In the spring of the year 1831 he went to Dover, and began the same business on a broader scale, first in the Perkins block, and, in the autumn, as the first tenant of the northern store in the new Watson block, on the Landing, Ira Christie his next southern neighbor. This locality, now at an end for such purposes, was then the place of business and offices. Steady success continued to reward his energy and industry; but in February, 1833, selling to Andrew Pierce, Jr., he returned to Rochester to settle the large estate of his wife's father, Joseph Hanson, who, dying in December previous, had made him executor. Mr. Hanson, whose daughter Joanna (by his marriage with Charity Dame) Mr. McDuffee had married June 21, 1829, was one of the three old and wealthy merchants of Rochester, Nathaniel Upham and Jonas C. March being the other two. The settlement of this extended estate and business was completed, and the accounts settled, by Mr. McDuffee's energy, in seven months; and it caused his entire abandonment of trade, although he had been eminently successful. There was no bank in Rochester. Old traders had some connection with the Strafford Bank in Dover, and the Rockingham Bank in Portsmouth. They loaned money, instead of getting discounts. Mr. Hanson's safe, where he kept all his securities, was a small brick building back of his store, with a sheet-iron door fastened by a padlock. He kept some deposits, however, in Strafford Bank, and was a stockholder in that and in the Rockingham Bank. The three principal traders used to go to Boston twice a year, on horseback, to buy goods. Mr. McDuffee saw that a bank was needed. He prepared the plans, secured signatures, obtained a charter from the legislature in 1834, and the Rochester Bank was organized with ninety stockholders and a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, later increased to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, with one hundred and thirty stockholders. Of the original ninety, only two besides Mr. McDuffee now survive. On the organization he became cashier, his brother-in-law, Dr. James Farrington (member of the twenty-fifth congress), being president. This bank was the frontier bank, no other existing between Rochester and Canada, and it was the first bank which the counterfeits from Canada naturally but uselessly struck. It was a favorite of the people, and was so managed that its dividends were eight or nine per cent. It is well known that the business was really left to the probity and skill of its cashier. Cashier for twenty years, on the then renewal of its charter, Mr. McDuffee resigned the cashiership in favor of his son Franklin, and became president. The bank did not become a national bank until 1874, and in the six years previous he and his son formed the house of "John McDuffee & Co., private bankers," took up the old bank's business, and successfully carried it on. In 1874 they merged it in a national bank, the one being president and the other cashier, as