Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1913-01-24
MRS. JULIA c r OORR.

Mrs. Julia Carolina ripley Dorr,
aged 81 years, the well known YER
mont writer, died at her home 1.-THE
Naples" in Rutland Saturday. The
end has been anticipated for weeks. 1t
was brought about by senile debility.
Mrs. Dorr had been i'll three months.
Just before Christmas her life was
despaired of but she rallied to such an
extent that relatives who had been
summoned returned home, expecting
recovery. Mrs. Dorr sank rapidly
after collapse Friday and only her
daughter-in-law, Mrs. Harry r. Dorr,
was with her at the end. The funeral
was held at 2:3O O'Clock Tuesday
afternoon at the Congregational church.
Mrs. Dorr was the last member of
the famous group of New England
writers that included Emerson, Holmes,
Longfellow, and Lowell, and that gave
Boston the title of Modern Athens"
All these were her intimates. At the
Longfellow banquet in New York she
was the only one present who knew
him personally and at the 18th ami
versary banquet at Sherill's for Will
liam Dean Howells she was guest of
i honor.
After more than 60 years of work,
her first poem being published in 1S49.
Mrs. DORIS mind was still active and
within few days of her death, when
she was too weak to hold a pen, one
of her greatest regrets was that she
was unable to finish a sonnet, nearly
completed last October that is con-
sidered one of her best efforts in the
form of verse.
Mrs. Dorr was born February 10,
1925, in Charleston, S. c., the daugh-
ter of Zulma DeLacy Thomas and
William Y. Ripley. Her paternal an
cestry in the Ripley family is well
known. Her mother was the daughter
of Jean Jacques Thomas and Susanna
DeLacy, both natives of France, but
for some time residents of San Do
mingo, where Mr.. Thomas was mer-
chant, planter, and ship-owner. Dur
/ ing the instruction of the slaves under
Toussaint l'Ouverture he fled to Charles
ton with his family, where his daughter
was born soon afterward Mr.. Ripley
was a merchant in Charleston and there
met and married Mrs. DORIS mother.
When Julia Caroline Ripley was
about eighteen months old her mother S
failing health made a change of eli
mate necessary and the family returned
! to her fathers native town, Wey-
! bridge, but the mother died the day
after reaching there. Until she was II
years old Julia Caroline Ripley lived
part of the time in New York and part
in Mi0dlebury. When she was II years
old her father moved to Rutland. lr
1S47 she was married to Seneca NJ. Don
of Columbia county, N. Y, later we'll
known Vermont jurist, who died De
cember 3, 1884.
Judge and Mrs. Dorr made their
home in.Ghent, N. Y, until 1857, when
they moved to Rutland and built "the
Naples, celebrated for its rose gar
dens and its beautiful situation on the
banks'f Otter creek, commanding a
view of Mount Killington. 1t was
here that Mrs. Dorr did most of her
literary work.
Mrs. Dorr is survived by a son, Rus
sell R. Dorr, of St. Paul, Mimi, and a
daughter, Mrs. William H. Steele of
Brooklyn, N. Y, mother of Frederic
Dorr Steele, well-known illustrator.
She also leaves a brother, Gen. E. H.
Riply of New York, whose summer
home is in Mendon, and sister, Mrs.
Charles E. Parker, of Vergennes. There
are 10 grandchildren.