On the road again ...
The story of William McLaughlin's 19-year disappearance is perhaps the strangest family tale, but he's not the only relative who dropped out of sight, at least briefly. Tragedies, accidents and resultant injuries can result in behavior that is unusual, but understandable. Or you might just be acting on an impulse that is not uncommon for someone your age. |
| Skaneateles Press / August 29, 1952 |
Terry Dougherty After 9-Day Trek
Returns Home Here
A wandering boy came back home last Thursday night, probably wiser if not sadder than when he went away, after a nine-day trek in the South
The youthful wayfarer is John (Terry) Dougherty, 16, nephew of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Dougherty, East Lake St., who disappeared after his uncle’s truck he was driving became involved in an accident after he tried to avoid hitting a dog in Auburn on the night of Tuesday, Aug. 12.
According to Mr. Dougherty, the lad’s uncle, Terry suffered a concussion at the time of the accident and knew nothing more until he came to sometime later to learn, to his surprise, he told his relatives, he was in Dallas, Texas.
Without funds, the boy set out for a cottom field and picked cotton for two days, being remunerated with the munificient sum of $4 for the two days’ work.
With four simoleons now in picket and remembrance of an aunt in Washington, DC, in his mind, Terry took off for the Capital and Miss Irene Dougherty, U.S. Government employe and the aunt of his quest.
Once arrived at Miss Dougherty’s home, that lady promptly put in a telephone call here to assuage the boy’s worried folks that Terry was safe in her home in the nation’s capital.
A few hours later and Terry was aboard a plane and back in Skaneateles where it is now related he is back on the job working for his uncle with no special hankerings for cotton pickin’ or other chores necessitating far removal from his native heath. |
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John Terrence Dougherty (1935-2001), better known as Terry, lived an interesting life, much of it in foreign countries. He died in Hua Hin, Thailand.
There are Doughertys who prefer to spell their last name Doherty. One of them had an even weirder odyssey than did Terry. What happened to James Doherty in 1886 sort of set the stage for what was experienced four years later by William McLaughlin. How – or even if – this James Doherty belongs in the Major-McLaughlin family tree is unknown. He did, however, live in Skaneateles, which suggests a connection, perhaps back in Ireland a few generations earlier. |
| Syracuse Journal / January 18, 1887 |
Escaped from His Captors
James Doherty, who until a short time ago resided in Skaneateles, was found in a demented condition in a barn at Palmyra Saturday night. He said that he left his home about a year ago and went to El Paso, Texas. He was pursued by some stranger, he says, who tried to lasso him. He thereupon bought a ticket for Auburn, but on reaching Rochester saw the same man with a lasso and since that time has been spending his nights in the woods. Arrangements have been made for taking Doherty to the Lyons asylum, but while going to Lyons he eluded his captors and escaped to the woods. He is thought to be in Syracuse. He has a wife living in Skaneateles. |
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| Skaneateles Press / January 22, 1887 |
James Doherty, early last fall living on the west side of the lake, near Mandana, in this town, set out for El Paso, Texas, where his brother-in-law lived. It was his intention to locate there if he liked the country. He was acompanied to his destination by his daughter, aged about 14 years.
On his arrival at El Paso he obtained work in a railroad depot and attended his duties for two months with satisfaction to his employers.
He somehow became seized with the idea that some person had followed him to Texas from Skaneateles, with the intention of robbing him, and one day while setting a switch he said he saw this man coming to catch him with a lasso.
Alarmed by these fears, he bought a railway ticket and started home about three weeks ago. As he proceeded on his journey, it appears he still retained the idea that the man with a lasso was following in his wake.
Arriving at Rochester, he still imagined he saw his pursuer and jumped from the train. Making his way to Palmyra, Doherty spent Friday night of last week in a swamp near that place where he built a large fire and later was found by the Palmyra chief of police in a barn nearby.
He was taken to Palmyra Saturday, and word sent to his relatives in this place, and also to a sister residing in Syracuse, from whence he was brought to this village by the 4:30 p.m. train, and taken to his house. It is expected that he will recover from the strange hallucination that has possessed him for several weeks.
He is about 40 years of age and has a wife and six children. The daughter he took with him is still with her aunt at El Paso, in Texas. |
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Fourteen months earlier Doherty's two-year-old son, Henry, died as the result of a horrible household accident when the toddler fell into a kettle of boiling potatoes. The Skaneateles Free Press (November 7, 1885) reported the boy "was scalded in a terrible manner. The little one lingered in great agony until 5 o’clock Thursday morning, when death put an end to his sufferings." |
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