Born in Berk County, North Carolina, November 30, 1814. When six years of age, his father, John R., emigrated to Washington county, Indiana, where he remained for eleven years, then removed to Putnam county, and in the fall of 1849, came to this county, entering his present farm in Wyacondah township, from the government. Mr. Duckworth was raised a farmer, and educated in common schools. He taught two terms in Indiana, and taught the first two winters he was in Iowa; teaching the first school in his neighborhood. He was married September 6, 1838, to Miss Mary Jane Stone, of Putnam County, Indiana. Mrs. Duckworth died March 2, 1854, and he married again August 30, 1854, to Miss Ellen Grady, of this county. He represented this county in the State legislature in 1852, as a democrat, in which position he served with great credit. He has held most of the township offices including justice of the peace and administrator for several estates. He is a member of the M. E. Church, of which he had been recording steward. No name in Wyacondah is more highly respected than.