Stephen Wallace Dorsey (February 28, 1842March 20, 1916) was a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

politician who represented

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

from 1873 to 1879, during the

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era. He was born in

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Rutland County Rutland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,572, making it the second-most populous county in Vermont. Its county seat and most populous municipality is the city of Rutland. H ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, and subsequently moved to

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and settled in Oberlin, where he attended public schools. In 1861, he joined the 1st Ohio Light Artillery of the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

as a private during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

.Ristow, Susanne
"Stephen Wallace Dorsey (1842-1916)"
''Encyclopedia of Arkansas website'', last updated July 01, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2021. By the end of the war, he became a colonel. After the war he returned to Ohio and settled in Sandusky where he was employed by the

Sandusky Tool Company Sandusky may refer to: Places in the United States Cities and towns * Sandusky, Indiana * Sandusky, Iowa * Sandusky, Michigan * Sandusky, Ohio * Upper Sandusky, Ohio * Sandusky, West Virginia * Sandusky, Wisconsin Townships * Sandusky Township ...

and subsequently became its president. Named president of the

Arkansas Railway Company Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from ...

, he relocated to Helena, Arkansas. He was a U.S. Senator from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1879 and did not seek reelection, then the domain of the

Arkansas General Assembly The General Assembly of Arkansas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of the upper house Arkansas Senate with 35 members, and the lower Arkansas House of Representatives with 100 ...

. He was a chairman of the Committee on District of Columbia (

Forty-fifth Congress The 45th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1877, ...

). In 1876, he was made a member of the Republican National Committee. In 1880, when the Republicans nominated

James A. Garfield James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...

for

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and

Chester A. Arthur Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James A ...

for

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, Dorsey became the secretary of the

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fu ...

. His reputation was tarnished, though, by the Star route scandal, in which Dorsey and his partners were accused of defrauding the government of $412,000. Dorsey was defended by noted criminal law attorney

Robert G. Ingersoll Robert Green Ingersoll (; August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899), nicknamed "the Great Agnostic", was an American lawyer, writer, and orator during the Golden Age of Free Thought, who campaigned in defense of agnosticism. Personal life Robert Inge ...

. Though he was found not guilty, the cost of his defense and the damage to his reputation all but destroyed Dorsey's political and financial ambitions. In 1878 he built the Dorsey Mansion in New Mexico. After Dorsey, no other Republican served as a Senator from Arkansas until

Tim Hutchinson Young Timothy Hutchinson (born August 11, 1949) is an American Republican politician, lobbyist, and former United States senator from the state of Arkansas. Personal life Hutchinson was born in Bentonville in northwestern Arkansas, the son of ...

in 1997, and no other Republican served in the state's Class 3 Senate seat until

John Boozman John Nichols Boozman ( ; born December 10, 1950) is an American politician and former optometrist serving as the senior United States senator from Arkansas, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. repre ...

in 2011. He engaged in

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raising and

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

and subsequently moved to

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, where he resided until his death in 1916. He is interred at Fairmount Cemetery in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Colorado. Clayton in Union County,

is named, for a son of Senator Dorsey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorsey, Stephen W. 1842 births 1916 deaths People of Vermont in the American Civil War Politicians from Sandusky, Ohio Arkansas Republicans Republican Party United States senators from Arkansas New Mexico Republicans California Republicans Colorado Republicans Businesspeople from Ohio Businesspeople from Arkansas 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American businesspeople Union Army colonels

See also

References