Dora B. Rote, GW #2

Dora was born 25 February 1868 in Missouri to Samuel and Mary Jane (Madison) Rote.  Her sister Rosa also served as a Gospel Worker.  In 1880 the family was in Loudon, Illinois.  A look at the children’s birth places reveals the family moved around a lot during those years.  Sadly, Dora’s mother died in 1884 when Dora was just a teenager.  By 1889 the family had moved to Pennsylvania, Samuel’s birth place, and settled in Reading, Pa.  Dora is listed as a house keeper.  In 1893, Dora is listed as a knitter in the Reading city directory.  During this time, she attended meetings at the Reading church, an easy walk from where she lived.  She was converted to the faith and soon after desired to be in ministry.  At the February 1895 meeting Dora was recommended by the Quarterly Conference for ministry;  she became a probationer and was listed as an evangelist.  She went through the same reading course which men preparing for the pastorate did.  She did not do very well in church history, but her scores for Bible were excellent.  It was about this time that the Gospel Worker Society was officially formed with Lucy Musselman as #1 and Dora Rote as #2.  Dora’s name appears in the accounts of the Graterford congregation at their beginning.  She ministered in the Lehighton area after that and led to the Lord a blacksmith by the name of Richard Woodring who later became a pastor in the MBC.  In 1900 Dora is in ministry in Williamsport, Pa.  In the city directories there for the following years she is listed as “city leader,” “Assist. Genl Supt.” “Superintendant,” indicating her leadership role in the minstry there.  In 1910 she is in Pittsburgh, Pa, listed as “officer in charge of ministry” among her co-workers.  In 1915 and 1920 she appears in the Cleveland city directory as “Superintendant” at the address where other Gospel Workers live.  Her whereabouts in 1930 are as yet undiscovered.  In 1940 she is in Youngstown, Ohio, doing city ministry.  Also learned from the 1940 census is that she was in Cleveland, Ohio in 1935.  At some point she landed back in Cleveland where she lived out the rest of her life.  Dora died on 14 April 1948 and is buried in the Brooklyn Heights Cemetery in Cleveland with other Gospel Workers.