Edward Carlton Duncan was born in Beaufort (Carteret County), North Carolina on March 28, 1862. Duncan was a banker, legislator (1895 and 1897 sessions), and collector for internal revenue (1898-1908) who served as a member of a committee charged with overseeing relief funds for Western North Carolina survivors of the 1916 flood. He died in Beaufort on August 29, 1920.