ANDERSON, Dorsey Larkin - Putnam

In 1664 Edward Dorsey of Essex, England settled in Maryland on land granted by the king. Col. Edward Dorsey, a son was commissioned as an officer of Colonial troops, was a member of the House of Burgesses, was keeper of the great seal and trustee of the port town of Annapolis, besides holding various other positions of public trust from 1682 to 1704.

Rachel Dorsey, a descendant of Edward Dorsey was married to Charles Van Dyke Anderson, of Flemingsburg, Kentucky. Their son, Eli D. Anderson moved his family from Kentucky to Greencastle in 1862 and engaged in the hardware business under the firm name of Dorsey & Anderson. Success followed this undertaking and Mr. Anderson became a man of considerable influence in public affairs. He was a member of the Greencastle School Board when the high school building on Elm Street was erected (1877), which, aside from the east college building and the court house, was then the most beautiful piece of architecture in the city.

Among Mr. Anderson's carefully cherished papers were found, after his death, letters from James A. Garfield, William H. Seward, Zachary Taylor and several from Benjamin Harrison, all of which testify to the personal regard and high estimation entertained for Mr. Anderson by the writers.

Dorsey Leakin (sic - Larkin?) Anderson, son of Eli D. and Eliza A (Stilwell) Anderson, the youngest of a family of 11 children was born October 20, 1863 at the old Anderson home on Elm Street. He graduated from the high school and attended DePauw University until his sophomore year. When but 18 years of age he left college to take a position with Cole Brothers' lightning rod factory and was in full charge of the factory at the time of his death, which occurred September 9, 1907.

Mr. Anderson was keenly alive at all times to the welfare of the public and there was no one more loyal to the interests of his native city. For nearly 14 years he had been treasurer of the city school board and it was one of his rigid principles that all the money earned by public money should revert to the public and in that time he turned many hundreds of dollars into the treasury thereof. As a member of the board and also through love for his own city he originated and became active in the movement to secure a Carnegie Library and it was principally to his perseverance and energy that the present magnificent home of the library was built and it will be a lasting monument to his memory along with that of its donor. One of his most cherished plans was to see a handsome high school building on the "Nutt" and adjoining property, for the purchase of which he had long worked and had but finally consummated.

He was active in his political, religious and social relations at all times. He was a member of the Christian Church, served several times as treasurer and at the time of his death was chairman of the parsonage building committee. In his lodge affiliations he was a Mason, a Knight Templar, Knight of Pythias, reaching the title of major in its Uniform Rank, and was also a member of the Modern Woodmen order.

October October 1, 1890, Mr. Anderson was married at Oswego, New York to Nellie E, daughter of Capt. W.S. Turner and Mary (Mead) Turner. Mrs. Anderson graduated from the Oswego State Normal School and taught in DePauw University, also in the State Normal School at Winona, Minnesota. The only son of Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, Dorsey Mead, born June 13, 1894, is a student in the Greencastle High School.

The following is included in the minutes of the Board of Education under date of September 10, 1907:

"Dorsey L. Anderson, October 20, 1863 - September 9, 1907. Our treasurer, our co-worker, has passed from labor to reward. In an old record under date of July 1, 1893, is to be found a minute signed, D.L. Anderson, Act. Pres. It is subscribed to the minutes containing a memorial in honor of the Hon. Marshall A. Moore, who signed the preceing minutes of July 19th. Like his precedessor, Mr. Anderson attended the meeting of the board preceding the one that records his memorial. It was the evening of August 23rd, '07. He was a sick man then, but work called him and his habit was to answer. Every school board for 14 years has known Dorsey L. Anderson as a worker. He was each year loaded with the onerous duties of the school city's treasurer. He had introduced a of bookkeeping that is a model for simplicity and comprehensiveness.

D.L. Anderson was thoroughly indoctrinated in the gospel of work. He was a good planner; but a good plan was unsatisfactory to him; his joy was complete when working the plan out. The impractical plan, no matter how seemingly reasonable, must be abandoned. He was very generally right; but if he sometimes saw more clearly the material side than the culture phase of school needs, it was because he was preeminently a business man. It wa shis wish to act for the best, and if he was sometimes mistaken in the worth of an end he sought to attain, it was because of the warmth of his impulses; nor was he ever known to continue such a proposition after having time to deliberate.

Possessing a lightning-like business perception and great promptness in acting, he always carried more than his full share of every burden. If no one else was against the load, he pushed it along alone. He won many victories, but if he had any tendency to self-congratulation over them, it was not discovered; he had not time between battles to display it. He coveted friends and he had them, most among those who knew him best, and if he somestimes trampled the grain in someone's pet field, it was because he saw the object of attack only and was going straight toward it. He was ambitious. Ambition is a most valuable asset. But he was public spirited and liberally divided that asset with his city. Owing his official capacity the city's educational interest has received its full share. This is to be seen in school buildings sanitary in appointment, aesthetic in decoration, modern in equipment; in the public library; in increased playgrounds for children; ground acquired for the needed new high school building; in all thes ehe had borne his full share and as much more as he could get his shoulder under."

The profound sympathy of each member of this board goes out in its fullness to the wife bereaved of a stalwart companion, a tender husband, and to the son, himself dangerously ill and unconscious of his father's fall for he will need the father's guiding hand and will miss the father's solicitous care for him.  --- typed by kbz