Hilliard P. Dorsey
Hilliard P. Dorsey (d. 1858) was an American soldier, public official, and vigilante.
Biography
Dorsey served in the Mexican–American War as an officer of the Mississippi Rifles.[1] J. Patton Anderson recruited and organized Company C, also known as the De Soto Volunteers, of the regiment known as "Anderson's Rifles," but when Anderson was elevated to lieutenant-colonel in February 1848, Dorsey took over as company captain.[2][3] Captain Dorsey of Company C returned from Mexico to his home state of Mississippi on June 21, 1848, on the Iona.[4]
Dorsey moved to California in 1848.[5] He joined a Masonic lodge,[5] and he worked for U.S. General Land Office. Dorsey was also a pioneer of walnut cultivation in Southern California.[6] In California he was involved in vigilante killings and body desecration in the wake of the murder of a local sheriff,[7] and developed a fearsome reputation as a Bowie-knife-wielding brawler, in one case popping a man's eye out.[8]
Dorsey was shot and killed by his father-in-law, William Rubottom, in 1858 after Dorsey assaulted his wife Civility Rubottom Dorsey and appeared to threaten their child.[9] "Uncle Billy" Rubottom ran the Butterfield Stage station at Spadra.[10] As retold in 1920 history of the Spadra area, now known as Pomona, California:
The father would defend his daughter; the husband would have his wife. Both were of Southern blood, fearless and unyielding. Both had fought to the death before. It was Uncle Billy who called out, 'Dorsey, you can not come in.' And Dorsey, still advancing, said, 'I'll have my wife or die in the attempt.' 'Stop,' said Uncle Billy, 'not another step.' But Dorsey, reaching up and plucking a leaf from the hedge, put the stem in his mouth and came steadily on, tossing Uncle Billy one of his brace of dueling pistols as he advanced tossingUncle Billy one of his brace of dueling pistols as he advances. At the same moment Uncle Billy reached for his shotgun and fired the fatal shot.[11]
Apparently, "as both men had reputations for dueling and fighting, the townsfolk accepted that there was no fault in the death and Rubottom did not face consequences for Hilliard's murder."[12]
References
- ^ Robarts (1887), p. 60.
- ^ "Mississippi Battalion". The Weekly Mississippian. 1848-03-03. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ Rowland (1908), pp. 417–418.
- ^ "From Tampico". New Orleans Weekly Delta. 1848-06-26. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ a b "Obituary for Kcwen Hilliard Dorsey". The Los Angeles Times. 1933-07-13. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
- ^ Newmark et al. (1930), p. 163.
- ^ Faragher (2016), p. 353.
- ^ Faragher (2016), p. 284.
- ^ Faragher (2016), pp. 378–380.
- ^ Fryer (1935), p. 16.
- ^ Brackett (1920), pp. 84–85.
- ^ "Dorsey (Kewen) Collection". oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
Sources
- Brackett, F. Parkhurst (1920). History of Pomona Valley, California: with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the valley who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present. Los Angeles: Historic Record Company.
- Faragher, John Mack (2016). Eternity Street: Violence and Justice in Frontier Los Angeles. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393051360. LCCN 2015031997.
- Fryer, Roy M. (March 1935). "The Butterfield Stage Route: And other Historic Routes Eastward from Los Angeles". Quarterly Publication (Historical Society of Southern California). 17 (1): 14–22. doi:10.2307/41167851. ISSN 2162-9331.
- Newmark, Harris; Newmark, Marco Ross; Newmark, Maurice Harris; Worden, James Perry (1930). Sixty Years in Southern California, 1853–1913, Containing the Reminiscences of Harris Newmark (3rd ed.). Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin.
- Robarts, William Hugh (1887). Mexican War Veterans: A Complete Roster of the Regular and Volunteer Troops in the war between the United States and Mexico, from 1846 to 1848; the volunteers are arranged by states, alphabetically. Washington, D.C.: Brentano's – via Library of Congress Digital.
- Rowland, Dunbar (1908). "Battalion of Riflemen, 1847–1848". Part V: Military History of Mississippi (1803–1898). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. Nashville, Tenn.: Press of the Brandon Printing Company. pp. 382–948 – via HathiTrust.