Dolton.org

By Louis Dolton, Jr., Topeka, Kansas

Joseph Hahn Dolton (1840-1918)

Edward Ransome Dolton was born Nov 16, 1873, in Washington Township, DeKalb County, Missouri, to Joseph and Sarah (Thornton) Dolton. Joseph was 33 years of age and Sarah was 35 years of age when he was born. Edward didn't fancy his given name and so he used his middle name and went by Ransom.

Ransom was born at the beginning of the Depression of 1873-1879. The depression was triggered by the Panic of 1873 and was called the "Great Depression" until an even greater depression came along in the 1930's and stole away that moniker. In 1873, banks all over the country failed, money was tight, companies failed, people lost their businesses and their jobs. The cause for the Panic is not a subject for this document and can easily be found elsewhere.

The 1880 US Federal Census for Washington Township, DeKalb County, Missouri has a record of the Joseph and Sarah Dolton household. This Township was enumerated by D. B. Todd on the tenth day of June 1880. Joseph Dolton was a white, male, age 40 years, whose occupation was farmer, the enumerator is prompted to enter the number of months the person has been unemployed in the census year and he checked the box indicating that Joseph was unemployed, Joseph was born in Illinois, his father in Illinois and his mother in Indiana; Sarah I. Dolton was a white, female, age 40 years, the wife of Joseph, and her occupation was keeping house, Sarah was born in Missouri, as was her father, her mother was born in Kentucky; Almeda A. Dolton was a white, female, age 19 years, the daughter of Joseph; Frank Dolton was a white, male, age 15 years, son of Joseph, whose occupation was farmer, unemployed; James I. Dolton was a white, male, age 12 years, son of Joseph, whose occupation was farmer, unemployed; Edward R. Dolton was a white, male, age 7 years, son of Joseph; Birdy Dolton was a white, male, age 3 years, son of Joseph; Ennis Dolton was a white, male, age 2 years, son of Joseph. All the children were born in Missouri.

Some time in the next twenty-five years Ransom decided to call it quits with Missouri. Montana had become a US Territory in 1864 and between 1883 and 1891 Montana was first or second every year in silver production in the US. Colorado was usually first. Maybe it was the silver mining that drew Ransom to Montana.

In 1882 the Northern Pacific had platted Livingston, Montana, a major division point, repair and maintenance center, and gateway to Yellowstone National Park. Maybe it was jobs in the tourist trade that drew Ransom to Montana. Whatever it was that drew him there initially he found that he liked it and he stayed.

Then he found somthing else that he liked in Montana. On 20 Dec 1905 Daisy Lee and Edward Ransome Dolton were married in Bozeman, Gallatin County, Montana. Ransom was a 29 year old man living in Hunters Hot Springs, Park County, Montana. Daisy's full name was Lizzie Daisy Lee, but she didn't like her first name either and went by her middle name Daisy.

Little more than two years later Ransom and Daisy had a son and named him Lee Edward Dolton. He was born 11 Feb 1908 in Livingston, Montana.

The fifteen years between 1910 and 1925 were a period of dramatic change in Montana. It was the peak of the homesteading boom on Montana's plains and they had the "county-busting" craze that created twenty-five new counties in the state. In 1910 there were a series of forest fires that devastated western Montana. On 23 Jan 1911, in the heart of winter, Ransom Dolton died leaving Daisy and her ten year old son Lee Dolton bereft of his support. Ransom died at the age of 37 years. I don't know his cause of death.

There was no electricity or natural gas for lighting or heating the home or apartment. If you wanted light you had to buy an oil lamp and the oil to fill it. If you wanted heat you had to buy a stove and the fuel to burn in it. Daisy was an uneducated woman with a young son in a frontier town and had no way to earn the bread for their table. There was no washer and dryer to do the clothes and it was winter. There was no entertainment. The streets were not lit at night and were as dark as could be with just the light in the windows of homes and businesses to show the way. There was no telephone and if you needed help you had to walk to get it. If there were any family around their advice was 'you need to find yourself another husband.' But, Daisy already knew that. It doesn't take that long when you're desperate and there's an ample supply of unmarried men.

Five months after Ransom's death, on 5 Jun 1912, Daisy married Samuel B. Conrow. Samuel was born about 1878 in Montana Territory. He was a good man and took care of Daisy and Lee. Together Samuel and Daisy had four daughters and then finally a son. They were: Ella Conrow (1914), Marie E. Conrow (1916), Alice Conrow (1916), Evelyn R. Conrow (1924), and Walter R. Conrow (1925). Even though Lee Dolton stayed with the family until sometime after the 1920 US Federal Census, when Lee was twelve, he was gone before the 1930 US Federal Census, when Lee was twenty-two. Lee Dolton married his first wife in 1934 when he was 25 years of age.