Now that I know what you did I know what happened. You didn't do anything wrong - you followed the recipe for a classic straight dough (aka: dump) method using AD yeast (the recipe is probably an old one - 25+ years) - but your recipe lacked one major ingredient, PATIENCE.
Something I learned from an artisan bread site a year or so ago, which I can't find now and a fact I had forgotten, is that AD yeast is encapsulated - there is basically a shell around the yeast which helps its stability sitting on the shelf. Think of an M&M - milk chocolate inside a hard candy shell. When you proof or dissolve the yeast in warm liquid first, it melts that outer shell. So, following your recipe, during that first hour when it appeared nothing was happening ... the shell of the yeast was abrosbing the moisture from the dough and dissolving ... in the next 30-minutes was when the yeast was finally getting activated. Using AD yeast and following this recipe, and depending on the temperature inside your oven, it could take 2-3 hours for the dough to double in size.
To speed things up next time, if your going to use AD yeast - add 1 teaspoon sugar to the warm milk and stir in the yeast and give it about 5 minutes before you proceed.
But, and I feel confident most folks on here will agree with me on these suggestions - scrap the AD yeast and use an "instant" yeast such as Fleischmann's RapidRise or Bread Machine yeast. These yeasts are not encapsulated and will work great in your recipe without doing anything different (just make sure your milk and shortning are between 120-130 F). If you do a lot of baking and want to buy your yeast in bulk (1lb box is equal to 64 1/4 oz packets, or 21 3-pak strips) - look for SAF "red label" instant yeast. If you can't find SAF locally (and it is worth trying - if you can't find a store that carries it it's worth calling bakers in your area and see if they use it, and if so, ask if they will sell you a box). If that fails - there are sources on the internet .... just go to google and do a search on SAF yeast.