Tragedy in California
Research any family and you'll most likely find its members had their share of tragic addidents. I came across one such incident while looking for information on the subject of a photo sent to me by Patricia Dowling Guernsey. The man in the picture was her uncle, William Doherty, who had left Central New York in the late 1930s or early '40s and moved to California where he operated a chicken farm. The spelling of the last name is inconsistent as you go through Doherty family members, some of whom preferred Dougherty. Some, in fact, went back and forth on the spelling.

Anyway, William Doherty was the son of William Dougherty and Catherine "Kate" Major Dougherty. LIke my father – and a few other relatives – William Doherty's nickname was "Buster."

Note: A week later the Skaneateles Press printed move details of Doherty's death which occured in Richmond, California, when he fell in front of a train at the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.

He had spent a few days in Los Angeles and had flown back to Richmond to take a train to visit his sister, Margaret (Mrs. Eugene) Perine, in Stockton, California, before returning to his chicken ranch in Santa Rosa. It was raining and foggy at the time of the accident.