Fidelia M. Randall and George Brown Dougan
GEORGE BROWN DOUGAN, son of ANN GRAY and WILLIAM DOUGAN, was born May 13, 1842 in Niles, Michigan,1242 and died February 8, 1925 in Richmond, Wayne, Indiana.1242, 4931 He is buried in Earlham Cemetery, Richmond, Wayne, Indiana.89, 1143, 4931
He married FIDELIA M. RANDALL on November 28, 1867 in Allen County, Indiana,1245 daughter of MARY ANN REID and FRANKLIN PELEG RANDALL. She was born August 24, 1845 in Fort Wayne, Allen, Indiana,869 and died June 6, 1920 in Richmond, Wayne, Indiana.4931 She is buried in Earlham Cemetery, Richmond, Wayne, Indiana.89, 1125, 4931
Children of FIDELIA M. RANDALL and GEORGE BROWN DOUGAN:
- WILLIAM REID DOUGAN, b. July 4, 1876, No. 7th Street, Richmond, Wayne, Indiana;4931 d. September 8, 1902, Richmond, Wayne, Indiana.4931, 1831
Personal Information
- George Brown Dougan was a member of the United Presbyterian Church. 1242
Work History
George B. Dougan
- railroad engineer
- owned Dougan & Co., Insurance (Richmond)1242
Clubs and Associations
George B. Dougan
Marriage Announcements and News
Richmond Palladium, November 29, 19171144
Mr. and Mrs. George B. Dougan entertained a small company of friends and relatives at six o'clock dinner in celebration of their fiftieth wedding anniversary. The house was decorated with a profusion of Ophelia roses and yellow chrysanthemums. Covers were laid for Mr. and Mrs. I. G. Dougan and daughter, Mrs. T. L. Scott of Norwood, Mrs. John B. Dougan, Miss Blanche Scott, Dr. and Mrs. E. R. Churchell, Mr. and Mrs. B. B. Myrick and daughter, Mary Frances. A four course dinner was served.
Newspaper Articles
between 1882 and 1885
Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, 20 July 1882, page 6, col. 6: Mrs. George B. Dougan, and Son, Master Reid, are in the city on a visit to Mrs. Dougan's parents.
Fort Wayne Sunday Gazette, 21 Dec 1884, page 4, col. 3: Mrs. G. B. Dougan and Master Reid will spend the holidays the guests of the Randall Mansion.
Fort Wayne Sunday Gazette, 8 Feb 1885, page 5, col. 5: Mrs. G. B. Dougan and son Reid left the Randall mansion last week, for the south.
Obituaries
Richmond Palladium, June 7, 1920869
MRS. GEORGE DOUGAN SUCCUMBS AT HOME
Mrs. Fidelia M. Dougan, 74 years old, wife of George B. Dougan, 1318 Main street, died at her home Sunday at 4:30 p. m. She was born in Fort Wayne, Ind., August 24, 1845. She was a member of St. Paul's Episcopal church. Mr. and Mrs. Dougan had been married for over 50 years. Her husband survives.
Funeral services will be conducted from the resident, Tuesday, at 2:30 p. m. Services will be private. Interment will be in Earlham. Friends may call Monday evening and are requested to omit flowers.
Indianapolis Star, June 7, 1920816
MRS. GEORGE DOUGAN DIES.
Daughter of Late Mayor F. P. Randall Dies at Richmond.
Mrs. George B. Dougan, daughter of the late Mayor F. P. Randall, died at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon at her home in Richmond, Ind. The deceased was born and reared in this city and at the time of her marraige left to make her home in Richmond, but had often visited here with relatives and friends.
She was 72 years of age and is survived by three brothers, City Engineer Frank M. Randall, George E. Randall and A. J. Randall, all of this city, and one sister, Mrs. Mary Downs, of Connecticut.
Richmond Palladium, February 9, 19251242
G.B. DOUGAN, 82, RAILROAD PIONEER, DIES
Death Follows Two Month's Illness
George B. Dougan, 83 years old, veteran railroad engineer and half-brother of the late Daniel G. Reid, died at his home, 1318 East Main street Sunday evening after an illness of about two months.
Mr. Dougan's wife died several years ago. His son, Reid Dougan, died at the age of 20 years. He is survived by one sister, Mrs. Martha M. Fosler, six nieces and six nephews. Mr. Dougan was a member of the Masonic order, and the Elks lodge.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the residence. Bureal will be in Earlham cemetery. The Rev. W. McClean Work, pastor of the Reid Memorial United Presbyterian church, and Richmond Commandery, Knights Templars, will officiate. Friends may call at any time. Friends are requested to omit flowers.
The Knights Templars are requested to report at the asylum at 1 o'clock ?? afternoon in full Templar uniform.
Members of Richmond lodge of Elks will meet at the club house at 7:30 o'clock Monday evening to proceed to the home of Mr. Dougan to view the body.
George Dougan, son of William and Ann Gray Dougan, was born at Niles, Mich., May 13, 1842 and came to Richmond with his parents at the age of 14 years. For a year or two he did such odd jobs as generally fall to the lot of a boy of that age who is of an industrious disposition and desirous of earning something to aid the family. His father apprenticed him to Thomas Roberts, a carpenter but the work was not congenial. At the age of 18 he was running an engine of his own. During the Civil war he took active part as locomotive engineer in conveying the soldiers of the north over the roads in the state of Tennessee.
Was Noted Engineer.
As an engineer on the Pennsylvania railway he had the reputation of being one of the best timemakers on the road, but his brothers, thinking he took too many chances for his safety, induced him to give up railroading and embark in the grocery trade. The occupation of selling groceries proved too tame for one who had led so active a life and soon was abandoned. After living in the west for some time, he returned to Richmond where he engaged in the insurance business in which he continued with marked success.
Mr. Dougan was a member of the United Presbyterian church and of the Masonic fraternity. He also was one of the oldest if not the oldest member of the Brotherhod of Locomotive Engineers and it has always been his desire to be identified with the business of railroading.
Had Stock Farm.
As a side line Mr. Dougan maintained for some time a large stock farm in Center township known as Reidston, where he gave particular attention to the development of trotting horses. Among the colts that were developed there were Blackline, that showed miles in 2:18 1/2, in three year-old form. Louise DeForrest and Baldy McGregor, the latter being one of the best three-year-old trotters ever developed in eastern Indiana. While the breeding of trotters was a pleasure and a pastime on the part of Mr. Dougan he labored to secure good individuals as well as speed and was remarkably successful.
Mr. Dougan, who entered the service of the Pennsylvania railroad in 1856, when only a boy, working at first for the depot restaurant and finally working up to fireman then to an engine of his own, recalled his early days on the railroad in a talk a few years ago before the Veteran Employes' association of the Richmond division of the road.
"I was a boy 14 years old when I first came to Richmond," said Dougan, "and I first went to work for Ruben Fuller who ran the depot restaurant."
"At that time, what we now call the Chicago road was built as far as Newcastle. The president was Judge Bundy of Newcastle (father of General Bundy of World War fame); Superintendent Albert Blanchard of Boston, Mass.; and the master mechanic was William Skinner, a brother-in-law of Blanchard and Fuller. The shops were then at Newcastle. Later they were moved to Richmond and located back of the present site of Miller Brothers hardware store and I. R. Howard grocery store.
"The road reached Logansport in 1857. The station was south of the river in Tabortown and passengers and freight were carried across the river in wagons, carts, anything that would carry them.
"From Logansport the road was continued to Chicago and then was the beginning of my service," he said. "I went as fireman on the Poney engine with George Huffman as engineer to the north end at Valparaiso and stayed with it as they built back until we came into Logansport on our own rails.
Plenty of Game.
"We had boarding cars for the laborers laying the track but there were two crews of train men and we found boarding places along the line where we were comfortable but we never had any meat that two years, only such game as was killed by our boarding-house keeper or some of our own boys. You could get a deer any day within 100 years of the house and could kill turkey day or night with any kind of shooting implement and more of them were killed with the old pepper box revolver or horse pistol than with a gun, in fact, the rifle "muzzle" loader was the only gun I ever saw there and the most of them were of the flint lock make, the percussion cap was just coming in but the natives had not taken to it yet.
"After trains were put on, there was not a day or night that deer were not seen on the road bed and the country at that time had not been drained out and I will say that from Winamac to LaCross was all a lake excepting the sand hills and those were the places ... Hundreds of deer were killed by the train and it was but a common occurrence to find a turkey on the front end of the engine when you came to a stop.
Green Wood Is Fuel.
"We had a pretty tough experience for several years. All engines were wood burners and all the wood was what we called green four-foot wood, no blowers and when they would die it was wait until the wood in the fire box got to burning then keep that fire box full—that was the important thing. Of course, the Poney engine would not take a four-foot stick of wood, the fire box was too small for that and the wood choppers cut wood on purpose for her about a foot shorter but we got there just the same.
"Our water supply was from the ditches along the road and each train crew bailed it from the source of supply, the fireman standing on the iron draw bar at the back end of the tank and taking it a bucket full at a time from the crew that was bailing it and I have stood on that draw bar with icicles hanging from my boots until they reached the ground in bitter cold weather and not kicking either, just glad to get the job over with until we had to take water again. When the road was completed clear through, better arrangements were made and we had water tanks at Valparaiso, North Judson, Winamac and Royal Center and all felt happy.
Started Service Early.
"I was running my own engine at 18 years of age (having been selected as a pilot before that for my familiarity with the new roadbed) about the time of the outbreak of the Civil War. Later under the new management which succeeded the Brandts, I was made train dispatcher at Logansport, but afterward was relieved at my own request and given my old job running an engine. I went to Nashville and ran out of there until the end of the Civil War.
"Still later, going west, I was offered the Colorado Midland, which was just building then, by Mr. Fuller, superintendent of motive power and accepted. From that I drifted into accident insurance. I have always been a railroad man primarily and my friends are almost all railroaders, some of the best being on the Pennsylvania. I have held a membership in the Brotherhood Locomotive Engineers, since 1863. The old guard was broken up by the strike of 1873."
Richmond Palladium and Sun-Telegram, February 10, 19251143
FUNERAL RITES HELD FOR GEORGE B. DOUGAN
Funeral services for George B. Dougan, 82 years old, pioneer railroad man, were conducted at 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon at the residence, 1318 East Main street by the Richmond COmmandery, Knights Templars assisted by the Rev. W. McClean Work, pastor of the Reid Memorial United Presbyterian church. Burial was made in Earlham cemetery.
Many members of the Masonic and Elks lodge and teh Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers of which he was a member, visited the home Monday evening.
Cemetery Pictures
Earlham Cemetery, Richmond, Wayne, Indiana
Fidelia M. & George B. Dougan
Census Records
| Date | Location | Enumerated Names |
|---|---|---|
| July 30, 18501227 | Fort Wayne, Allen, Indiana |
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| July 31, 18601364 | Fort Wayne, Allen, Indiana |
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| June 8, 1870305 | Richmond, Wayne, Indiana |
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| June 12, 1880659 | Richmond, Wayne, Indiana |
|
| June 2, 1900112 | Richmond, Wayne, Indiana |
|
| April 19, 1910815 | Richmond, Wayne, Indiana |
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| January 6, 1920895 | Richmond, Wayne, Indiana |
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