The Headlight, Goldsboro, NC Nov. 27, 1889

A Good Man Gone

Hon. William T. Dortch is no more. Last Thursday night at 9 o'clock he passed peacefully away at his residence in this city after a long and suffering illness. His funeral took place Saturday afternoon from St. Stephens's Episcopal church, Rev. J. M. Hillyar officiating. The pall-bearers were Messrs. L. W. Humphrey, W. T. Faircloth, W. G. Lewis, George W. Collier, A. J. Galloway, J. A. Washington, Thomas W. Slocumb, E. B. Borden, B. M. Privett, W. P. Lane, J. H. Hill and S. K. Royall. The interment was made in the family plot at Willow Dale cemetery.

Mr. Dortch was born in Nash county, August 13, 1824. He came to this city in 1849, after having been six years at the bar. He was very soon elected county attorney for Wayne, and in 1852 was sent to the Legislature where he continued to serve until the beginning of the war, with an intermission of the session of 1856-'57. In 1859 Governor Ellis offered Mr. Dortch the position of Superior Court Judge, which he declined, and he was, in 1860, returned to the Legislature, when he was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons. In 1861 he was elected to the Senate of the Confederate States, a position of equal dignity with that of United States Senator, the duties of which he discharged with distinction to himself and with satisfaction to his constituents.

Mr. Dortch has served in the State Senate since the war, having been elected from the district of Duplin and Wayne in 1878, and re-elected in 1880 and in 1882, and served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1881 he was selected with Hon. John Manning and Hon. John S. Henderson, to prepare the present Code of Laws of North Carolina, to which important work he faithfully devoted his time and labors.

He leaves a wife and a large family to mourn his demise. In common with many other we lament in his departure the loss of an honest, upright man and a stalwart Democrat. He was a faithful spouse, a loving father, a true citizen and a good neighbor, and in him the community loses a man whom it could not well spare. Our warmest sympathy is extended to the bereaved family.