Doph, George abt 1856/1863 - 1902

DOPH, DOLPH

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - Volunteer (email)
Date: 8/12/2012 at 13:04:31

From the Alton Democrat of Sept 6, 1902
George Doph, a hobo harvest hand who came here from Illinois and was sick with rheumatism at the Dubuque house for several weeks killed himself on the Joe Hildesheim place southeast of town Saturday , August Ament who lives on the place, employed him early in the summer before he was sick., After his illness he went to Ament and asked to be allowed to work for his keep till he got able to earn wages. Ament took him in but his heath got worse and he was advised to go to the hospital at Sioux City. Ament had agreed to take him to Remsen to the train Saturday afternoon and Doph went into the house to shave for the journey.
Ament went off the place for a few hours and when he came back he found Doph in the corn crib with his head in a pool of blood. He gave but a fleeting look and went for neighbors telling them Doph. had-cut his throat, a closer look showed that he had shot himself in the right temple with Ament's thirty-two rifle which still lay by his side. Despondent over his inability to work and with winter coming on he decided it was better to be a corpse than a homeless wanderer. Doph was a very quiet inoffensive fellow.
He was a man about thirty-seven years old, about five feet ten inches weight about 148 pounds, hair black, eyes blue, heavy dark red, mustache, complexion fair. He wore black clay worsted coat and pants, blue overalls, shirt striped with blue, white hat number seven and one, eighth; marked inside with silver letters, "Bos &
Nels Special, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, shoes number pine leather, toes tipped and lace, Boston make nearly new.. He had a small canvas telescope about eight by fourteen inches. Nothing could be found on his person that would lend information as to his home or relatives. The remains were turned over to the undertaker at
Alton and were sent to Sioux City to be used in the interest of science.
And so ended a life. Perhaps a mother loved him once. . Mayhap does yet. Long may she wait for his return. May even look upon his skeleton dangling from a doctor's wall and never know. What shall we say of such a man. The general verdict of the world is he was a tramp because he wanted to be and he died as he deserved. But was he?
Who knows the griefs locked in his heart? Who knows the battles he had fought? The victories won or lost in the struggle of life? Man is a creature of—what? Circumstance? Fate? Divine discretion? What makes one a tramp, and the other a millionaire? Has man the choosing whether he will be a J. Pierpout Morgan or a George Doph?

(Intrigued by this mystery the hunt for who George Doph/Dolph began.
There was found a few possibles.
1870 census of Illinois living with Eliza A. Spurck’s family age 58 was a 14 old year farm hand by the name of George Doph born in Ill about 1856.
Found a George Doph born 1863 in IL but he was living in 1910 in Everet WA. So assuming it was the first one listed who apparently didn’t have family members, possibly an orphan.
In the 1860 census was found a Mary A. Duph widow age 30 born about 1830 in OH, lived in Lawwrence Wash. OH, she had two children, Pheby age 7 and George age 2. This is a good possibility as the mother may have died leaving him an orphan. Since he could have been living with an aunt in 1870 Elizabeth Van Horne Mrs. Wm. Spruck. ???
There was a George Dolph born 1856 New York living in Illinois in 1880 as a farm labourer 24 yeas of age which is a possibility also. ) Doph and Dolph would sound alike.