1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

Ed. R. Dorsey, breeder and importer of fine horses and manager of the well known Dorsey Livery Barn at Girard, has established and built up a business which is a credit to the entire southeastern Kansas and is doing as much as any one other influence for improvement and raising of the standard of excellence in horses for all their manifold uses to mankind. Horses are the most important adjunct of civilization, and in all countries the horse and the people have progressed together. The absence of horses in America before they were brought by the Spanish was an absolute bar to progress on the part of the aboriginal Indian tribes; for without successful agriculture as a basis no people can flourish, and without the horse as a helper an advanced state of agriculture is impossible,—all which is given in evidence of the great value of horse-kind to man-kind, and proving, incidentally, the importance which such an institution as the Dorsey importing and breeding stables holds in the permanent prosperity and progress of southeastern Kansas.

Mr. Dorsey came to Girard on March 18, 1900, and has since managed the Dorsey stables. He also runs the livery in connection, and has a business which, energized by himself, has a continually broadening success. Among the very fine horses in his stables are the following: Lord Lytton, No. 987, was winner of the first prize at the Columbian Exposition in 1893; for five years was winner of the first prize at the Illinois state fair, and won the two hundred and fifty dollar prize at the American Horse Show. Sportsman, No. 1147, a son of Lord Lytton, was winner of the first prize for two years in succession at the Illinois state fair and the St. Louis fair. His best known horse, with a national fame, was Bonnie McGregor, No. 3778, which has a record of 2:13 1/2 in the stallion record of 1889. He is a son of Robert McGregor, 2:17 1/2, who was the sire of the famous Cresceus, with a record of 2:02 1/2. Bonnie McGregor sold for twenty-five thousand dollars, and his son, Planet, 2:04 1/2, sold for ten thousand dollars. There are some twenty other horses in the list, and the standard of excellence and beauty and breeding is uniformly high. The horses are all of the famous Cleveland Bay stock, and standard breed. The Cleveland Bays are the oldest as well as the most useful and beautiful of breeds.

Mr. Dorsey, who thus fills such an important place in the citizenship and business circles of Girard and Crawford county, was born in Perry, Pike county, Illinois, on May 9, 1859, being a son of B. F. and Matilda (Hobbs) Dorsey, both natives of Illinois. B. F. Dorsey is and has been for some years one of the largest importers of horses in that part of Illinois.

Mr. Dorsey was educated in Perry, and, being reared to his father's business and becoming acquainted with its details at an early age, he was, when only fifteen years old, taken in as a partner in the firm of B. F. Dorsey and Sons. Therefore for some thirty years he has been identified with this industry which has become so successful under the management of the Dorseys.

On December 31, 1877, he was married to Miss Anna Chenoweth, a daughter of Miles B. Chenoweth, of Chambersburg, Illinois. The following children have been born to them: Dottie D., who is the wife of B. H. Swan, editor of the Pike County Republican, at Pittsfield, Illinois; Bennet F., who died at the age of nine months; and Nellie Anna, Asa B. and Miles, who are all at home. The family are members of the Christian church.