Doane was ordained a deacon on March 6, 1853, by his father at his home parish of St. Mary's. Shortly thereafter, he married the former Sarah Katharine Condit, daughter of Joel W. and Margaret Harrison Condit of Newark, New Jersey, and his two children were born in Burlington, Eliza Greene in 1854, and Margaret Harrison in 1858. After he was ordained a priest in 1856 in the same church, he was called to St. Barnabas Free Church in Burlington. He served there until 1860.