King-Statewide County WA Archives Biographies.....Doane, M. D., O. D. March 10, 1851 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wa/wafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 23, 2009, 2:02 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 76-83
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     A pioneer physician, well known to the older residents of Wasco county 
and other sections of the state, was the subject of the following article, 
written by Fred Lockley for the Oregon Daily Journal of November 27, 1927:

     "A few days ago, while eating breakfast in a restaurant at The Dalles, I 
saw a man who looked as though he might be a pioneer. As he paid his bill and 
started for the door, I hailed him and said: 'Do you mind sitting at my table 
while I finish my waffle? I want to ask you a few questions.' As he sat down, 
I said: 'When did you come across the plains?' He shook his head, and said: 'I 
didn't come across the plains. I was born in Portland on March 10, 1851.' I 
shoved my waffle to one side, cleared the table, took out my notebook and 
said: 'I don't know what your name is, but you're the man I've been looking 
for.' ‘My name is Dr. O. D. Doane,' he said. ‘My father, the Rev. Nehemiah 
Doane, was the first minister sent to a foreign mission from an American 
Methodist theological school. He came out as a foreign missionary to the 
Oregon country in 1849. Father was born January 22, 1818, in Barnstable 
county, Massachusetts. He was a Cape Codder and died in 1904 at the age of 
eighty-six. He was a descendant of Deacon John Doane, who settled at Plymouth 
in 1621 and at one time was acting governor of Massachusetts. Father was born 
at Eastham, a place selected by Deacon John Doane as his home some time after 
his arrival in America. This old-time ancestor of mine lived in Plymouth until 
1644, at which time he moved to Eastham, on Cape Cod. He died in 1685 at the 
age of ninety-five. My grandfather, Nehemiah Doane, for whom my father was 
named, followed the sea, as did most of those who were born on Cape Cod.

     " 'My father was graduated from the common schools at Eastham, after 
which he taught school for a while. He attended Holliston Academy at 
Holliston, Massachusetts, for two and a half years and was then appointed a 
teacher. Later he opened a school at Cadiz, Ohio. In 1847 he became a student 
at the Boston School of Theology at Concord, New Hampshire. This was the first 
school of theology established by the Methodist church in the United States 
and my father was one of its first students. Professor Baker, who later became 
a bishop in the Methodist church, secured for my father the appointment as 
superintendent of the Oregon Institute at Salem.

     " 'Father was married at Springfield, Vermont, on September 10, 1849, to 
Matilda Draper, a native of that state. At the time father married her she was 
a student in the Springfield Seminary. On October 16, 1849, father and mother 
started on their wedding journey, aboard the Empire City, for the isthmus of 
Panama. My father delivered the first sermon preached at Panama by a Methodist 
minister. After crossing the isthmus they went aboard the Oregon, bound for 
San Francisco. In that city they bought tickets on the Mary Taylor for 
Astoria, paying one hundred dollars for each ticket. The steamer encountered a 
heavy gale and was driven far to the north. They finally cast anchor in an 
inlet near Vancouver island, and when the storm was over they went to Astoria. 
Eight of the passengers hired three sailors to row them in a whaleboat from 
Astoria to Portland. Father paid fifty dollars for himself and my mother for 
the trip in the whaleboat to Portland. It took them nine days to make the 
voyage, and as it was January and they encountered lots of rain in the open 
boat, they did not have a particularly pleasant journey.

     " 'Father and mother went to the home of J. S. Smith in Portland, where 
they stayed for a few days, and then took passage in a Hudson's Bay Company 
boat, reaching Milwaukie in the evening. Next morning they started out again, 
but the current was so strong, the river being high, that they only made four 
miles. They tied up to the bank and an Indian agreed to guide them to the home 
of a settler. The Indian ran away without fulfilling his promise, so father 
and mother sat on a log all night. The next day they went on to Oregon City, 
where they had to stay three weeks until word could be sent to the 
superintendent of missions at Salem, which they reached on February 15, 1850.

     " 'My father was at once placed in charge of the Oregon Institute, which 
at that time had nearly one hundred pupils. Father and mother both taught. 
They were paid five hundred dollars a year. The gold excitement in California 
had made provisions almost prohibitive in price. For example, sugar was sixty 
dollars a sack, and other things in proportion. In 1851 the Rev. F. S. Hoyt 
took charge of the Oregon Institute and father went to Portland, where he 
taught school. That fall father was appointed pastor of the church at Oregon 
City.

     " 'I was about six months old when my parents moved from Portland to 
Oregon City in the fall of 1851. Father served as pastor of the church and 
mother taught school there. During the next few years father filled pastorates 
at Yamhill, Dallas, Corvallis and Albany, Oregon. In 1859 he was appointed 
presiding elder of the Puget Sound district, his headquarters being at 
Olympia, Washington. Father was presiding elder there for four years. In 1863 
he was called to the Methodist church at Seattle. Two years later he became 
presiding elder of the Portland district. His next appointment was as 
presiding elder of the Salem district, where he was stationed for four years. 
Afterward he was pastor of the church at The Dalles, going from there to East 
Portland, and thence in succession to Shedds, McMinnville, Dayton, Port 
Townsend and Salem. Later father was appointed professor of theology in 
Willamette University. When Portland University was established my father was 
elected to the chair of systematic theology. He attended the Oregon annual 
conference of the Methodist church, which was organized March 17, 1853, by 
Bishop Edward R. Ames, who had just come out from Boston. This meeting was 
held at Salem. In 1876 father was sent to the general conference of the church 
at Baltimore and in 1891 was a delegate to the conference at Washington, D. C. 
He was also the author of several theological works.

     " 'My parents had six children and I am the oldest. All are deceased 
except my brother, Prince Albert Doane, who is engaged in contracting in 
Portland, and myself. My brother, Orville L., lived for many years on Vashon 
island. My brother, Quinn T. Doane, was also a well known contractor and 
resided for several years in Spokane. My sister Mary was the next of the 
family and then came Prince Albert. The other child a girl, Evalyne, died in 
infancy.

     " 'My father took up a donation land claim about six miles from Fort 
Yamhill. Lieutenant Phil Sheridan, who fought in the Indian war of 1855-56, 
used to visit our home frequently and many a time held me on his knee and 
played with me. This was about 1859 and in 1876 Sheridan, who then bore the 
title of general, revisited Oregon. I met General Sheridan at the train in 
Eugene and he remembered me and also my father.

     " 'The first school I attended was at Corvallis and my teacher was Lavina 
Draper. When we lived in Olympia my father was presiding elder of a district 
which extended from the sea to the Cascades and from the British Columbia line 
to the Columbia river. He covered his field afoot, by canoe and on horseback, 
frequently camping out where night overtook him. I attended school in Olympia 
from 1859 to 1863. My teachers were Professors McElroy and Lippincott. In 1863 
father took charge of the church in Seattle and I went to school there for two 
years. We lived on the bluff, above what is now Pioneer square. Clarence 
Bagley, now an employe of the city of Seattle, and I were boyhood friends. I 
worked for a while in a sawmill at what was then called Freeport but is now 
West Seattle.

     " 'When news came of the end of the Civil war Seattle had a big 
celebration. They put candles in most of the windows and many of the 
residents, as well as the residences, were lit up. Every anvil obtainable was 
brought into requisition and salutes were fired. I was working in the sawmill 
at the time we received the news of the assassination of President Lincoln. I 
became a student of the territorial university the year after it opened. 
Daniel Bagley, John Webster and Edmund Carr were the university commissioners. 
A. A. Denny, who was a member of the legislature, succeeded in having the 
university get under way. He gave eight acres toward a campus. Asa Mercer was 
principal of the university when it was started.

     " 'I attended Willamette University in 1865, 1866 and 1867. L. T. 
Woodward was president and L. J. Powell was professor of mathematics. 
Sylvester Simpson had charge of the department of languages and F. H. Grubbs 
was principal of the academy. C. B. Moores, now of Portland, was one of my 
schoolmates.

     " 'In 1868 I taught school on Mormon Hill, ten miles east of Salem. Later 
I taught at Wheatland and for several terms I was principal of the East Salem 
school. From Salem I went to Shoalwater bay and clerked in a store at 
Oysterville for about six or eight months. From there I came to The Dalles. 
That was fifty-five years ago and all of the people who were then here have 
gone with the exception of about ten. Lulu Crandall was here at that time and 
so were Mrs. Sarah Mitchell and her daughters, Mrs. Schenck and Albert 
Bettingen. Sim Bolton, the postmaster, was a pupil of mine. During 1872 and 
1873 I was principal of the public school here.

     " 'When I first came to The Dalles I had a peculiar experience. I cast my 
first vote here. When the judges of the election board learned that I was 
going to vote the republican ticket they challenged my vote. Joseph G. Wilson, 
whose son, Fred Wilson, is circuit judge here at The Dalles, said, "I believe 
this young man has a right to vote." He said, "Did you give up your residence 
at Salem and remove to Shoalwater bay?" I said, "No. I consider Salem still my 
home." Judge Wilson replied, "Then you have a right to vote for state 
officers, though not for county officers." The judges grudgingly conceded this 
right, but refused to let me vote for the members of the legislature. Judge 
Wilson said, "They are state officials, as they are paid by the state." So I 
won out all along the line. When I was seventeen years old I went to the polls 
in Salem. Sam May said to me, "The polls are about to close; you had better 
vote." I had a heavy beard that came down pretty well over my chin. He 
said, "I suppose this is your first presidential vote." When I did not step 
forward to vote, he said, "What are you waiting for?" I replied, "I am waiting 
until I am twenty-one; I am only seventeen now." He gave me a scandalized 
look, and said: "Well, go home and shave off that beard, and don't come around 
the polling place masquerading as a man."

     " 'After putting in a year as principal of the school at The Dalles I 
went back to Salem and began the study of medicine. To earn my way through the 
medical college I worked in the drug store owned by Cyrus Woodworth and Dr. C. 
H. Hall. In 1874 I went to Albany and ran a drug store for Fred Hill, the 
brother of W. Lair Hill. I returned to Salem and put in the winter in the 
medical department of Willamette University. The next summer I went to Eugene, 
where I worked, and also studied with Dr. A. I. Nicklin. I graduated from the 
medical department of Willamette University in 1877. Among my fellow students 
were Dan W. Cox, A. J. Geisy, Harry Lane, S. C. Stone, Thomas Mann, founder of 
the Mann Home in Portland, L. W. and Jonathan Brown, I. N. Cromwell, L. L. 
Davis, Reece Holmes, G. J. Hill and others.

     " 'I went to Dallas, in Polk county, where I practiced until 1879, when I 
returned to The Dalles and opened an office. Here I was married in the fall of 
1877 to Emma L. Harman, who died in September, 1903, and on the 2d of June, 
1908, I married Ida May Freeman, whose son, Loy Van Norden, is engaged in 
dairying in Tillamook county. Loy Van Norden was born in Lakeview, Oregon.

     " 'When I started my practice in The Dalles I had to travel on horseback 
as far as Arlington and Grass Valley, and even up into Yakima. Among the old 
pioneers that I knew were Governors Gibbs, Grover, Woods, Whittaker, Chadwick, 
Moody, Geer, Withycombe and Pierce, Asahel Bush, Dr. W. L. Adams, and most of 
the old-time politicians and ministers.'"  For more than forty-five years Dr. 
Doane continuously followed his profession, never hesitating to respond to the 
call of duty, and endured many hardships in the exercise of his beneficent 
calling. Efficient, dignified and well poised, he inspired confidence and 
trust in his patients and was long regarded as one of the foremost physicians 
of this part of the state. His practice was drawn from a wide area and his 
knowledge and skill were in constant demand. In 1923, when seventy-two years 
of age, he laid aside the arduous work of the profession and has since lived 
retired at The Dalles.

     For a half century Dr. Doane has been identified with the Masonic order, 
which he joined in 1878, becoming a member of Wasco Lodge, No. 15., A. F. & A. 
M., and is its oldest past master. In the York Rite he has filled all of the 
chairs and is one of the Nobles of Al Kader Temple of the Mystic Shrine. His 
affiliation with Columbia Lodge, No. 5, of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, dates from 1872 and in this organization he has filled important 
offices. In 1880 he entered the Grand Lodge and has since attended all of its 
sessions. He was made grand master in 1889 and in 1893 was grand 
representative of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows at Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin. In 1894 he was again grand representative of the Grand Lodge, 
attending the session on Lookout mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee, and 
since 1903 he has served continuously as grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge. 
He also belongs to The Dalles Camp of the Woodmen of the World and the local 
Kiwanis Club. An ardent advocate of good roads, he is one of the public-
spirited citizens who are responsible for the building of the Sarosis Park 
Scenic drive, a beautiful highway overlooking The Dalles. Dr. Doane is a broad-
minded man of unselfish nature, esteemed by a host of friends, and his life 
has been upright and serviceable.

Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/wa/king/photos/bios/doanemd111gbs.jpg

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wa/king/bios/doanemd111gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wafiles/

File size: 15.2 Kb