Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-07-25
MRS. SARAH A DORSEY.
Some Account of the Lady Who Left
All Her Fortune to JEFF Davis.

~ NeM OIledHS telegram OF the 9th
instant announces that Mrs. Sarah A.
Dorsey, of Mississippi, who died in the
first week of July, had bequeathed her
entire estate to Mr.. Jefferson Davis.
A Mississippi correspondent of the
World enables us to lay before our
readers an interesting account Of the
life and character of the lady who has
thus shown her practical devotion to
the "Lost Cause" in way which must
compel the admiration even Of those
who least sympathize with the feelings
and opinions to which it gives express
sion.
Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey, who died in
New Orleans on the 4th inst, was one
of the most notable women Of the
south. The New Orleans papers in
their notice o. her death have scarcely
done full justice to her, and have failed
to note some of the most interesting
points in her history.
Mrs Dorsey was a Miss Ellis, of u
we'll known and wealthy family of
Natchez, Miss, where she was born in
February, 1929. She was a niece of
Mrs. Catherine Anne Warfield (nee
Ware,l the novelist, author of "The
Household of Bouverie," Beausein-
court" and other romances of strange.
wild, weird originality and power. Mrs.
Warteld's first publications were two
volumes of poems (1S43 and 1S44). by
herself and her sister. Mis-. Eleanor
Percy Lee, who appeared before the
public rs 1.-TWO Sisters of the West.'
Mrs. Lee died soon afterwards, and
Mrs. Warfield's subsequent literary
career was confined exclusively to prose
fiction. She died in 1877, leaving her
niece, Mrs. Dorsey, TO act as her liter
ary executor, with, as is supposed, a
large mass of unpublished manuscript
in her hands.
Miss Ellis in her youth enjoyed in
Natchez the advantages of what was re-
puted to be the most cultivated and
polised society then existing in the
southwest. She married when about
25 years of age Mr.. Samuel w. Dorsey,
lawyer and planter of Tensas parish.
Louisiana, which was her home until
the death of her husband in 1875.
when she moved to Beauvoir, "a seashore
residence in the extreme southern part
of Mississippi.
Having no children and her husband
possessing an independent fortune, Mrs.
Dorsey had exceptional facilities for
the enjoyment of literature, society and
travel in all of which she delighted.
She became known to the public as the
author of "Athalie," "Agness Graham
"Lucia Dare, and more recently l1S77l
of Pamela" Of these volumes the
best known, and probably the best, is
"Agnes Graham" believed to be found
ed upon remarkable and romantic Incl
dents in the personal and family his.
tory of the author. She published also,
in 1867, "Recollections of Henry w.
Allen" late governor of Louisiana, and
is the author of several essays on philo-
sophical and scientific subjects especial
Nv on the Oriental systems of religion
and morals, in which she took lively
interest, having, among other accom-
plishments, acquired some knowledge
ofSanscrit literature. She was Greek
and Latin scholar and read and con-
yersed in several modern languages.
Mrs. Dorsey was well known in liter
airy society, both in Europe and
America. She was on terms of person
al friendship with Carlyle, Herbert
Spencer, Dean Stanley, the Rosettis and
others, and had correspondents in
Rome, Dresden and Calcutta, as we'll as
in New York and London. She kept
up to the close of her life the exercise
of an elegant and refined hospitality,
and hers was one of the few southern
homes in which, since the war, any,
thing approximating the style of enter
tainment of the olden time could be
maintained.
She was an earnest ardent, faithful,
unchanging and enthusiastic friend. Her
admiration for certain personals for
Gov. Allen, Thomas Carlyle, and her
aunt, Mrs. Wattield, and few others of
less note, partook of the character of
hero-worship in its highest, best and
most unseltish form. Above all was
her reverent admiration for Jefferson
DAVIS. Her house was habitually the
home of the confederate ex-president
and his family, and it was her chief de-
light in every possible way to show him
respect and honor, combining the office
of hostess with thai of secretary or
dhlatIuCLolSi as SllCuiHSldHC6S might
require.
A few months ago the progress of an
old hereditary malady admonished her
of the necessity for submitting to sur
gical operation which might either give
relief or prove fatal. With the utmost
composure and deliberation she made
full preparation for either alternative,
and when this was done went to New
Orleans and placed herself in the hands
of the surgeons. With characteristic
thoughtessness of self her first aues-
ton on recovering from the effects Of
chloroform. after the operation, was to
inquire whether refreshments had
been provided for the two or three ladT
friends in attendance upon her. She
fingered for some two or three months
in condition which gave her friends
alternate hopefulness and anxiety, but
finally sank rapidly and quietly to
rest.
Mrs. Dorsey had been very earnest
churoh-woman, of type esthetically
rather than doctrinally characterized as
Arif,a listin u Nha,, Tho ~, ;stross ,or :,