John Dooley

John , my 3rd great grandfather, was born in Kentucky, and died in Northfield, Boone, Indiana. He is buried in Mt. Run Baptist Cemetary in Boone. He and Lydia had eight children, six of whom lived to adulthood.

John and Lydia's son, Alvah H. Dooley, wrote an article about 1908 describing the "School of Long Ago", where his father was a teacher. It is transcribed below. Among the students listed is P.D. Johnson (my 2nd great grandfather) who married Alvah's sister Mary Ann Dooley, and William J. Collings, who is a cousin.

Transcript: A School of Long Ago

In the winter of 1840 and '41 I attended school at the Linn thicket or Jack school house, the first winter taught by Samuel Ramsey, the second by my father, John Dooley. The house was built mostly if not wholly of linn logs, long seats without backs, a narrow window the whole length of the wall, and a great backlog fireplace, while the hats, caps, bonnets and wraps were promiscuously hung in one corner. The dinner baskets and buckets were arranged to suit the taste and convenience of those who brought them These were the adornments and the furniture of the school room. Probably there were no less than 50 pupils in attendance at these schools. So far as known to the writer, the following names are the living pupils today: P.D. Johnson, Morgan McClain, Mrs. Harmon Pulliam, William J. Collings, Deacon John Collings, Jesse Collings, Alexander Stark, Nancy J. Malton, John Carver, Adam Jack, Frank Shally, Mrs. Sally Sutton, Mrs. Mary Rush, Mrs. Perry Blake, with myself makes 15. After a lapse of 68 years is there another country school in Parke county that can make such a record of living pupils?

                                                                                                                                  Alvah H. Dooley