BIO: Charles Edwin DORWORTH, Centre County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JRB Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/ http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/1picts/commbios/comm-bios.htm _____________________________________________________________________ Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898. _____________________________________________________________________ CHARLES EDWIN DORWORTH, ex-editor of the Bellefonte Daily News, and at present a newspaper correspondent and story-writer, of Bellefonte, was born in Bellefonte, Centre Co., Penn., September 9, 1876. Of German-Welsh extraction, Mr. Dorworth inherits the perseverance of the former with the ingenuity of the latter class of people. He is the third of four children, and from youth has had a talent for writing. Dr. E. S. Dorworth, his father, was born at Emaus, Lehigh Co., Penn., February 19, 1834, and is of German descent. He was graduated in medicine from the Universities of New York and Pennsylvania, and since 1865 has been a practicing physician in Bellefonte. Mrs. Hannah J. Dorworth, wife of Dr. Dorworth and mother of our subject, was a daughter of William Reese Jenkins, and was born in Blaina, South Wales, in 1845. In 1852 she came to this country with her father, who was an extensive iron manufacturer up to the time of his death, in 1886, the Jenkins name being still associated with some of the extensive iron foundries and machine shops in central Pennsylvania. 262 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Charles Edwin Dorworth received his first scholastic training in the Bellefonte public schools. During his senior year at the Bellefonte High School he left that institution to take a three-years' elective course at the Bellefonte Academy to prepare himself especially for journalism. In 1891 he entered the office of the Keystone Gazette, at Bellefonte, and, realizing that he must have a practical, as well as a theoretical, knowledge of newspaper work, began at a case. In this way he soon became thoroughly conversant with all the details of newspaper making. Occasionally he was sent out on assignments in order to give him an opportunity to do reportorial work. It was not long, however, until he did nothing else, and the summer of 1893 found him the regular correspondent of several large Pittsburg and Philadelphia dailies. He continued doing local work for the city papers until the fall of 1894, when the Philadelphia Inquirer detailed him to report the Hastings gubernatorial campaign itinerary. He traveled with the party all over the State, and his stories in the Inquirer made that journal one of the most interesting reflectors of what was, in many respects, the most noted political battle ever fought in Pennsylvania. In September, 1895, he was tendered and accepted the editorship of the Bellefonte Daily News. His conduct of that paper revived it at once from a state of almost total dilapidation to a bright, newsy daily, ranking with any of the inland publications. A year later he resigned this position to pursue his studies in journalism further, and at the present time is again employed by several Eastern dailies, doing news correspondence and story writing. Mr. Dorworth is a pleasing writer, and does not lack that force which makes forethought in the product of his pen. Socially he is bright and popular with all classes, and embodies a rare combination of good nature with good common sense.