One of the pleasant aspects about historical research is tripping across something interesting while researching another topic altogether. Countless numbers of times I have made new files on other subjects, and then returned to my original topic. 

So it was with John S. Dorset, a Bonham doctor who in 1897 offered to buy and run the Denison, Bonham and New Orleans (D. B. & N. O.) railroad. I tripped across Dorset while researching information on Jay Gould’s involvement with the D. B. & N. O. Naturally, I had to learn more about someone so confident as to offer to buy and run a railroad. 

What I found was indeed interesting. An individual with strong ties to the state of Virginia, who served his home state well in the Civil War, and one day found himself practicing medicine in Bonham.

According to various biographies, John Spears Dorset was born on August 25, 1833 in Powhatan County, Virginia. He was educated in the “private schools of Powhatan and Chesterfield, then taught by the best classical scholars . . . in the science of medicine at the schools of Philadelphia and New York.”

When Virginia decided in April 1861 to follow other southern states in seceding from the Union, Dorset, described as being 5’ 8” tall with dark eyes, black hair and dark complexion, volunteered to defend his home state. Listed as a second lieutenant with Company D of the 20th Virginia Volunteers (a.k.a. the Powhatan Rifles), he soon found himself in action against Union soldiers led by Gen. George McClellan. Dorset’s Civil War service record shows that he was among “a list of officers captured at Rich Mountain, Va., by Gen. McClellan . . .” on July 12, 1861. By mid August Dorset, along with several of his fellow soldiers, was paroled.

In an article looking back on Dorset’s life, the December 8, 1913 Bonham Daily Favorite reported that he also served in the Battle of the Seven Days (late June to early July 1862): 

He served with distinction in the gallant command under J. E. B. Stuart . . . and acted as scout and pilot by Stuart’s troops when they went completely around [McClellan’s] entire army in the seven days fight at Richmond; he being an expert horseman thoroughly acquainted with the topographical conditions around the capital of the Confederacy.

 

“Had he accomplished nothing else in that memorable struggle than this one act,” the article continued, “he would have written his name on fame’s scroll . . . .” 

 

(In the interest of accuracy, it should be noted that Dorset’s service record makes no mention of him serving in the Battle of the Seven Days. However, since the 20th Virginia was in that area at the time, it is possible that he did.)

 

Additional sources note that Dorset also served as an assistant surgeon during the war at a Richmond hospital, and was eventually sent on a mission to England by the Confederate Secretary of State, Judah P. Benjamin.

 

Given Dorset’s strong ties to Virginia, you think he would have stayed there once the war ended. Perhaps the atmosphere of the war-ravaged state was too much for him to bear. Whatever the reason, by 1870 Dr. Dorset and his wife, Martha, moved to north Texas, and he hung out his shingle in Bonham.

 

Perhaps during his time in Bonham Dr. Dorset became quite involved in Texas politics. In 1887 he managed to get appointed by the newly elected governor of Texas, Sul Ross, to head the state’s Lunatic Asylum in Austin. A biography on Dorset in the directory of Texas State Government officials (compiled and published by L. E. Daniell; Smith, Hicks and Jones, State Printers, 1889) states that “he was re-elected by the board [of the asylum] in 1889.”

 

 

Life in the state capital had to be quite interesting, if for no other reason than getting to watch the completion of the beautiful and imposing capitol building. Nonetheless, once Dr. Dorset’s time as a state official was up, he and his family, which included roughly six children at the time, returned to Bonham.

 

In addition to his medical practice, Dorset seemed to have an interest in railroad affairs. One Daily Favorite article noted that after returning from Austin, he “got the contract to get out the bois d’ arc pilings for the Texas & Pacific railroad,” and that “the bridge over Bois d’ Arc creek east of town, which has withstood the floods going down that stream for years, is supplied with some of this timber.”

 

Moreover, as previously mentioned, Dorset made an offer, according to an article in the January 18, 1897 Dallas Morning News, to buy the D. B. & N. O. railroad. Stating that he had plenty of capital to back him, he promised to have the road up and running by Christmas of that year. However, stockholders, still reeling from Jay Gould’s inability to do anything with the road, refused the offer.

 

Dorset’s business dealings aside, he seems to have made his biggest impression as a country doctor. Upon his death on December 7, 1913, the Bonham Daily Favorite carried a front-page obituary the following day which noted:

 

Here he practiced his profession, waiting on the sick far and near, making his trips in a buggy or on horseback all over this country, and doing what he could in the practice of the calling he had chosen for his life work. The writer remembers one instance in particular where he made a trip to a point on Red River, some twenty miles north of town, many years since. The weather had been bitterly cold for some time, and the faithful physician was almost frozen making the drive against the north wind, and it was not much better when he reached Bonham, on his return. He was a mass of icicles and was cold through and through – a mute testimonial to his fidelity to those who were sick.

 

Among those who served as pallbearers at Dorset’s funeral was a virtual who’s who among Bonham leaders at the time: D. W. Sweeney, C. E. Foster, Raleigh Abernathy, S. L. Austin, Cary Murphy and J. W. Peeler.

 

The rebel soldier, state official, businessman and country doctor was laid to rest in the Dorset family plot in Willow Wild Cemetery.

 

 

Special thanks to Suzie Henderson of the Family History center for help in retrieving Dorset’s Civil War service record.

 

Tim Davis teaches at Bonham High School.