Caperton, Thomas J.

Stephen Wallace Dorsey, the son of Irish immigrants, was born in 1842 in Vermont. In his youth he moved to Oberlin, Ohio where he worked as a house painter and attended Oberlin College. He subsequently enlisted in the First Ohio Light Artillery in 1861 and following the Civil War, he married and went to work for a tool manufacturer. He rose in the ranks of the company and became involved in Republican politics. Dorsey became president of the Arkansas Central Railway, moved to Arkansas, and in 1872 was elected to the U.S. Senate, and set himself up as an international financer in Washington, D.C. In 1876 he acquired land in northeastern New Mexico where he constructed a large, rambling log house to which he later added a stone "castle", today known as the Dorsey Mansion. Dorsey dabbled in lucrative schemes and was frequently embroiled in controversies, scandals and lawsuits. In 1892, he moved to Colorado and then California. He died in Los Angeles, California in 1916. His mansion, tied up in lawsuits, became an unsuccessful sanitorium for tubercular patients, a cattle ranch, the social and business center for the ranching community, and a private residence. It was placed in the New Mexico State Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was declared a New Mexico state monument in 1976. The mansion is now privately owned.

From the description of Stephen W. Dorsey research collection, 1861-1916. (Museum of New Mexico Library). WorldCat record id: 56937495

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