California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


CAPTAIN NORRIS H. DORSEY. The present postmaster of Delano has come into his rank through 
meritorious service on the battlefields of the Civil war, and is honored for his patriotism, his 
even, temperate life, and his example as a painstaking, conscientious and high-minded 
pioneer. Mr. Dorsey was born in Schuyler county, Ill., July 25, 1835, and on the paternal side is 
of Irish ancestry, his immigrating forefather having settled in Maryland at a very early day. His 
grandfather, Azel Dorsey, removed from Maryland to Kentucky, and from the latter state to 
Schuyler county, III. in 1828, and died there at the age of seventy-eight years. He was a 
noncommissioned officer in the war of 1812. His son, G. G, the father of Captain Dorsey, was 
born in Kentucky, but reared on the Schuyler county farm, and from Illinois enlisted for service 
in the Black Hawk war in the same regiment with Abraham Lincoln. He married Elizabeth, 
daughter of Calvin and Sarah Hobart, who was born in Vermont and settled in Schuyler county 
with her parents in 1825. The conditions at that time were extremely crude, and her mother 
was the first white woman at the old military reserve. Her parents came from old New England 
families, and the father served in the war of 1812, while his father was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary war. Mrs. Dorsey lived to be forty years old, and left six children, of win mi 
Captain Dorsey was the oldest. 

At the age of twenty Captain Dorsey left the Schuyler county farm and removed to Red Wing, 
Minn., where he attended the Hamlin University, supplementary to his common school and 
academic education received in Illinois. Eventually he engaged in educational work in Red Wing 
until the breaking out of the Civil war. He enlisted December 19, 1861. in Company A, Fifth 
Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, as a private, going south with his regiment in the spring of 1862. 
He participated in many of the famous battles of the Civil war, including Corinth, siege of 
Vicksburg, Jackson. Nashville, Spanish Fort, Blakely and the Red River campaign. For meritorious 
service he was elevated to the rank of sergeant in the spring of 1862; to that of second 
lieutenant in November, 1862; to first lieutenant in the spring of 1863, and to captain in 
December, 1864. 

Returning to Minnesota after the close of the war, Captain Dorsey engaged in farming about 
four years, and then purchased a mill at Winnebago City, which he operated until coming to 
California in 1886. Securing a government homestead adjoining the town of Delano, he has 
since made his home upon it, devoting it to general farm produce. April 1, 1901, he was 
appointed postmaster, a position maintained by him with distinct credit. He has otherwise 
served the interests of the Republican party, having served for many years as justice of the 
peace in Minnesota, and held minor offices in Kern county, this state. He is a member of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and is fraternally connected with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. Mr. Dorsey has been a hard working, painstaking man, and deserves all praise for the 
wise disposition he has made of the opportunities within his reach. He is quiet and unassuming, 
kindly in manner and judgment, and deeply interested in the welfare of the town of his 
adoption.