The record-union., 1896-01-02
FIFTY YEARS OF Welded BLISS.
An Aged Couple Well Known in This
City.
Some Interesting Incidents In the
Lives of Mr.. and Mrs.
G. Y. Dorsey,

The Wadsworth, New, Dispatch"
of December 25th contains the follow
ing notice of the golden wedding of
Mr.. and Mrs. G. Y. Dorsey of that place,
with a sketch of their journey across
the plains in 1852. Mr.. and Mrs. Dorsey
are we'll known in Sacramento, where
for several years they made their home.
One of their sons, Charles Dorsey, is an
employe on the Record Union" and
another, Len Dorsey, is also a resident
of this city. Says the Dispatch:
Our early days how often back
We turn our life's bewildering track
To where o'er hill and valley plays
Thu sunlight OF our early days.
Such was the sentiment expressed by
Grandma Dorsey when we paid her
visit yesterday, and we thought it very
applicable when she remarked that she
was married to Grandpa Dorsey just
fifty years ago Christmas eve in Ozark,
Arkansas. She is nine and sixty years
of age and Grandpa is four score and
three. She first saw the light Of day in
North Carolina and her husband is a
native Of Kentucky. Eight children
were born to them, of whom five are
living: Mrs. J. A. Frye, Bakersfield;
Len and Charles Dorsey, Sacramento;
Wadsworth. Two of the children were
born in Arkansas and the rest are ma
tive sons and daughters of California
The old folks are the great grand par
| ents of little child living in Ventura
! Simple facts knock romance cold and
while the letters of the earliest pioneers
OF California read like a romance, the
piles of gold they sent back to their
| 70 4
fact. and spurred on by visions of treas
ure, Grandpa Dorsey in 80 "hooked
up" the mules and headed for Ell Do
rado.
The bivouac blaze OF pioneers
Lights memory's magic lamp anew.
Grandma Dorsey sees the old scenes as
a real sight-seer and the seventy one
wagons in the emigrant train that April
morning in 90 and the journey across
| the plains with it's excitements and
perils, is panorama in her mind which
! furnishes beautiful pictures here and
despair and desolation there
Every night the wagons in the train
were placed in circle, the tongue of
one wagon under the bed of the next.
and at the camp fire in the center the
women cooked and sewed and chatted.
They met many rowing bands of Indians
but were never molested. The Indians,
| bucks and squaws. were generally
mounted and made gifts Of jerked buff
/ falo and yenison and exhibited great
curiosity toward the tinware of the
white men and greater desire to pos
sess it, honestly or otherwise 1t was
| their common practice to dash up to the
camp and grunt their greetings to the
terror of the white children. The CHIEF
usually carried piece of paper certify
ing that they We're good Indians"
The train encountered a stampede of
1 buffalo, but beyond the fright and the
loss of some horses no damage was DONE
! For a number of days preceding, the
members OF the party could see with
| their glasses the dust rising in immense
! clouds over the moving mass of buffaloes
and when the side stragglers passed
the train they paid no attention to it,
/ If the camp had been in the center line
| the thousands of heavy animals would
/ have swept it from the face of the earth.
Water was a cause of much anxiety,
II was not always obtainabIe, and when
at hand was frequently bad. Stories of
marauding Indians, fear of prairie fires,
sickness in camp and the danger from