The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-08-14

family characteristic, which was i'm
pulsiveness. Once started, there was no
holding her. Her mind was marked by
that want of steady balance which is
needed in safe, sane and prudent per-
son.
"ATrs. Dorsey'se grandfather was Col.
John L. Ellis, who was rich planter
near Natchez, and was colonel of the
regiment that was raised when there was
q difference threatened between the
Spaniards and Americans after the ces-
sion of Louisiana by Napoleon to this
country. He died in 1918, and his wild
ow had two children, one of them being
Thomas l.. Ellis, who was the father of
Mrs. Dorsey, and daughter who mar
ried DR.. La Roche, OF Philadelphia, a
West India refugee. Mrs. Ellis then
married Mai. n. A. Ware, a Natchez
lawyer, and afterward had two daughters,
one of whom became the wife of Elisha
Warfeld, Kentucky planter, and the
other the wife of Harry Lee, who now
lives in Washington County, Miss. Mrs.
Warfeld was an authoress, and l think
she wrote book entitled 'Beauvoir', from
which the plantation was named.
"Now Mrs. Dorsey's father, Thomas l..
Ellis, married Mary NJ. Routh of the
Percy blood. Her brother, John Routh,
was one of the largest planters in the South.
He died in 1889, on Lake st. Joseph,
where he had gone to buy another plan
tation. He left four children-Sarah,
Stephen, Thomas and Inez-who were
all small when, in 1910, I married their
mother. was born in Philadelphia, and
when was boy l was in the navy with
my brother John, and Farragut was our
commander, but my mother and sister
needed support, and left John, after
ward Admiral Dahlgren, at sea, and came
home. l was raised up in the United
States Bank, and was sent to take charge
of the Vicksburg branch Of the bank, and
there I was when married the widow
Ellis. She bore me seven children. Two
only survive-Mortime and Charles.
Two pcrished in the war.
"Mrs. Dorsey was, think, one of the
most remarkable women Of her time.
She was little girl when I tool; charge
of the family, and 1 discovered that she
had wonderful intellect, which 1 deter
mined to develop. / spent fortune do
ing it, but never regretted the result.
She took in every study and every accom-
plishment. I have never listened to such
a sweet musician off the stage. l had
Bochsa, the great harp-player, teach her
on the harp, and 1 purchased the instru-
ment that he played on for her. She ex-
bausted the dancing masters skill, she
learned so rapidly, and when she had en-
compassed about everything in the range
of an ordinary education, I put her
through course of law and bookkeeping,
with as happy results. When she left
my hands she hadn't an equal in the
South. She was not beautiful woman,
but she had pleasant features, fine fig
ure, and those peculiar feminine ways
that 60 so far in making up a woman's
attractions. She was impulsive, and it
took not only strong arm, but steady
one, to hold her. With her tendency 10
act by impulses, added to her energy and
her intellect, when once she was started
in pursuit of an object, it was like trying
to rein in whirlwind to stop her.
II was opposed to her marriage with
Samuel w. Dorsey. He was a fine man,
and his father was Chief Justice, of
Maryland, but he was inactive, and it
was like wedding the living to the dead
to marry such an animated creature to a
man of phlegmatic temperament who
was so many years her senior. When
she asked me my opinion gave her an
honest one, and it offended her, perhaps,
for after her marriage | did not see much
of her, and I did not see her for twenty
FIVE years before her death.
"It is mistake that Jefferson Davis
knew her father and mother, and that
the families were limited by ties of old
association. My wife did not know JEFF
ferson Davis, and while Mrs. Dorsey may
have made his acquaintance in England,
or through correspondence during the war,
my belief is that she did not make his
acquaintance until after the war, and
very likely not until she invited him to
Beauvoir to live. 1t is doubtless her i'm
pulses that led her to offer him her res
idence for his home, and the same i'm
pulses that led her to bestow upon him all
her fortune"
Gen. Dahlgren declined to speak for
publication upon the merits of the pro-
posed contest, owing to his personal hos
tility to Jefferson Davis, which. he said,
would make indelcate any words char
acterizing Mr.. Davis's conduct in max
ing his home at Beauvior and in accept
ing the fortune of his hostess. He said,
however, that Jefferson Davis possessed
infinite tact and cunning; that he was
polished and persuasive in his speech,
but always knew when to stop talking.
"Do you believe there will be con-
test of the will?" Gen. Dahlgren was
asked.
~ have no doubt of it," he said. ~
suppose that will be on the ground of
undue influence. The heirs who would
receive the property and who will enter
into the contest are Mrs. Dorsey's BROTH
er, Stephen p. Ellis, of Brooklyn, her SIS
ter, Mrs. Inez Peckha and her niece,
the daughter of Thomas La Roache El-
lis, who died confederate soldier, leav-
ing wife, Mrs. Appcline Ellis, a niece
of Gen. Meade, now in the Philadelphia
post-ofIice. Then under the laws of
Louisiana, my sons Mortimer and Charles
are heirs, as half brothers, and will join
in the contest"
"Where will the suit be begun?"
'In New Orleans, as the bulk of the
property is in Louisiana, and the will
has been offered for probate there. If
the will is set aside there, the Judgment
will be followed in Mississippi where the
Beauvoir plantation is"
.'Do you anticipate that Jefferson Da-
Wis will hold on to the property p
"If Wade Hampton was the one con.
cerned" said Gen. Dahlgren, che would
destroy the will and divide the property
among the heirs. He is the soul of hon.
or, as was his father before him."
Mortimer Dahlgrcn, who now lives
in St. Louis, Mo-, a half:brother of Mrs.
Dorsey, lived at Beauvoir for two years
while Jefferson Davis was resident
there, and had charge of Mrs. Dorsey's