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Pipe Fitter’s executive board. In 1964 he became a member of the Bellevue City Council and served until 1969. He won a close election for Kentucky state representative for the 68th District as a Democrat and remained in that office until he retired in 1994 (see Democratic Party). During his term in the Kentucky legislature, he was a member of the Labor and Industry Committee and, in 1972, the vice chairman of the Business, Organizations, and Professions Committee. In 1974 he became the chairman of that committee. From 1976 to 1986 he was majority caucus chairman. In this position he was able to place people on various committees. In 1990 he became the chairman of the Cities Committee and in 1992 the chairman of the Open Meetings and Open Records Committee; that same year he also served as chairman of the Statewide Information Committee, in which position he pushed for the greater use of computers in state government. More than 200 bills were enacted into law in Kentucky that Bill Donnermeyer sponsored or cosponsored. He was the primary sponsor of 98 of them. The legislation that he sponsored or cosponsored is the subject of a 128-page booklet from the Kentucky Information Systems Commission. Among the bills was legislation concerning the automated registration and titling of automobiles, the state lottery, and the abolition of bail bondsmen. Donnermeyer was also involved in the establishment of the Community Action Agencies, funding for training of local firefighters and police, the adoption of a legislative code of ethics, and bills to legalize bingo and harness racing. He has remained a steadfast member of the Democratic Party and has supported many Democrats in their campaigns for office. In 1972 he served as the Campbell Co. chairman for Walter Dee Huddleston’s successful campaign as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate. Donnermeyer has always taken the position of those who needed help, including the homeless and the unborn, and is well known for his strong right-to-life advocacy. In 1948 he married Shirley Snyder, who died in 1967. They had three boys, William, James, and Thomas. In 1970 he married Mary Ruth Hill, and they had one daughter, Teresa. Bill Donnermeyer resides with his family in Bellevue. Donnermeyer Blvd. in Bellevue is named after him. He is an honorary lifetime member of the Pipe Fitters Union and a member of the Bellevue Vets, the American Legion, and the VFW. “Abortion Heats Up Primaries,” KP, May 25, 1996, 1K. Armstrong, Bryan. “A Man of the People,” KP, January 3, 1995, 1K.
Robert W. Stevie
DOREMUS, ELIZABETH (b. May 22, 1853, Newport, Ky.; d. April 15, 1934, New York City). Elizabeth Johnson Ward Doremus, playwright and genealogist, was the daughter of George W. and Josephine Harris Ward. She was a granddaughter of James Taylor Jr., founder of Newport, on her mother’s side. Her father owned several plantations throughout the South. Educated
in France, Germany, and Italy, she married noted chemist Charles Doremus in Washington, D.C., in 1880 and spent the remainder of her life in New York City. She was a respected social leader and genealogist, who traced the lineage of members of high society; she wrote three plays for the Broadway stage: The Circus Rider (1888), The Fortunes of the King (1890s), and By Right of the Sword (1905). Doremus was a friend of Lionel and John Barrymore. In the 1880s and 1890s she appeared in amateur performances. In 1934 she died from a stroke and was buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, N.Y. Births Campbell County 1850–1910, available at Kenton Co. Public Library, Covington, Ky. “Mrs. C.A. Doremus, Playwright, Dead,” NYT, April 17, 1934, 21.
DOUGHERTY, WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH. In 1779 Elizabeth Conway and William Dougherty, accompanied by her father and mother, one child, brothers and sisters, and several other families, moved from Virginia to Kentucky. The families settled in Bourbon Co. about 10 miles north of Paris, in the neighborhood of what was then called Ruddell’s Station. In 1780 British captain Henry Bird (see Bird’s (Byrd’s) War Road) attacked that settlement, and William and Elizabeth were captured with the rest of her family and taken to Detroit, Mich. After their release, William and Elizabeth Dougherty lived in Bourbon Co. for a few years before moving north to Pendleton Co. They settled on Grassy Creek, not far from the present town of Falmouth, and remained there until William died. Belew, Mildred Boden. The First 200 Years of Pendleton County. Falmouth, Ky.: M. B. Belew, n.d. [ca. 1994]. Edward E. Barton Papers. Pendleton Co. Library, Falmouth, Ky.
Mildred Belew
DOVER. The town of Dover is situated on the Ohio River in Mason Co., about eight and a half miles northwest of Maysville, along Ky. Rt. 8, the Mary Ingles Highway. The area that is now Dover was in prehistoric times an abode of the American Indian mound-building Adena people (see Mound Builders), who erected a large mound there. With the arrival of white settlers, a town eventually emerged and thrived for a time. In 1786 Jeremiah Washburn and his family built the first house in Dover. Arthur Fox Jr. laid out the town in 1818, and they named it Dover for the town in England from which his father had immigrated. A post office was established in Dover in 1823, and the town was incorporated in 1836. Dover had seen significant growth by the mid-19th century and became important as a shipping center. Several early businesses prepared the way. Gen. Anderson Lyon and Langhorn Tabb Sr. formed the Tabb and Lyon Company, which purchased tobacco for shipping to ports as far away as New Orleans and Boston. African American builder John Patty operated a coal- and brick-
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yard that furnished bricks for many of the houses built around Dover. Several banks, factories, and newspapers provided an environment of prosperity and optimism. The town expanded after the Civil War to include nearby Frenchtown in 1874 and extended its boundaries further in the following decade. During the late 1880s, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad ran a ser vice line through Dover, giving it better access to markets. The town managed to recoup after the great flood of 1937, and the Mary Ingles Highway was completed in the 1950s. But by that time, the population of Dover was in decline and some businesses had closed. In 1968 a devastating tornado was a calamity that the residents of Dover found difficult to overcome. The community remained, but its once-bright potential as a commercial center was gone. During the 1990s the completion of the AA Highway served to isolate Dover further. In the year 2000, the city of Dover had a population of 316. Calvert, Jean, and John Klee. The Towns of Mason County: Their Past in Pictures. Maysville, Ky.: Maysville and Mason Co. Library Historical and Scientific Association, 1986. Clift, G. Glenn. History of Maysville and Mason County, Kentucky. Lexington, Ky.: Transylvania, 1936. Rennick, Robert. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1984. U.S. Census Bureau. “American Fact Finder. Data Set. Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF1) 100-Percent Data. Custom Table.” www.census.gov (accessed April 3, 2007).
Thomas S. Ward
DOVER COVERED BRIDGE. The Dover Covered Bridge in northwestern Mason Co., the oldest surviving covered bridge in Kentucky, was first built in 1835 as a toll bridge to replace a bridge that burned. Only 13 covered bridges remained standing in Kentucky in 2007, of which only Dover Covered Bridge and three others continue to carry auto traffic. There were once hundreds of covered bridges in the state, but their numbers have been whittled down by many causes. Some were burned during the Civil War; the vehicles crossing them became heavier over the years; new bridges have been built to replace them; and floods, storms, neglect, arson, and vandalism have damaged them as well. Covered bridges were built as an attempt to protect the wooden floor of a bridge from the ravages of weather. The sloped roof of the bridge protected the deck and main truss of the bridge from rain, snow, and the heat of the sun. Water remaining on the floor or on a truss of a wooden bridge hastens rot, while prolonged heat causes wood to shrink and warp. The long-term effects of both rain and sun will cause the eventual deterioration of a wooden bridge. The Dover Bridge carries Ky. Rt. 3113 across Lee Creek, just south of Ky. Rt. 8 (the Mary Ingles Highway) and the city of Dover. The bridge, built of treated wood, is 63 feet long. It was rebuilt in 1928, 1966, and 2000. During the 2000 rebuilding,