DOUGLASS, Edward F. (1848-1940)

DOUGLASS

Posted By: Julie (email)
Date: 4/2/2008 at 21:34:16

Dysart Reporter, Iowa Thursday, 21 March 1940

E.F. DOUGLASS, 92, DYSART CIVIL WAR VET, DIED
Funeral Held Tuesday At Community Hall
Edward Forrest Douglass
Funeral services for E.F. DOUGLASS, Dysart’s last Civil War veteran, who died at his home Saturday at the age of 92, were held Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock in the community building. Services were in charge of Mr. DOUGLASS’ nephew, Ray DOUGLASS, of Postville, the Dysart Masonic lodge and the American Legion. Burial was in the Dysart cemetery beside his wife.

His death leaves only one Civil War veteran in Tama county, J.W. WILLETT of Tama, who is 94.
Iowa Resident All His Life

An Iowa resident all his life, Mr. DOUGLASS enlisted in the Thirty-ninth Illinois infantry before he was 17. He was present when General Robert E. LEE surrendered. He saw Abraham LINCOLN review 80,000 soldiers on parade.

Mr. DOUGLASS returned to Iowa after the war and married, and in 1885 the couple came to Dysart.

He had lived in Dysart continuously for 53 years. For 25 years he owned and operated a drug store there, which was later sold to B. E. BARKDOLL. Mr. DOUGLASS was Dysart postmaster 13 years.

His parents came to Iowa in 1845 and settled in Clayton county, where Mr. DOUGLASS was born March 12, 1848. He spent his boyhood there and at McGregor.
Attended Veterans Reunion

During the summer of 1938 Mr. DOUGLASS and his niece. Mrs. Chris BECK, attended the reunion of the Blue and the Gray on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. He was a life member of the Cedar Rapids Elks lodge and a thirty-second degree Mason. His hobbies were hunting and fishing, and he spent many summers at his cottage in the north woods.

Mrs. DOUGLASS, the former Nina MORRISON, died in 1925. Survivors include one brother Levert DOUGLASS, of Grass Valley, California; a sister, Mrs. Cora GATES, of Leona, New Jersey; four nephews, Art DOUGLASS of Dysart, Ray and Harvey DOUGLASS of McGregor; and a niece, Mrs. BECK, of Dysart.

Carl A. SKEDIN, R.P. FREET and E.J. LEKSELL attended the funeral service. They were accompanied by Judge WILLETT. Legionnaires from several posts in Tama and Black Hawk counties were at the service.