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Mr. & Mrs. M.J.G. Dougherty |
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M.J.G. Dougherty, or Colonel Dougherty as he was widely known, played an important role in the history of Mesa, Arizona. He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the Territory of Arizona in November, 1909. He was licensed to practice in all of the territory and later the State Courts as well as the Federal District Courts and Federal Courts of Appellate jurisdiction. Born in Franklin, Kewanee County, Wisconsin on March 19, 1881, and the son of a lumberman, M.J.G. received his education in the public schools of his home town. He attended St. James Academy and Stevens Point State College and graduated from Wisconsin State Teachers College in 1906. He received his law degree from Valparaiso University in Indiana in 1908. In 1909, he married Bessis L. Severn, a college classmate and talented musician who was born in Cuba, New York in 1878.
Dougherty served as Mesa’s city attorney for 24 years before moving to Phoenix in 1938. He was the organizer and first president of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. He served on the Mesa School Board for 12 years and was president of the Mesa High School board for six years.
The Doughertys devoted much of their leisure time to the 1,550 acre farm in Maricopa County and to the 7,000 acres of land in Pinal County where they raised cattle, grain, hay and cotton. They joined with five other farmers to operate the first cotton gin in Arizona.
Though childless, the Doughertys had a keen interest in education and in helping students. Mrs. Dougherty had a lifelong interest in disadvantaged children and supported orphanages in the Middle East and in Appalachia.
The idea for the Foundation grew out of the Doughertys' love for children and education.