Dorothy Pierce

*"I think I prefer animals to people. I can understand them more." - Dorothy Pierce*

**Dorothy Pierce** is a native of Ashford Falls, New York and the local veterinarian in town. A well-liked and approachable person of the community, her past seems to be a matter on intrigue and curiosity to others.

Born in or around 1940, Dorothy Pierce was a local heiress, and the adopted daughter of town councilman Dr. Raymond Hamilton. According to Dorothy, her biological mother was Raymond's sister, but he took custody of her after finding her mother incapable of raising her. Although Dr. Hamilton and his wife, Nancy, were her adoptive parents, she only ever called them "Uncle" and "Aunt."

Through the 30s and 40s, Dr. Hamilton made a fortune with entreprenuer Lincoln Hedison in real estate. Together, they both founded the Ashford Falls Boosters Club to unite the town's top businessmen, a group that became the foundation of the later Eagles Club. Despite the noble intentions of the group to bolster the town economy, Hamilton's inclinations were less than noble, and he used his power and standing in the town to buy up failing businesses and create his own mercantile, where he offered unforgiving loans on his customers on extended credit. One of customers was Horatio Pierce, who ran the local garbage dump with his brothers, and who used his garbage truck as collateral on his purchases.

Attending school in the 60s, Dorothy attended school at the same time as Lisa Caldwell and Carolyn Strickland, who became close friends. She briefly dated her classmate Ted Shaw up until he left to join the United States Navy. Although briefly dabbling in acting in college, she later changed her interest toward taking care of animals.

Although steadily approached by several potential beaus through her teens, Dorothy took a shine to Horatio because of his unassuming nature and good-willed nature, but Dr. Hamilton kept trying to fix her up with the sons of his investors as part of his financial deals while interfering in her relationship with Horatio. Together, Dorothy and Horatio found numerous ways to elude his will to stay together; however, she also struggled often to boost Horatio's confidence far enough to marry her despite her uncle's will.

At some point in their relationship, there was an incident that revealed Dr. Hamilton's business practices and allowed Dorothy and Horatio to get married. The exact events that conspired have not been revealed, but the players involved Sanford Bates of the Ashford Falls Clerk's Office and Jack Owens, Bill Donahue and Joe Adams of the Boosters Club among others. It has been speculated that Dorothy might have found herself pregnant by Horatio and that Dr. Hamilton and the Boosters collobrated to cover up the disgrace in that it would affect his then political aspiration to run for mayor. He had them secretly married in a ceremony officiated by Pastor Arnold Magruder, his brother-in-law, and set them up to live on an abandoned farm west of Ashford Falls in Haverstraw Canyon, stripped of fortune and luxuries. When Horatio tried to get welfare for them, Bates confronted Dr. Hamilton to take care of them both without having to waste welfare on them. While much of these events are still being speculated about as Dr. Hamilton was going through great efforts to cover up some sort of scandal, Bates was able through his fellow Boosters to set up both Horatio and Dorothy up in a better house in town after. Not only did the ordeal embolden Horatio to marry Dorothy, but he was allowed to become a Booster as well.

Despite these events, much about which was concealed by the public, Dr. Hamilton's run for mayor failed, and his business ruthlessness earned him the ire of the community. Horatio managed to prosper on his patents sold to various companies and helped fund her desire to become a veternarian. Still considered a bit meek and insecure, Horatio later decided to become the high school science teacher at Ashford Falls High School, leaving his garbage collection business to the town's rubbish control. Together, Dorothy and Horatio had three daughters, Christine, Donna and Bobbi Pierce.

After graduating veterinary school, Dorothy became a co-veterinarian with Dr. Roy Hinkley, the town's former veterinarian, and after he retired, she opened the Pierce Veterinary Clinic off the town square. She also became a regular physician at the Ashford Falls Riding Stables, taking care of the horses there. Helen Caldwell from the hospital has assisted her in her medical duties while Tricia Caldwell and Monica Baldwin have covered her front desk.

Around 2003, local reporter Melissa Strickland was writing an article on the forty-year anniversary of a tornado that destroyed part of town in 1963, the year of Dorothy and Horatio's marriage. Bothered by the fact that the weather reports of the time failed to mention a tornado touching down and by the heavily redacted reports of Dr. Hamilton's activities at the time, she chanced upon a hand-written diary named A Timeline of Horror hidden in the library that compared Dorothy's ordeal to that of Nancy Archer from Hitchcock, California and two other women in Hainesville, California and Candy Rock, Utah among others. Although the book vanished from her possessions before she could fully study it, it convinced her that Dorothy and Horatio's marriage was formed not just by Dr. Hamilton's attempted cover-up of some incident, but by some as yet unrevealed paranormal event.