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The Doty Family
The next 5 generations
in Canada

THE FAMILY OF BARNETT DOTY
    Barnett Doty, the third son of James and Elizabeth Doty was born in Dutchess County, New York.  The date of his birth is not recorded in the sources I was able to search.  We do know, however, that he was the first Doty in my line to have come into Canada.  In 1847 Barnett Doty and Elizabeth Kirty were married in Grimsby, Ontario.  Elizabeth was the daughter of Abraham Kirty (Curtis?) and Ester Vanderbourg who had lived on Young St. in Toronto.

It is at this point in my story that I digress and inject a note of conjecture.  When I was old enough to first begin asking questions about my ancestors I always felt that it was strange when no one was able to give me any very definite information about my heritage.  At various times I was asked, on official documents, to give information about my national origin.  I always felt a little bit embarrassed that I was not sure, and so I, as did others, gave conflicting answers.  At one time I had said we were of Dutch ancestry, at another time I was Irish, and so on.  It was not until I came upon the following bit of information that I guessed why the facts about my great great grandfather were not generally known by subsequent generations. 
    After the birth of their second child Barnett Doty abandoned his wife Elizabeth and moved to Michigan then Illinois.  There he married again in 1863, to Mary Niles.  E. A. Doty, in his book, says that Barnett was guilty of the crime of bigamy and served some time in the Jackson Prison in Michigan. I can find no evidence of that, but I do have the court documents from the Illinois court in which the Canadian wife sued (successfully) for the considerable estate which Barnett had left.   He had lived in Sterling, Illinois, where he managed a hotel for some time.  He later moved to Princeton, Ill. where he died in 1874.  Elizabeth, then his widow, married Benjamin James and she and her children  lived the rest of their lives in Wilfrid, Ontario.  The children of Elizabeth and Barnett were born in Wellington Square, Ontario.  (I spent several frustrating months of research in attempts to locate Wellington Square, Ontario.  It was one of two towns which, in 1873, united to form the city of Burlington, Ontario).

 The children of Barnett and Elizabeth were:

 William Henry b. Jan 29, 1848
Ester Amanda b. July 14, 1851


THE FAMILY OF WILLIAM HENRY DOTYWilliam & Susan
William Henry Doty was raised by the James family in Ontario.  On March 18, 1870 he married Mahala Hales of Uxbridge, Ontario.  Mahala was the daughter of John Hales and Isabella Graham.  Mahala bore 6 children before she died.  William then married Sarah and they had 4 more children. The census of 1871 and 1881 show that William Henry had the same problems I have had with national origin.  In the census of 1871 he was a laborer of Irish descent.  The 1881 census also lists him as a laborer but at that time he said he was Scottish.

               


                                                   

The children of William Henry Doty and Mahala Hales were;

 Elizabeth b. 1871
John William b. Oct 30, 1873
Adoniram (Addier or Adner or Ad) b. Aug 6, 1874
Ester (Elizabeth or Lizzy) b. March 16, 1876
Isabella (Bella) b. October 6, 1877
Cinthia (Tinsey) b. 1880
The children of William Henry and Sarah were:
Emma (married Jim Coffey)
Henry (no family)
George (Salmon Arm B.C. no family)
William (Willie, Powell River B.C. no family)


THE FAMILY OF  JOHN WILLIAM DOTY
     John William Doty (also know as Jack) was born in Ontario, in the town of Wilfrid, the first son and the second child of William Henry and Mahala Doty.
 John often said his birthplace was  Pefferlaw, Ontario, but on his marriage registration he gave his birthplace as Wilfrid, Ont.  The two towns were only a few miles apart. 
    There is some question as to the date of his birth.  On the record of Registration of Death signed by his wife on October 23, 1949 she declared him to be 73 years, 11 months, 23 days old.  She also said he was born in the year 1876.  Both of these statements can not be true.  What I believe she meant to say was that he was 76 years of age and that he was born in the year 1873.  The Department of Vital Statistics, in its infinite wisdom, altered the certificate to claim his date of birth as 1875.  When John was laid to rest in the Moose Creek United Church cemetery a stone was erected in his grave.  The date on the stone does not agree with either of the dates on his death certificate.  The stone on his grave proclaims that he was born in 1874.
    At the time of John's application for homestead patent he signed a sworn statement in support of that application.  On that statement he claims to be 30 years of age.  The date on the document is December 12, 1903.  If John's memory was reliable and if we believe his oath to be sincere then he was born in the year 1873.    At the time of his marriage to Mary Jane Graham (September 7, 1898) John claimed to be 25 years of age.  That would further support the claim of his birth in 1873.  Even further support for the claim of this birthdate can be found in the census of 1881.  There it is stated that, at the time of the census, which was likely the spring of 1881, John was 7 years old.  This, too, would seem to indicate that he was born in 1873.   To further complicate the matter, and to point out that often dates are not recorded and reported correctly, Ethan Allan Doty in his book has listed John as having been born in 1874, and on October 30.  John always celebrated his birthday on October 31.  Ethan Allan's book has Adonirum born in 1874, which is in keeping with the 1881 census.  Based on this information we can tentatively conclude that John was born on October 31, 1873.  Further research is definitely indicated.

    As a young man John made the decision to seek his fortune in the newly opened Northwest Territories.  About the year 1896 he and his brother Adonirum came west to Brandon, Manitoba.  Here they worked at whatever jobs were available while they saved enough money to outfit themselves to establish farms of their own.  Ad worked in the "bush" and presumably John may have also.  John, at least for some of the time,  worked for a farmer named John Graham near the town of Rounthwaite, Manitoba.  It was during this time that he met and fell in love with Mary Jane Graham, the 8th child and third daughter of John and Margaret Graham. John & Mary They were married in St. Paul's Presbyterian Church (which later became Central United Church) in Brandon, Manitoba on September 7, 1898.  On their wedding day it was Mr. and Mrs. Ad Doty who "stood up" with them.  John  continued to work for John Graham for another year.
    By October, 1899, John had completed an 18 x 24 foot log house on the new homestead on the northwest quarter of section 6, township 7, range 2 west of the 2nd meridian in the North West Territories.  He returned to Manitoba for the winter, but in March of 1900 he and his bride and their baby daughter Kathleen were on the land to stay.  By the 12th of December, 1903, (when he applied for his homestead patent) he had broken 102 acres. He had cropped 75 acres, had fenced 6 acres and he owned 21 cattle and 4 horses.  By then he also had a family of three; Kathleen, Wesley and Elmer.
A few settlers had established themselves nearby.  Adonirum (A.K.A. Adner or Ad) Doty and his wife Susan and their family (daughter Nora and son Stanley)  were living less than a mile east on the northeast quarter of the same section. 
In 1902 the pioneers (recognizing the importance of education for their children) began to make plans for a school in their area.  On October 6, 1902, 9 families made application to the Department of Education for a school to be built in the district.  John had 2 children under school age at that time, and Adner had 1.  Living with Adner was his stepmother Sarah (William Henry had died Sept. 15, 1899 in Uxbridge TWP. Ontario) and her 4 young children, three of whom were school age. John and Mary continued to live on the homestead as they expanded their farmland.  John broke more land each year and when Adner decided he was not cut out to be a farmer John bought his homestead.  In 1915 the log house was abandoned in favor of a newly erected two and a half story frame house on the southwest quarter of section 5.  John continued to farm until 1936 when he and Mary moved to Carlyle, and his second son, Elmer took over the family farm.  John died in the hospital at Arcola, Sask. on October 23, 1949, a few days before his 76th birthday.  Mary lived in Carlyle until her death in 1968. Both are buried in the Moose Creek United Church cemetery.
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(Click here to see the death certificate of John)

(Click here to see the death certificate of Mary)
                                                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                                                                              
The children of John and Mary Doty were:      
                             
Kathleen b. 1899 d. 1987 Married Gordon Nixon.  They had no children.
Robert Wesley b. 1901 d.2002 married Elda Kathleen Cooper b. 1910, d. Sept, 1984
Elmer John b. 1903 d. 2004 married first  Iva Cameron, b.1903    d.  1961,    m2 Irene Kramer b,?   d.   Nov. 11, 2003
George Henry b. 1906 d. 1966 married Katie Grace Lounsbury b.1906  d.  2001
Ruby Pearl b. 1908 d. 1087 married Vernon Stephenson b. 1902  d. 1980
Roberta b. 1917 d. 1977 married  Glen Cardno b. ? d. ?
Leona b. 1919 d.   m1 Delbert Ormiston b.? d.1945 m2 Stan McKeller b. 1917 d. 1994


THE FAMILY OF WESLEY DOTY
Wesley attended Moose Creek and Wildwood Schools.  He worked on the home farm for some time but in 1919 went to Moose Jaw and took a business course.  He worked for Walter Stockton in the Wordsworth General Store and he hauled gravel for road and bridge construction in the area.  In 1932 WesleyWes & Katy Wedding photo married Kathleen Cooper, daughter of Charles and Irene Cooper.  Charles was a farmer and school teacher and Irene was well known as a practical nurse who, by her estimation, helped with the delivery of over 100 babies.  For a brief time Wesley and Kathleen lived with his parents and then on a farm just south of Moose Creek near No. 9 highway.  It was here that their first son, Robert was born.
When Charles Cooper died in 1934 they moved to the Cooper farm on Sec 11, Tsp 6, W. of 2nd.  At first they rented but later purchased the farm from Irene.  For the next few years Irene continued to live in the big house on the farm with them, but in 1941 Irene left to become a nurse and companion to a woman in Toronto.
Wesley and Kathleen continued to live on the farm and there they raised their family of nine children.  All except the youngest son, Wayne, left the farm to make their way in the world.  Wayne gradually assumed the responsibility for the field work while the cattle and the garden continued to be Wes and Katy's responsibility.  They also continued to be  active in the church and community .
On September 4, 1984 Kathleen died suddenly.  She was carried to her final resting place in Moose Creek cemetery by her 6 sons.  Shortly after Kathleen's death Wayne took over the operation of the farm.  Wes retired to the town of Carlyle, where he stayed until his death in 2002, at the age of 100 years.
The children born to Wesley and Kathleen were:

Robert Blair b. Feb. 28, 1934
Clayton Duane b. Feb. 27, 1936
Elizabeth Ann b. May 12, 1937
Donald Stuart b. July 1, 1939
Brian Ross b. Feb. 3, 1941
Allan Wallace b. May 12, 1942
Gordon Wayne b. Sept 5, 1944                                                                                                                             (click on photo to enlarge it)   
 Dale Wesley b. Sept. 29, 1946 d. Jan. 12, 1948
Helen Margaret b. Mar. 17, 1949
Beverly Dianne b. July 4, 1951
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