THE ELECTION

    

                My grandparents Kitty and Jack 

As always unapologetically unedited.

Some of this is fact some of it is speculation.

I have always been curious about "the why" or "the how" of the people who pass through our lives. I'm not referring to your mother or father, or any close friend or relation. What I'm referring to are the people who affect our lives in even the smallest way; ways that amount to something both mundane and pivotal. I like to think of them as those cursory folks who somehow connect all of life's events together. They may not be the fabric of our lives but they certainly helped to sew it together. Most often, these people go without mention in our tales or remembrances. They get lost in the telling of any family history and become fragments of someone else's time and memory. 

This strata of influence in our lives also held true for our ancestors. It wasn't that they (our ancestors) didn't remember certain people or anyone in particular, or that they necessarily excluded them from their recollection any more than you or I might. It's only that as "the mention of anyone" begins to fade from the family's collective consciousness so do their names. Their names fade alongside who they were, where they came from, and perhaps most importantly, how they came to be known (by any of us) at all. 

Was it a friendship? Was it a business relationship? Did society form that friendship or association?

This became more apparent to me the other day when I was asked to verify where in 1934 my grandparents, Howard Jack Record and Katheryn Ogle Record were married. I was pretty certain that they'd been married in the bucolic town of Paola, Kansas, but I wanted to re-verify my facts. (It's always important to re-verify genealogical facts as memory tends to skew what we might otherwise believe to be true.) In this case, memory served me well and the place of my grandparents' wedding was where I'd thought it to be. 

    

However, as I began to look over the record of their marriage I saw the name of one of those people who had passed through their lives. It was the name of someone who no doubt was remembered by them, but a name that had long ago slipped into the family's past collective consciousness. It was the name of the man who married them.

                               

      Rev. Honorable David Cole Doten 1906-1978

           

His name was listed in the newspaper announcement of their marriage and on the marriage record as the "Rev. David C. Doten." I was curious just who the heck "D.C. Doten" was. How was it that my grandparents had known him? Was it only a church affiliation?

 There were a few things I did not expect to find.

I naturally assumed that the verbiage in the wedding announcement that is that "the ceremony was performed at the Christian parsonage" meant that they were married by the church's minister at his residence, and further, that Rev. Doten was in fact that the church's minister. And while this appears to be true on the surface, after researching The Good Reverend there seems to be a lot more to his story. Some of what I'm about to put forth is speculation and requires more research, all of it is certainly curious. 

                  

Let's start with my grandmother, the former Katheryn Ogle. As evidenced by her mother's obituary (image below) and that of her own, Mrs. Daniel S. Ogle, came from a long line of Presbyterians. 

 Does a "Christian parsonage" sound like the home of a Presbyterian? Not so much...

            

Now let's consider my grandfather, Howard "Jack" Record. His parents were "Christian" in a more non-denominational sense, like say, "First Christian Church" folks. It sounds like the term "Christian parsonage" fits better with that sort of religious sect than with the more staid Presbyterians of my great-grandmother Mrs. Ogle.

If so, this would imply that "The Reverend D. C. Doten" was perhaps an acquaintance of my Grandfather's and not of my Grandmother's. 

Yet not so fast...It wasn't like my grandfather hadn't ever spent time with "The Presbyterians." Check out this long ago Christmas performance - at a Presbyterian Church containing the names of nearly all his siblings:

(I have tried to enlarge the image as best as I can. You may be able to tap on it twice on your device to enlarge it or maybe view it on the link below:)

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-greeley-advocate/145597978/

                

    However, this post in the Greeley, Kansas newspaper I found to be the most telling or interesting of all:

                          

I suppose it could be said that my Grandfather had simply taken a job working to sell tickets to the Chautauqua. It would have been entirely possible. However, consider that the 1926 article above regarding a 17-year-old man called JACK RECORD indicates someone looking forward to social changes, entertainment, and education - and was someone who was involved in putting on the event itself. Here is a sample image of a "Chautauqua event:"

                 

 My Grandfather looks to have had quite the social conscience.

However, as usual, I digress.    

 

How did all this come to pass? And again, just who the heck was D.C. Doten?

We know that "D.C" Doten was "David C. Doten" by his signature on my grandparents' marriage record. So it seemed easy enough to look for a David C. Doten in Paola, Kansas, in 1934, right? However, easy wasn't necessarily the case. I was surprised to find out what did. 

I have shared with some of you already that David C. Doten became Paola's Democratic Representative for Miami County. From what I can tell, he was Miami County's state representative from 1934-1936. But for some reason, I have had difficulty locating him as actually having "lived in" Paola or Miami County. While I don't doubt that he lived in Paola, I suspect he lived there only briefly - that perhaps things didn't work out too well there for him. Outside of his brief and popular career as Miami County's Democratic Representative in the state legislature, and as mentioned in the newspapers of the day, I could not find him listed in the city directories. In fact, the only quasi-official record of him in Paola beyond the newspaper accounts is in the 1940 census where his ex-wife states she lived in (you guessed it) Paola, Kansas in 1935.

Now like you, I don't doubt that Davis C. Doten lived in Paola.

I can't doubt that he was their state representative.

But just for how long?

Not very. What caused him to leave?

He probably pissed off one heck of a lot of...you guessed it...Presbyterians??

Or worse - Republicans.

In point of fact, the first place I find David  C. Doten living is here - in Kansas City, Missouri:

  

The year is 1929 and the directories show him living in Kansas City through 1932 - but by 1932 he is listed as a bookkeeper for the KC Chamber of Commerce and not as an assistant pastor any longer. If I had to guess, getting a congregation was a tough job and he had to look elsewhere. Maybe he heard from a young transport driver about a church down in Paola looking for a pastor...

You see, look who else lived in Kansas City about the same time...

 

The question I have is: At some point (and I know the years here may be a bit vague) just how close did my grandparents - especially my grandfather - live to The Good Reverend?

Was he my grandfather's friend?

So I did what we all do. I Google it. It looks like they lived within walking distance of each other. It looks like they probably lived (at least at one time) in the same neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri.

                          

BUT for now, put on hold "the whys and hows" of how HOWARD JACK RECORD came to know the Reverend David C. Doten. (One thing's for certain though - The Good Reverend doesn't look to have been a friend of Mrs. Ogle or the Presbyterians.)

Let's just look back and see just who the heck was old D.C. Doten?  I think the clip below tells a lot about him - and certainly in an unusual way.

                 

David C. Doten looks to have been damn active in the Kansas Democratic Party. 

             

                      

                           

  From what I have pieced together, Miami County (District 2) State Legislator David Cole Doten grew in his political aspirations. In 1936, he ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket - and lost to his Republican opponent. 

Hey, it had to happen, right? 

Good guys often finish last - and I have no reason to believe that this champion of 3.2 beer was anything but a good guy. (Oddly enough, he was advocating for 3.2 beer as a "temperance measure!")

            

          David C. Doten left Paola shortly after his loss in the 1936 election. He also appears to have left his religious calling behind along with his political aspirations. He bounced around a bit, but by 1938 he is at the University of Tennessee where he was a thirty-two-year-old law student. It's unclear if he and his wife Amy Martin Doten have separated, but by 1941 he is living in Arkansas and suing her for divorce. At this point, and with his new legal diploma, he joins the military to fight in the war efforts of WWII.

There isn't a lot more to say here about David C. Doten - the man who married my grandparents. He did go on to be a federal Bankruptcy judge and an advocate for consumer rights about credit cards. Oddly enough, his son by the same name was prominent in the Mayflower Society as David C. Doten has proven Mayflower ancestry that links him as distantly related to both Mary Ogle and Opal Young!!! 

I think his obit tells it best:

       

   

                    

                      

That pretty much says it all, right?

If you're bored, you should stop by and say "hello" to him here:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167718578/david_cole-doten

By way of summary, I guess we will never know how it was that David C. Doten came to marry my grandparents at the First Christian Church parsonage in Paola, Kansas. Maybe it was just a random chance that he was the pastor there (briefly) in April of 1934.

Somehow I just don't think so. 

It just doesn't feel random.

I'm told in somewhat "excused whispers" that my grandfather Howard Jack Record was of all (said to be misguided) things, a dang "Democrat." I've really never thought that much about this seemingly erroneous piece of information as partisan politics aren't my thing. What I've come to see though in discovering the life of the man who married my grandparents is just how much of an old-fashioned Democrat my grandfather may have truly been.

I get the sense of this with my grandfather as a young man selling tickets to a Chautauqua. I get the sense that he is associating (even if only on the periphery) with the Miami County "YOUNG MEN'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB" - led by none other than David C. Doten - the man who married them.

After Doten lost the election in 1936 - things started to change for my grandparents.

California must have REALLY looked a lot better.

Doten's election loss in 1936 would have felt personal to them. 

Honestly, I find a new sense of immense pride in my grandfather. I guess the only side of him I ever saw was the hard-working older guy who had been given so many lumps of coal in this life. It wasn't that he ever gave up on life, only that he had moved on from Chautauqua, from Young Men's Democratic Clubs, from Paola and his friend's Congressional aspirations, and maybe from his dreams - all the while working hard to oftentimes just survive.

           

I REALLY like seeing this young idealistic side of HOWARD JACK RECORD - a young man full of dreams and ideas about social change. It makes me think that maybe he and I weren't so different when we were twenty years old in that we imagined a better world. I think he counted "Judge Doten" among his friends. He may have even idealized the Reverend/Judge/Congressional nominee. Judge Doten was one of those people whose name has been lost in the collective consciousness of my family's memory - but my what an important one it was!

The Reverend /Judge David Cole Doten was worthy of all of our respect and gratitude.

(Even that of the Presbyterians...) Wink!

And certainly so was my grandfather!!!

REST IN PEACE.