OBITUARY OF JOSEPH BRYDON DOBIE

This is the obituary of Joseph Brydon Dobie, transcribed and emailed to me by Jay A. Nellis, Sept. 14, 1998.

Chesley Enterprise, August 1, 1940

Late Joseph Dobie, Sullivan Ex-Reeve

Many old friends from Sullivan as well as neighbors and friends from Owen Sound and district, attended the funeral at Owen Sound last Friday afternoon of Mr. Joseph Dobie, ex-reeve of Sullivan, who passed away last Wednesday morning. Rev F.G. Hornsby conducted the obsequies, and the casket bearers were Messrs. Wesley Carson, Robert Halliday, Malcolm Mitchell, Robert Rankin, William McDonald and R.L. Aitcheson. Interment was in Greenwood cemetery. The late Mr. Dobie celebrated his 90th birthday on February 9, and had been up and around until suffering a fall a few weeks ago. He was born in Dunwich, Elgin County, in 1850, both his parents being natives of Dumfries, Scotland, and coming to Elgin county in 1849.

The father being a stone mason, the family lived in Toronto, Whitby and other places where the father was employed, and in 1854 they moved to Chatsworth, where a relative was located, and they took up land on Lot 16, Con. 13, Sullivan, and where Joseph Dobie made his home for 56 years. The late Mr. Dobie was an authority on the pioneer life of Sullivan township, as well as Grey county. He remembered Owen Sound when it was only a little village on the Sydenham. He had a store of incomparable anecdotes about the early days and customs, the settlers and the slow but steady growth of city and county.

In 1885 Mr. Dobie was elected to the township council and served for two years. In 1888 he rented his farm and for four years resided at Thessalon. In 1892 he returned to the farm and in 1895 was elected deputy reeve and again in 1912 and 1913 he filled the same post. In 1916 he became reeve. He also served on the board of the public school and the high school of Chatsworth for three terms. The late Mr. Dobie was married in 1886 to Miss Alice Ramage, daughter of one of the early families of the district. In the fall of 1920 they sold the farm and moved to Owen Sound, where they resided ever since. Besides his bereaved widow, a family of six children mourn. Two predeceased him, the eldest son, Captain J. Milton Dobie of the 147th Grey Battalion, who was promoted from lieutenant to captain on the field, who was killed at the battle of Arras on August 28, 1918, and Florence (Mrs. W.H. Murphy) who died July 24, 1923. Mr. Dobie's death occurred on the 17th anniversary of his daughter's death. Surviving are: Ethel, Mrs. Gregor McDonald, of Leader, Sask., who was in attendance upon her father at his passing; Howard, of Vancouver, B.C.; Isabella (Mrs. Russell Galbraith) Chatsworth, Victor of Desboro, and Misses Violet and Margaret at home.