"The next station is called Doty,
chosen simply because it is a short word and easy for the
conductors, who desire to save unnecessary wear on the organs"
("Second Gold Railroad in the United States"). Doty
(sometimes referred to as Doty's) was a station stop for passenger
trains of the Rahway Valley Railroad for several years. The RV
commenced the construction of its line between New Orange and Summit
in mid-1904. The first road crossing encountered on this new
extension was Chester Road (sometimes referred to as Union Road or
as the "toll road"). The railroad opted to establish a station stop
here as Chester Road served as the major connecting thoroughfare
between Union and points to the west such as Mountainside and
Plainfield. The stop was named "Doty" after a local farmer. John
McCoy indicates that the little depot was named after a Mr. John
Doty, ". . . a local farmer, one John Doty, persuaded the railroad
to erect a freight and passenger station to serve the area" (McCoy
7). Several Doty families lived in the area, so it is anyone's best
guess as to which Doty the station was actually named after.
The little depot, whose dimensions of
just 8' x 12' measured closer to that of a shed rather than those of
a railroad station, had a posted station agent. One agent posted
here was George I. Mitchell, possibly a relation to Matthias O.
Mitchell who was the Kenilworth Station Agent.
In 1907, railroad management renamed
the station "Union" for the town in which it was located - the
Township of Union. Ironically, that same year witnessed the
incorporation of the Borough of Kenilworth. The borders of the new
borough, which were carved out of portions of Union and Cranford,
extended just far enough to include the station. So the "Union"
station ended up being located in Kenilworth. The newly altered
border of Union, however, was just a few strides from the
depot.
By 1914 the station had been relegated
to a simple flag stop, but documents indicate the station continued
to be in service as late as 1918. A passenger train schedule from
1921 omits Union as a stop for scheduled trains. A 1922 tax
assessment notes the station as still being extant but a 1923 aerial
view does now show any structure here.
Doty's location was somewhere along the tracks
near what are now the eastbound lanes of Route 22
which were formerly the alignment of the old
Chester
Road.
