Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-27
MARTYR OF LEPERS
. FORMER PROD|GAL
Death of "Brother Joseph"
Dutten in Honolulu BareS
Life of Sacrifice.

BY the Associated Press.
HONOLULU, March 27.-Ira Brother
Joseph Dutton, who sought to expiate
a worldly life by humble service to the
lepers of Molokai, died in a hospital
here early today.
Dutton would have been 86 years old
April 81. His health had been failing
for the past year. More than nan
his life had been devoted to the VIC
tins of the worlds most loathSome dis
ease when, his eyesight almost gone,
he was brought hsre last July that
cataract might be removed from MS
left eye.
He never left the hospital again, al
though after several months he gained
sufficient strength to sit in wheel
chair, that he might enjoy the beauties
of the Hawaiian days from the spacious
porches Of Queens Hospital and listen
to the weekly concerts Of the Hawaiian
Band in the court yard there. He died
peacefully at ESQ am.
Once, commenting on the approach
of his ninetieth birthday he said with
a twinkle in his eye that the graph OF
his. life represented AS years down and
As years up" But while the secret OF
whatever he regarded as his sins was
conversion at the age of 40 and his
desire to become a religious worker were
regarded with some doubt by the Trap
piSt Brotherhood.
With his entrance into the church,
Dutton put behind him nearly every
thing relating to his past life. HIS
comrades in the Wisconsin Infantry
had known him as a ladies' man fond
of worldly pleasures. Two young lieu
tenants in the Union Army told rue
fully how two girls had failed to keep
dates" with them-they saw the girls
some hours later with Sergt. Dutton.
Friendship With Veterans.
Dutton kept his friendships with
other Civil War Veterans after coming
to Hawaii and the leper settlement,
but those were almost his only contact
with the world which knew the first
four decades of his life.
In the Molokai colony he became
a disciple of the martyr priest, Father
Damien, who died of leproSy three
years later in 1889. Dutton never con-
tracted the disease, although he lived
a years in daily contact with its
victims. Brother Joseph was no morn
full martyr. He found happiness in
serving those leperS.
Until his eyeSight failed, he kept
pace with the worlds affairs through
a dozen carefully selected newspapers
and magazines. His personal corre-
Spondence was one Of his greatest joys.
He remembered with a card and q BIT
of verse the birthday each year Of
every one of his many friends, and the
occasional visitors to the settlement
always made pilgrimages to his little
rough board house, where the little
man with the short gray beard always
stood ready to greet them Smilingly,
his blue eyes twinkling behind his
gold-rimmed specs"
Becomes Renowned Humanitarian.
BY his devotion to the unfortunates
of the little leper village of Kalawao.
on the Pacific Island of Molokai, Ira
Dutton achieved renown as one of the
great humanitartanS OF modern times.
Bearing the ecclesiastical name Of
Brother Joseph, he went to the 1eper
village In 1885, a comparatively young
man, never to return. He served his
country in the Civil War and afterward
aided the Government In collecting and
burying the bodies of his fallen COM
rades. Brother Joseph then settled in
Memphis, Tenn, and engaged in bust
ness. He was successful and led an
active social life until 1888. 1t was then
he suddenly joined the Catholic Church,
forsook the world and entered the Trap
pist Monastery at Gethsemane, KY.
Two years later he went to the Re-
demptortst Fathers in Louisiana, from
whom he first heard Of the sacrifices Of
Father Damien among the leperS of
Molokai. The work appealed to him.
He wrote to Father Damien and q few
months later he was on his way TO the
little Pacific island.
Always content to spend his strange
life on the secluded spot between the
Pacific surf and the walls of volcanic
rock that form perpendicular cliff be-
hind Kalawao. Brother Joseph never
left the island. Three years after his
arrival. upon the death Of Father Da-
mien, he became administrator of the
work in the colony. developing a clean,
wholesome appearing city.
Brother Joseph was born April 81
1343, at Stowe, Vt When he was
years old his pareIAs moved to James
vile, Wis, and he attended Milton
Academy at Milton, that State. In 1851
he enlisted as a private In Company B,
18th Wisconsin Infantry, for service In
the Civil War, and won promotions to
the rank of captain. For years he re-
fused to accept his Civil War pension.
but finally took it and then sent each
remittance to the convent in Kentucky.
The Hawaiian government also repeat
edly offered to pension him, but he
elected to continue his work among the
lepers to the end.
REMEMBERED BY FEW.