Obituaries/Biographical Profile: Henry M. Dougan, Adjutant of 100th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Possibly from Washington, PA newspaper, dated July 8, 1901? following his July 7, 1901 death.
Transcribed from Col. Norman J. Maxwell Scrapbook, Bruce Glenn/Max Glenn Collection byTami McConahy, 2nd great-grandniece of Corp. Thomas John Martin, Co. F.
The Pall Bearers Were From the Bar and the G. A. R.
MINUTE ADOPTED BY THE BAR
The funeral services over the remains of the late Henry M. Dougan, an attorney at the local bar, who died suddenly Sunday morning, of apoplexy, at his home on East Wheeling street were held at 2 o’clock Tuesday afternoon at his late home. The services were conducted by Rev. W. E. Slemmons, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, assisted by Rev. J. D. Moffat, president of Washington and Jefferson college. The choir of the First church sang. The pall bearers were Messrs. John Donnan, J. W. McDowell, James A. Wiley and John H. Murdoch, of the local bar, and Messrs. J. P. Miller, Geo. O. Jones, Wh. H. Underwood and A. G. Happer, of the local bar and the Grand Army post attended in bodies, the attorney’s forming at the prothonotary’s office and the old soldiers at the public meeting room of the court house.
Prior to their departure for the funeral committee on resolutions, consisting of John H. Murdoch, Alvan Donnan, L. McCarrell, Albert S. Sprowls and James I. Brownson, presented the following minute, which was read by Mr. Murdoch and adopted:
Familiar as we are with death and much as the teachings of Christianity have taken away its terrors from our minds, the death of a friend always finds us unprepared, and comes to us with a shock and a rending of heart ties which time only can soothe. Particularly is this true when death has come suddenly, and our minds and hearts have had no time to fit themselves to an anticipated separation. So to-day our association meets to mourn and express its feeling over the death of a member taken from our midst suddenly and almost without warning.
In the early morning hours of Sabbath, July 7, 1901, the angel of death came to our brother, Henry M. Dougan, and almost in a moment, and without any consciousness of pain or suffering, his spirit took its flight and his time on earth was ended.
Mr. Dougan was born January 9, 1841, and was therefore 60 years of age at the time of his death - an age when with ripened experience matured mental powers and deep legal learning and literary culture, he would, but for bodily infirmities, have been best fitted to serve his day and generation, and to shed luster upon his chosen profession. But if his death is a loss to the world and the bar, we may be thankful that by this comparatively early death he has been spared a life of continued suffering and a probably helpless old age.
Before he had completed his college course the call to arms took him from collegiate halls to the tented field and from 1861 to the close of the civil war he was in active military service, first as a member of the Twelfth regiment in the three months’ service, and afterward as a member of that justly famous regiment, the One Hundredth Pennsylvania, known as the “Roundheads.” He was a faithful soldier and was mustered out in 1865 as the adjutant of his regiment; and that in which he took the most pride was the fact that he had been permitted to take part in that great conflict and was entitled to wear the badge of the Loyal Legion.
He studied law with David S. Wilson Esq., was admitted to the bar in 1868, and remained in active practice to the time of his death. Associated as he was with his preceptor, he was almost from the start thrown into practice and was engaged in most important business, both in the office and in court. He was a diligent student and his legal reading was of the law profound. His client’s interests were always made his own and never suffered in his hands of want of attention. He was earnest, vigorous and effective in the trial of cases, and he may truly be said to rank high as a member of the bar of the state.
Although a most diligent student in the line of his profession he did not confide his studies to the law, but delighted in the reading of the best and most varied literature, and his general literary culture was far greater than that of most of his associates. Had he been less retiring in his disposition and more inclined to cultivate the social side of life, he would have shone as a brilliant man as well as a strong lawyer.
The most marked characteristic however, in this man of strong personality was his unswerving integrity. He was not only instinctively but he was consciously upright and honest. He abhorred anything which smacked of trickery or deceit, and could have no dealings with one who as he had reason to suspect, had been guilty of such things. With honest was not a matter of “policy” - it was ingrained as a part of his very nature. Fair dealing was not assumed - it was cherished as the essence of life itself.
To-day we mourn an able lawyer, a faithful friend, an unswerving lover of the truth and an honest man, and we gladly give this brief statement as a tribute to show our appreciation of his character.
Henry M. Dougan.
Washington, Pa, July 7. - Henry M. Dougan, one of the oldest and most prominent members of the Washington county bar, died suddenly at his home on East Wheeling street, at an early hour Sunday morning. Mr. Dougan was able to attend to his practice, and was at his office as usual Saturday afternoon. He had been a sufferer from rheumatism, but died as a result of an apoplectic stroke before the members of his family could be summoned to his bedside.
Henry M. Dougan was born in Fayette county, January 9, 1841, and came of one of the county’s oldest families. Mr. Dougan at the outbreak of the Civil war was a student at Jefferson college, and was a close friend of David T. Watson, the Pittsburg attorney. On April 25, 1861, Mr. Dougan enlisted for three months with Company E, of the Twelfth Pennsylvania Volunteers. On September 13, 1861, he enlisted for three years service in Company A, of the One Hundredth Pennsylvania, or “Roundhead” regiment, and reenlisted in January, 1864. He was in the battles at Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Vicksburg, Wilderness, Cold Harbor and in the campaign which resulted in the fall of Richmond. It was during this last campaign that he was advanced to the position of regimental adjutant, at the early age of 24. After being mustered out, in July, 1865, he became a telegraph operator at Washington, and studied law with David S. Wilson, now of Sewickley. He was admitted to the Washington county bar in 1868 and associated himself with A. M. Todd, the firm of Dougan & Todd being one of the best-known legal firms in the county. Mr. Dougan soon achieved a reputation as an attorney and secured a large and lucrative practice. In 1897 he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for judge, but was defeated, after one of the closest political battles in the county. Mr. Dougan was married to Miss Acheson, daughter of James Acheson, by whom he is survived, together with five children - James, an instructor in the Allegheny High school; Mary, Robert, Annie and Frances - and by a sister - Fanny E. Dougan, formerly of Washington, but now of Seattle, Wash. He was a member of the Loyal Legion and the G. A. R.