Born: Adair County, Kentucky, October 13, 1832.
Died:
E. L. DOHONEY, though not a preacher, is an elder in the church at Paris, and I thought it appropriate to have the Lord's Supper discussed by an elder; and by inviting Brother Dohoney forward, I think I "builded better than I knew." This distinguished gentleman, to whose name the papers generally prefix the title "Hon.,"was born in Adair county, Ky., Oct. 13th, 1832. He worked on a farm till 19 years of age. He then spent five years in teaching school, attending college, and studying law. He graduated in the law department of Louisville University in 1857, and soon afterward began the practice of law in Columbia, Ky.
He came to Texas in 1859, and located at Paris. He gave strict attention to the law and real estate business, and was appointed district attorney of the 8th judicial district. In 1869 he was elected to the State senate, and served four years. He was also elected a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1875. In 1871 he founded the North Texan, and conducted it four years. He was the first Texas editor to refuse to publish saloon advertisements in a secular paper. He has ever been an earnest advocate of temperance, and a zealous worker in the prohibition movement. He is the author of the constitutional provision under which the local option law was passed in 1876. While in the senate, he introduced several temperance bills, but did not confine his attention to that subject. He is the author of the homestead act, which passed in 1870, securing to every actual settler a home of 160 acres. He is also the author of the public school system enacted in 1873. In 1882 he was an independent candidate for Congress in the 4th district, carried one county, and received a good vote in the others. Later, he was the prohibition candidate for governor, and has often been mentioned in connection with the presidential nomination of the third party.
Bro. Dohoney, however, has about come to the conclusion that the reforms for which he has labored so long and so ardently cannot be effected through political parties, and shares with the writer the conviction that social, religious and national wrongs can only be righted by the personal appearing and reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is a great reader, and an independent thinker on all subjects, and is the author of a very original and interesting work of some 350 pages, entitled, "Man: his origin, nature, and destiny." As an elder in the Paris congregation, Bro. Dohoney takes great interest in church and Sunday-school work, and has in Elder W. H. Sluder a very efficient co-laborer.