Isaac Foote Dortch

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41860437/isaac-foote-dortch

Isaac Foote Dortch was born 1849 in Goldsboro, Wayne Co, NC, the 3rd of 8 known surviving children (5 boys/3 girls) born to Hon. William Theophilus Dortch, Jr. and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Pittman.

Isaac is descended from prominent North Carolina families on both sides of his family tree. His father served in the State Legislature for almost 20 years (1852-1869), and when NC seceded from the Union, he served in the Confederate Congress (1862-1865), but once again became a NC State Senator after the war, serving from 1879-1885. He was the paternal grandson of Hon William Theophilis Dortch Sr. & Druscilla Whitfield Bunn of Nash County, and a direct descendant of this family's patriarch, Walter Dortch (1624-1685) who with his wife, Joane Whitfield, left London for the Virginia Colonies ca. 1680. On his mother's side, he was the maternal grandson of Harrod Pittman & Elizabeth Brown Bryan of Edgecombe County. This grandfather being as fatally wounded in an argument with Joseph George near Teat's Bridge on November 30, 1836.

Although too young to serve, Isaac came of age during the Civil War. His older brother, Harrod Pittman Dortch, only 15 when the war broke out, served with Company D of the NC 1ST Battalion, Heavy Artillery. Issac attended university and was admitted to the bar in 1872.

On October 6, 1875, the 26-year old married 20-year old Lucy Hogg, daughter of Dr. Thomas Devereaux Hogg & Janet Bryan of Raleigh. The couple set up housekeeping in Raleigh where Isaac practiced law, but by 1885, they had removed to his hometown, Goldsboro, where he continued in law and was a charter member in Goldsboro Masons, Ruffin Lodge.

Isaac & Lucy were parents to 8 known children (3 boys/6 girls), with their 4 eldest children being born in Raleigh: Sally Hogg Dortch (1876-1951), Gavin Hogg Dortch (1879-1943), Janette Hogg Dortch (1881), William Pittman Dortch (1884-1949), Ellen Sasser Dortch (1886-1981), Thomas Hogg Dortch (1889-1974), Lucy Bayard Haywood Dortch (1892-1947), Elizabeth "Lizzie" Hogg Dortch (1895-1985).

Isaac was widowed in 1905 when his wife of 30 years passed at age 50. Following her death, he moved back to Raleigh and resided with his unmarried sister-in-law, Sallie Hogg , his wife's older sister, in the Hogg-Dortch family home on Wilmington Street. Six of his children (Sallie, Janette, Ellen, Thomas, Lucy and Elizabeth) joined him there.

Isaac Foote Dortch died in 1910 at age 61. He was buried next to his beloved wife in Oakwood Cemetery. (His parents and most of his siblings are buried in Willow Dale Cemetery in Goldsboro.)

As for his children, only his son Gavin would have children and carry on the family name. Gavin married Margaret Turk in 1905 and had one son who predeceased him, but his son, Gavin Hogg Dortch Jr. lived until 1985. Daughter, Ellen, also married, but had no known children. She married Dr. Clarence Albert Shore, founder and first director of the NC State Board of Health Laboratory, but no known children were born to the couple. His youngest daughter, Lizzie Hogg Dortch, was the last surviving member of this family. She died in 1985 and is buried in Oakwood with her parents and 5 of her siblings.