Whitely William John Dougherty

Whitely was born to Thomas and Catherine (nee Bennit) Dougherty at Goderich Ontario on November 20th, 1894. He was the third of five siblings, two brothers and two sisters.  After growing into a young man of 26 years, he married Marie Ethel Hankins (also 26) in December 1920. They then moved west and worked for Stan Smith near the school at Copeland Saskatchewan, and became a close friend of George Bolt. That same year Whitely and Marie bought NW.11.31.18.W2 from the Saskatchewan government, which they farmed until October 9th, 1962. Their farm was directly South from Bill Reeves place and East from us.  Whitely was very community minded and served 11 years as a councilor for the Rural Municipality of Big Quill (#308).  Marie bore six children between 1929 and 1935; Gerald, Frank, Alice, Mabel, Irene and Evelyn. She also lost a baby boy by miscarriage on October 6th, 1925. Frank went overseas and died in WW-2 action on February 23, 1945. His name is inscribed on the cenotaph in Dafoe but he is buried at Nymegar Holland.  In 1962 Doughertys' sold their farm to Mr. Peter Bender from Kandahar for his son Art. 

Whitely was 39 years old in 1933 when I wrote about the Dougherty family.  I mention them over a dozen times in my diaries.  Whitely's daughter Irene almost died of pneumonia on March 27th. when only 9 months old.  Whitely was a pallbearer at my mothers funeral on September 20, 1939.  The Dougherty family attended our wedding party held at the Copeland Community hall in 1940, and we still have their card of congratulations to prove it.

Mabel relates this story about her brother Gerald......
On the corner of the Hatton's property on NE.10 there was a small bush where crows used to build their nests each year.  About the same time, I was looking after hens sitting on chicken eggs.  Gerald would ride his bike down to this bush with hen's eggs he had colored green with black specks.  He climbed the tree where the crows nest were and exchanged three crow eggs for hens eggs.  He would periodically check them, then in about three weeks when my chickens were due, he would go back and get the eggs and give them to my chickens.  He raised about a dozen chickens one year.  The poor old crow wasn't too happy.

Whitely William John Dougherty 1894-1976  Marie Ethel Hankins 1894-1974
Diary Jan 7, 21 Mar 27,28,29,31 April 1,2,13 Sept 30