, John Stinchcomb, 2003
The Early Sampsons in Western Pennsylvania, Myles Duff Sampson, 1981.
Notes from a Talk to Monroeville Historical Society, by Rebecca Gillis Hand.