William E. Doster, after early attendance at the Moravian Parochial School, now Moravian Preparatory School, entered Van Kirk Academy, passing thence to Yale College, whence he was graduated A.B., class of 1857. He began the study of law under the direction of Andrew Reeder, the eminent lawyer of Easton, Pennsylvania, later territorial governor of Kansas. He afterwards entered Harvard Law School, whence he was graduated LL.B. He completed legal study at Heidelberg, Germany, and Paris. France, then returned to Pennsylvania, and in 1861 was reading law in Philadelphia. When p war was declared between the States of the North and South, he enlisted, and on August 15, 1861, was mustered into the service of his country as captain of Company A, Fourth Regiment, Pennsylvania Cavalry. The following October he was promoted to the rank of major, and in February, 1862, he was appointed provost-marshal of the District of Columbia to succeed Gen. Andrew Porter. This post included the command of a brigade of troops, also a flotilla on Chesapeake bay, and was held until early in the spring of 1863, when he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and returned to his regiment, the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry. He served with his regiment under Generals Averill, Stoneman, Pleasanton, Kilpatrick and Gregg, the famed cavalry leaders of the Army of the Potomac. He was engaged at disastrous Chancellorsville in command of the Second Brigade of the Third Division of the Cavalry Corps, and at Gettysburg was on the right under General Gregg. He resigned his command in 1864, and was honorably discharged and mustered out brevet brigadier-general. He was admitted to the bar at Easton, Pennsylvania, but for one year practiced in Washington, District of Columbia, engaged in trials before military commissions and courts-martial. He was engaged for the defense in the trial of the conspirators against the life of President Lincoln, and also defended Payne and Atzerott for their murderous attack on Secretary Seward. After these celebrated cases were disposed of he returned to Pennsylvania, and until 1873 practiced law in Easton. He then went to his native and well loved Bethlehem, which afterwards was the seat of his practice and the scene of his professional and business triumphs.

Learned in the law, skillful in its applications, loyal to a client's interest and an untiring worker, he was a formidable antagonist from his first entrance to the Pennsylvania bar, and as the years progressed he won high reputation as one of the most able lawyers. He gave especial attention to the law of corporations, and in that branch of the law he had no superiors at the Northampton bar. From 1867 to 1S79 he was register in bankruptcy for the Eleventh Congressional District, and for thirty-five years was counsel for the Bethlehem Iron (now Steel) Company, and for the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company. Many other corporations were served during his half century at the Northampton bar, and many are the cases he successfully tried, many are the large estates that he honorably administered, and many are the differences he has succeeded in having settled without recourse to law. He delivered a series of lectures at Lehigh University in 1879 by the request of the faculty. His subject was, "Practice in the County Courts of Pennsylvania." His fame rests upon his long and uniformly successful practice in the courts of Northampton and adjoining counties, although he was for long a practitioner in all State and Federal courts of Pennsylvania, and in the United States Supreme Court. He always practiced alone, and as a trial lawyer he was ranked with the best in Pennsylvania.

General Doster served his profession loyally and faithfully, but nevertheless made several excursions into the business world with tangible result and lasting benefit. In 1867 he joined with David Godshalk and founded the Weekly Chronicle, which was later the Bethlehem Daily Times. In 1869 he joined with his brother, Herman A. Doster, in organizing the New Street Steel Bridge Company, of which he was president up to the time of his death, 1869-1919. In 1907 he was elected president of the Lehigh Valley National Bank, which office he held at the time of his death, and was also a director of the Minsi Trail Bridge Company. Real estate has long been his favorite investment, and Bethlehem with its surrounding farmlands was his favored locality. Ten fine farms were owned by him, and these farms are all named after the members of William Penn's family.

Although a home-loving man, General Doster was a worldwide traveler, having crossed the Atlantic more than thirty times. Paris and the French people always held a strong appeal for him, and he suffered with them in their great trial from which they so triumphantly emerged, after more than four years of national martyrdom. Horseback riding was another of his favored recreations, and only his last severe illness caused him to forego his daily rides. He had a summer home in New Hampshire, which often claimed him, also a New York City dwelling and a farm on Long Island, and he has traveled extensively in his own America.

His career at the bar precluded personal interest in political affairs, and he never sought nor held aught but professional offices. In 1891 he delivered the Sesqui-Centennial oration at Bethlehem, but with that exception has declined the numerous invitations to act as orator of the day on occasions of popular celebrations. He was a Republican in politics, a member of the J. K. Taylor Post No. 182, Grand Army of the Republic, and a member of the Lincoln Republican Association. His clubs were the Bethlehem, the Lehigh Country, and the Alpha Delta Phi. While provost marshal, General Doster saw much of President Lincoln, whom he came to admire and reverence deeply. In 1915 he published his book, "Reminiscences of the Civil War and of President Lincoln," a work alive with interest and teeming with intimate references to the great president whose cruel death caused a nation to mourn. He was a member of the legal societies, local, State and national, and had a well chosen library from which he gained his wide and comprehensive knowledge of the world history, languages and people, supplemented by his extensive travels. His life was wonderful in its length and usefulness, for he claimed no immunity on any account, but met every obligation that his position demanded, and was one of the men of today, not yesterday.