DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Duncan's Ferry on the San Marcos River in Gonzales County. Now settle in, because this one's got layers. It starts quiet — a Scotsman, a river crossing, a little enterprise begun around 1834 — and it ends in fire.
Benjamin Duncan, born in 1793, got this ferry going on the San Marcos, and by all accounts it was a modest, working thing. A man with a boat and a river and people who needed to get across. Simple enough.
But history has a way of finding the people who are just trying to run a ferry. According to tradition, one of the first things to put Duncan's home on the map of Texas memory was a knock at the door — or maybe not even a knock, maybe just hoofbeats and urgency — when Susanna Dickinson came through. She was the widow of Almaron Dickinson, and she was one of the very few survivors of the fall of the Alamo.
That bloody battle of the Texas Revolution had taken the lives of many Gonzales men, and she was carrying that news down the road, bound to tell the people of Gonzales what had happened. Tradition holds that Duncan's was her first stop. Think about what that means.
Whatever she said in that moment, whatever her face looked like when she said it — it landed first here, at this ferry crossing. From there, the news traveled. And when it reached General Sam Houston, who had the Texas Army camped right there in Gonzales, he made a decision.
He ordered a retreat. And on the night of March 13, 1836, he had the town burned — and the ferry with it — to keep both out of enemy hands. Duncan's ferry, gone.
The town, gone. Now here's the thing about Benjamin Duncan: he rebuilt it. After all of that, he put the ferry back together and ran it until 1866, the same year he died.
Born 1793, died 1866 — and the ferry went with him. Some things are just tied to the person who believed in them.
What the marker says
Started about 1834 by Benjamin Duncan (1793-1866), a Scotsman. According to tradition, Susanna Dickinson, the widow of Almaron Dickinson, stopped first at Duncan's home on her way to tell people of Gonzales of fall of the Alamo. She was one of few survivors of this bloody battle of Texas Revolution, in which many Gonzales men died. Upon hearing news, General Sam Houston ordered retreat of the Texas Army (camped in Gonzales) and on night of March 13, 1836, he had town and ferry burned to keep them from enemy hand. Duncan later rebuilt ferry, which was operated until 1866. (1971)