Posted: 9:52 PM - Oct 24, 2008
From The Wilmington News Journal dated Thursday 23 October 2008 at 11:02:00 PM
Esther Ruth Underwood Doster, 105, of Quaker Friendly Center, 290 Prairie Ave., Apt. 208, Wilmington, died 8:20 a.m. Thursday (Oct. 23, 2008) in the emergency room at Clinton Memorial Hospital, Wilmington. She was preceded in death by her husband, William Sexton Doster. They were married June 18, 1930.
Mrs. Doster was born March 29, 1903, on her fathers farm on Brimstone Road, Chester Township, Clinton County, daughter of Daniel Bailey Underwood and Wilhelmina Hahn Doster. She taught school in four counties, from a one-room schoolhouse to most recently teaching in the Clinton-Massie School District until her retirement. She grew as a member of the Miami Quaker Meeting and later a member of Jonahs Run Baptist Church. She was a member of the Tau Theta Chi Sorority, Progress Club, Daughters of the American Colonists, Harveysburg Book Review, Womens Christian Temperance Union, Anti-Cant Society and Ohio State Retired Teachers Association. She received her teaching certificate from Wilmington College and also received and held a life teaching certificate.
She is survived by three sons, Dr. D. Howard (Barbara) Doster of Waynesville, Dr. W. Robert (Mary Lou) Doster of Buckeye, Ariz., and John Underwood (Carol) Doster of Waynesville; a daughter, Jane (Doug) Strecker of Medical Lake, Wash.; 12 grandchildren, David (Cindi) Doster, Daniel (Melody) Doster, Susan Doster, Anne (Travis) Doster Glaze, Karen (Shawn) Dunivant, Diane Doster, William C. (Tammy) Doster, Stephen Doster, Debra (Richard) Hovey, Alison (Stephen) Crombie, Amy Doster and Amanda Doster; 20 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by three sisters, Sara Braddock, Ada Grace Braddock and Ruby Dale Wilde.
Graveside services will be held 10 a.m. Tuesday at Miami Cemetery, Corwin, and memorial services will be held 2 p.m. Tuesday at Jonahs Run Baptist Church, 9614 SR 73, Waynesville, Pastor Roger Hilbert officiating. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday at REYNOLDS-SMITH FUNERAL HOME, 327 N. South St., Wilmington. Memorial contributions may be made to Quaker Friendly Center, 290 Prairie Ave., Wilmington, 45177; Jonahs Run Baptist Church, 9614 SR 73, Waynesville, 45068; or Waynesville Friends, in care of Quaker Heights Care Community, 514 W. High St., Waynesville, 45068. For more information or to sign the funeral homes online registry of condolences, visithttp://www.smithandsonfuneralhomes.com.
From Howard Doster:
She was still teaching me last night, but for the first time in 16 years, I didn't call Mom tonight. What great experiences we shared! This morning, she told her care-giver she was ready to die; and she did, peacefully, with not an ache or pain, just as she lived on the Warren-Clinton County line for most of these last 105 years.
Next spring, for the first time in 89 years, Esther will be missed at her Kingman high school alumni; and for the first time in 84 years, her Wilmington College alumni; and for the first time in 80 years, her husband's Collett-McKay family picnic. She said, "Some persons attend these things; some don't. Doster's do, as soon as the corn is planted and the hay is put up."
Esther Underwood Doster Memorial Service will be held 2 pm Tuesday, October 28,2008 at Jonah's Run Baptist Church, 9614 SR 73-W,Wilmington, Ohio,45177,2 miles west of I-71 exit 45. Current pastors-Roger Hilbert and Jay Williams, plus former pastors-Steven Fitz, Fred McNight, Dan Doster(her grandson), Charles Ellison(her first friend's son), and perhaps Jim Schultz will come from four states to share in the celebration.
Born March 29, 1903, on her father's adjacent-to-the-now-25-member 170-year old husband's family church(where she was still teaching SS on her 92nd birthday, and where she prepared communion for 57 years) farm, she married William Doster, a tenant neighbor's son, and they lived out their lives within a two-mile area. Their's was the first marriage between two mostly Quaker families who moved into this Northwest Territory area from Virginia and Pennsylvinia,to get away from slavery,just after 1800.
Esther learned and then taught that the Ordinance of 1787 which provided for trial by jury, no slavery, and provision for public schools was perhaps more significant than our US Constitution.
Starting with her "Anti-Can't Society" in her one-room school 4th grade, Esther and her husband co-founded many local community, farm, and church groups. When asked recently how they decided to do things off the farm, she answered,"We asked two questions, is it significant? and, can we do it?" If "yes", they did it.
Teaching first in a one-room school in 1922, Esther earned a Life Teaching Certificate while teaching in schools in four nearby counties. When she retired just after helping to pay off their farm mortgage, her son, Howard, was teaching at Purdue; son,Robert, was a veternarian in Arizona; son,John, was a Voag teacher;and daughter, Jane, was employed on an air base in Washington.
Esther stopped teaching for awhile when she married in 1930 because only men could teach after marriage, so as to spread the scarce teacher money to more families. While her children were in school, and her husband was local school board president, Esther taught a monthly temperance class, "The Loyal Temperance Legion" (LTL) to middle school classes. While touring Russian Agricultural Research Stations with Purdue colleagues in 1991, a few days after the coups, Howard recited the LTL motto-"Not too much of anything, and some things none at all," to the first communist research director who chided him for not drinking vodka. Though the vodka ritual was repeated at eight other stations, no one chided Howard again.
As evidence of how her influence continues to spread, descendants now living in 14 states will receive this email and many will likely come back to her Brimstone Road home. Likely, we'll again sit on the porch where she was married in the house where she and her father were born,and look out over the valley to the church on the east and her family's land in between. We'll note the road where her future husband drove his horse-drawn school wagon to pick up Esther and her younger sisters. Someone will point out "Pleasant View Farm" to the southwest, and remember the girls said their neighbors named their farm because they looked down on them. Likely, someone will repeat what they've heard Esther say while sitting there so many times at family reunions, "This is the one spot in the world where everything is in its right place."
Rememberance gifts may be made to Quaker Friendly Center in Wilmington, her home for the last 12 years; Miami Quaker Meeting in Waynesville, her father's family Meeting; and Jonah's Run Baptist Church, which she joined after two of her sons.
Howard Doster (765) 412-1495
Esther Ruth Underwood Doster
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Mrs. Doster was born March 29, 1903, on her fathers farm on Brimstone Road, Chester Township, Clinton County, daughter of Daniel Bailey Underwood and Wilhelmina Hahn Doster. She taught school in four counties, from a one-room schoolhouse to most recently teaching in the Clinton-Massie School District until her retirement. She grew as a member of the Miami Quaker Meeting and later a member of Jonahs Run Baptist Church. She was a member of the Tau Theta Chi Sorority, Progress Club, Daughters of the American Colonists, Harveysburg Book Review, Womens Christian Temperance Union, Anti-Cant Society and Ohio State Retired Teachers Association. She received her teaching certificate from Wilmington College and also received and held a life teaching certificate.
She is survived by three sons, Dr. D. Howard (Barbara) Doster of Waynesville, Dr. W. Robert (Mary Lou) Doster of Buckeye, Ariz., and John Underwood (Carol) Doster of Waynesville; a daughter, Jane (Doug) Strecker of Medical Lake, Wash.; 12 grandchildren, David (Cindi) Doster, Daniel (Melody) Doster, Susan Doster, Anne (Travis) Doster Glaze, Karen (Shawn) Dunivant, Diane Doster, William C. (Tammy) Doster, Stephen Doster, Debra (Richard) Hovey, Alison (Stephen) Crombie, Amy Doster and Amanda Doster; 20 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by three sisters, Sara Braddock, Ada Grace Braddock and Ruby Dale Wilde.
Graveside services will be held 10 a.m. Tuesday at Miami Cemetery, Corwin, and memorial services will be held 2 p.m. Tuesday at Jonahs Run Baptist Church, 9614 SR 73, Waynesville, Pastor Roger Hilbert officiating. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday at REYNOLDS-SMITH FUNERAL HOME, 327 N. South St., Wilmington. Memorial contributions may be made to Quaker Friendly Center, 290 Prairie Ave., Wilmington, 45177; Jonahs Run Baptist Church, 9614 SR 73, Waynesville, 45068; or Waynesville Friends, in care of Quaker Heights Care Community, 514 W. High St., Waynesville, 45068. For more information or to sign the funeral homes online registry of condolences, visithttp://www.smithandsonfuneralhomes.com.
From Howard Doster:
She was still teaching me last night, but for the first time in 16 years, I didn't call Mom tonight. What great experiences we shared! This morning, she told her care-giver she was ready to die; and she did, peacefully, with not an ache or pain, just as she lived on the Warren-Clinton County line for most of these last 105 years.
Next spring, for the first time in 89 years, Esther will be missed at her Kingman high school alumni; and for the first time in 84 years, her Wilmington College alumni; and for the first time in 80 years, her husband's Collett-McKay family picnic. She said, "Some persons attend these things; some don't. Doster's do, as soon as the corn is planted and the hay is put up."
Esther Underwood Doster Memorial Service will be held 2 pm Tuesday, October 28,2008 at Jonah's Run Baptist Church, 9614 SR 73-W,Wilmington, Ohio,45177,2 miles west of I-71 exit 45. Current pastors-Roger Hilbert and Jay Williams, plus former pastors-Steven Fitz, Fred McNight, Dan Doster(her grandson), Charles Ellison(her first friend's son), and perhaps Jim Schultz will come from four states to share in the celebration.
Born March 29, 1903, on her father's adjacent-to-the-now-25-member 170-year old husband's family church(where she was still teaching SS on her 92nd birthday, and where she prepared communion for 57 years) farm, she married William Doster, a tenant neighbor's son, and they lived out their lives within a two-mile area. Their's was the first marriage between two mostly Quaker families who moved into this Northwest Territory area from Virginia and Pennsylvinia,to get away from slavery,just after 1800.
Esther learned and then taught that the Ordinance of 1787 which provided for trial by jury, no slavery, and provision for public schools was perhaps more significant than our US Constitution.
Starting with her "Anti-Can't Society" in her one-room school 4th grade, Esther and her husband co-founded many local community, farm, and church groups. When asked recently how they decided to do things off the farm, she answered,"We asked two questions, is it significant? and, can we do it?" If "yes", they did it.
Teaching first in a one-room school in 1922, Esther earned a Life Teaching Certificate while teaching in schools in four nearby counties. When she retired just after helping to pay off their farm mortgage, her son, Howard, was teaching at Purdue; son,Robert, was a veternarian in Arizona; son,John, was a Voag teacher;and daughter, Jane, was employed on an air base in Washington.
Esther stopped teaching for awhile when she married in 1930 because only men could teach after marriage, so as to spread the scarce teacher money to more families. While her children were in school, and her husband was local school board president, Esther taught a monthly temperance class, "The Loyal Temperance Legion" (LTL) to middle school classes. While touring Russian Agricultural Research Stations with Purdue colleagues in 1991, a few days after the coups, Howard recited the LTL motto-"Not too much of anything, and some things none at all," to the first communist research director who chided him for not drinking vodka. Though the vodka ritual was repeated at eight other stations, no one chided Howard again.
As evidence of how her influence continues to spread, descendants now living in 14 states will receive this email and many will likely come back to her Brimstone Road home. Likely, we'll again sit on the porch where she was married in the house where she and her father were born,and look out over the valley to the church on the east and her family's land in between. We'll note the road where her future husband drove his horse-drawn school wagon to pick up Esther and her younger sisters. Someone will point out "Pleasant View Farm" to the southwest, and remember the girls said their neighbors named their farm because they looked down on them. Likely, someone will repeat what they've heard Esther say while sitting there so many times at family reunions, "This is the one spot in the world where everything is in its right place."
Rememberance gifts may be made to Quaker Friendly Center in Wilmington, her home for the last 12 years; Miami Quaker Meeting in Waynesville, her father's family Meeting; and Jonah's Run Baptist Church, which she joined after two of her sons.
Howard Doster (765) 412-1495