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Brother Joseph Dutton
Stowe (Vermont) enjoys the distinction of being the
birthplace of a man who has become famous throughout the
civilized world— Brother Joseph Dutton. Ira B. Dutton
was born in Stowe, April 27, 1843, a son of Ezra and
Abigail Barnes Dutton. His mother was a sister of Royal
and Samuel Barnes, lifelong residents of Stowe. When he
was three years old his parents moved to Janesville,
Wis. At the age of twenty he enlisted in the 13th
Wisconsin Infantry and served throughout the Civil War.
He then went to Tennessee and when he was forty years
old was baptized as a convert to the Catholic faith and
became affiliated as a missionary with the Trappists-Franciscans.
In 1886 he went to Kalawao, Island of Molokai, Hawaii,
and offered his service to Father Damien in the care of
lepers. He never left the island from that date,
devoting his whole life to care of victims of the
loathsome disease. A few years after Father Damien's
death he secured the construction of a home for orphaned
boys and helpless cases among adult lepers. For years he
seldom left this building. Several years ago the
territorial legislature of Hawaii prepared to pass a
bill to give Brother Dutton a life pension of $50 a
month. He refused to accept it. During his life on the
island Brother Dutton contributed over $10,000 of his
own money to the work of the colony. On March 26, 1931,
he passed away at Honolulu where he had been taken for
the removal of a cataract from his eye, which had
rendered him nearly blind for several years.
Source: "History of Stowe, Vermont : (from 1763 to
1934)" by W.J. Bigelow
Submitted by K. Torp
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