Biographical Sketch of James P. Dougherty, Jefferson County, Missouri >From "History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford and Gasconade Counties", Biographical Appendix, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1888. ********************************************************************** Prof. James P. Dougherty, principal of the public schools of De Soto, and school commissioner of Jefferson County, is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and was born in 1861. He is a son of Cornelius and Catherine (Sullivan) Dougherty, the former of whom, a native of County Donegal, Ireland, was born in 1824, and immigrated to this country in 1850, lo- cating in New York City, where he followed his trade, that of a tanner and currier. In 1851 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was fore- man of a large tannery until 1870, when he purchased and removed to eighty acres of land near Byrnesville, Jefferson Co., Mo., where he has since devoted his attention to the pursuit of agriculture. Mrs. Catherine Dougherty was born in County Waterford, Ireland, in 1832 and is the mother of seven children, as follows: Cornelius, a master mech- anic; Edward, a teacher; James P., Mary J., Annie T., a teacher; Katie and William. James P. received his early education at the Cathedral School in Cincinnati, Ohio, and when nine years of age came to Missouri with his parents, he subsequently attended St. Vincent's College, Cape Girardeau, two years. At the early age of sixteen he received a lic- ense to teach, and his first term was taught at Grubville, Jefferson County. He taught two years at Byrnesville, one year at Stringtown, and in 1885 and 1886 at Fenton, St. Louis County. In April, 1887 he was elected school commissioner of Jefferson County over five candida- tes, with a majority of 260 votes. He has met with marked success in all his line of school work, is the leading educator of Jefferson County, and one of the prominent school men of Southeastern Missouri. In June, 1887 he was elected principal of the public schools of De Soto and his work thus far has given universal satisfaction. Politically, he is a Democrat, having cast his first presidential vote for Cleveland in 1884; he is a member of the A. O. U. W., and of the Roman Catholic Church. ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Joe Miller Penny Harrell ====================================================================