Alfred & Elizabeth Dorney

Alfred Lot & Elizabeth Esther Blaser Dorney 

Kids: Alfred, Gladys, Chauncey

Story submitted to Family Search by John Willard McLaughlin:

Elizabeth Esther Blaser Elizabeth Esther Blaser was born in Coffrane, Neuchatel, Switzerland on 30 Aug 1870. We know nothing of her life as a child except that she was baptized on 12 Feb 1883, about 4 months before boarding the SS Nevada for the trip to America. She would have grown up in Montpelier and at age 23 married Alfred Dorney on 7 Jun 1893. About a month after her marriage, she suffered the tragic loss of her mother in the drowning accident in the Bear River, mentioned earlier. (As the story was told to me, it was the Bear River, but geography may not bear that out.) The next year she gave birth to her first child, Alfred, who tragically died at birth. On a happier note, her second child, Chauncey was born 3 Apr 1896. The third child, a daughter, named Gladys was born on 3 Jun 1906. The Dorney’s lived out their days in Montpelier, Idaho. Elizabeth died 7 Mar 1952 and was buried in Montpelier, Idaho on 11 Mar 1952. Alfred died 10 Nov 1960 and was buried on 14 Nov 1960 in Montpelier, Idaho. 

In the 1930’s, as a small boy, I remember visiting at the Dorney’s home in Montpelier. I remember seeing Alf Dorney’s leather chaps hanging on the kitchen wall. For the benefit of the younger generation, chaps are those leather leggings that cowboys wear. What I remember most vividly was the bear cub that they had chained to a dog house in their yard.