DORITY, Thomas 1836-1917

DORITY, POWERS

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/5/2010 at 12:21:59

Aged Pioneer Is Killed By Railway Train

Thomas Dority, aged 81, Iowa pioneer, was instantly killed at the Franklin street crossing of the Illinois Central railroad about 6:00 o'clock Friday evening when struck by eastbound passenger train No. 14. His body was hurled about 50 feet.

Mr. Dority's death probably was due to his partial deafness. He was standing on the crossing with his back slightly turned toward the west, watching the operation of a big concrete mixer at work on the south approach of the new Franklin street river bridge. With his attention focused on this, he was unaware of the approaching train.

His death terminated a half century's residence in Iowa, the last fifteen of which was spent in Cedar Falls, where Mrs. Dority passed away some ten years ago. Since his wife's demise, Mr. Dority had made his home with his daughter, Mrs. E. M. Wilson, 215 Franklin, the only member of his family surviving him. The home is only about two blocks from the scene of the fatal accident, and it had long been the custom of Mr. Dority to take a stroll in the evening down to the river front.

Before coming to Cedar Falls Mr. Dority resided on a farm in Grundy county, to where he emigrated from New York in the sixties, following the Civil War, in which he served. He enlisted in the Union army in Illinois in 1868, serving until the end of the war.

Coroner Smith of Waterloo was called here this afternoon, but decided an inquest was not necessary.

Funeral services are to be held at the Wilson home at 2:30 Sunday afternoon, conducted by Rev. Walter Metcalf. Interment will be in Fairview cemetery.

Thomas Dority was born on a farm in St. Lawrence county, New York, March 11, 1836, where he lived with his parents until 1867, when he came to Iowa, where he located on a farm in Fairfield township, Grundy county. He was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Powers of Elkhorn, Wis., on Jan. 1, 1871. To this union was born two children, girl, Nellie and Mary. Nellie died in 1910. They resided on this farm until March 1, 1896, when they rented the place and moved to Cedar Falls, where they continued to live together until Mrs. Dority's death on June 29, 1917.

--The Cedar Falls Record (Cedar Falls, Iowa), 7 June 1917