OBIT: John Horatio DORSEY, Dr., 1941, native of Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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JOHN HORATIO DORSEY

Garrett County, Maryland
Grantsville's Retired Medico Passed Away

Born in Somerset County in 1852 - Died Last Thursday Evening

  Dr. John Horatio Dorsey, retired physician and well known resident of this 
community, succumbed about 6 o'clock Thursday night, April 10, after an illness 
of several months.  His death was not unexpected as he had been critically ill 
for the past six weeks.
  Dr. Dorsey had reached his eighty-ninth birthday last Wednesday, April 2.  He 
was born at Wells Mills, Southampton Township, Somerset County, Pa., in 1852.  
He was a son of Patrick and Sara McCusky Dorsey and was the oldest of a family 
of fourteen children.  His father came to this country from Tipperary, Ireland, 
and his mother was a native of Mt. Savage.  Some time ago Dr. Dorsey prepared 
his own obituary, giving a detailed account of his life, from which the 
following facts were taken.  Lack of space prevents printing his story in its 
entirety.
  At the age of thirteen he entered St. Francis College at Lorretta, Pa., and at 
eighteen won a scholarship to St. John's College at Annapolis.  Returning to the 
home of his parents at Grantsville a year later, he "read medicine" for two 
years in the office of Dr. B. F. Keller, after which he entered Washington 
University, at Baltimore, and was graduated in March 1877.  A few months later 
he began practicing medicine at Moscow, a mining district in Maryland, and in 
September, 1878, moved to Glencoe, Minn., where he continued his medical 
practice until 1885.
  During his residence at Glencoe, Dr. Dorsey took an active interest in the 
affairs of his community.  In 1881 he was elected superintendent of schools of 
McLeod County, Minn., and assisted in establishing the Teachers Normal 
Training School there, said to be the first of its kind in the state.  A staunch 
Democrat, he also took a keen interest in politics and in 1882 he and one A. G. 
Ansel organized a stock company to publish a newspaper called "The Glencoe 
Democrat".  This was discontinued a few years later however.
  On June 25, 1890, at Glencoe, Dr. Dorsey married Miss Mary Kelly, and in 1892 
they went to Germany where Dr. Dorsey took a special course in the treatment of 
the eye, ear, nose and throat.  Upon completion of the course they made an 
extensive tour of Europe, visiting such points as Saxony, Braugh, Bohemia, 
Austria and Italy.  In Italy they were granted a personal audience with Pope Leo 
XIII.  From Italy they went to France, Switzerland, England and Ireland where 
they visited the birthplace of his father in Tipperary.  Upon their return home 
Dr. Dorsey resumed his practice at Glencoe.  He came East in 1884 for a short 
time when he served nine months as an assistant resident physician in the 
Maryland University Hospital, after which he returned to Minnesota where he 
later became a member of the State Medical Society and a director of its finance 
committee.  In 1901 he was elected to the State Legislature from McLeod County, 
serving for six continuous sessions.
  Dr. Dorsey was also a veteran of the Spanish American War, serving with the 
fourteenth Minnesota Volunteers as a first Lieutenant.  He was also very active 
in the National Guard, serving with his regiment as a major for seventeen years.  
He enlisted for service in the World War but was rejected because of an injury 
received during the Spanish American War.  He was chairman of the draft board 
throughout the World War.
  In 1920 Dr. Dorsey sold his practice in Glencoe and moved to Grantsville where 
he has since resided.  He retired from active practice shortly after returning 
here.  He was a member of St. Stephen's Catholic Church and attended services 
regularly until last December when ill health prevented.  Brief services were 
held from this church at 8 o'clock Saturday morning after which William 
Winterberg, local mortician, took the body to Washington where it was placed in 
a receiving vault pending burial in the National Cemetery at Arlington beside 
the body of his wife who died July 30, 1935.
  Dr. Dorsey is survived by one sister, Sister Mary Luca, a member of the Holy 
Cross Order, South Bend, Ind., two brothers, Daniel W. Dorsey, Grantsville, and 
Dr. Frank P. Dorsey, Hardington, Neb., and a number of nieces and nephews.

Meyersdale Republican, April 17, 1941