If you read my previous post on Benjamin Lawrence, which led me to Hobbs Chapel and Cemetery, then you are ready to pick back up where I left off last time. If you didn’t, you’re going to want to read that post first. You can find it here: Benjamin Lawrence and the Legacy of Louisville’s Historic Sites.
Now, if you remember, this search of mine began with the photo of the painting above. In my last post, I never made it back around to that painting or that farm. That’s where I’m going to take you now.
But first, a quick genealogical review:
- Benjamin Lawrence was born on May 17, 1741, at Dorsey’s Grove in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, to Levin and Susannah Dorsey Lawrence
- Benjamin married Urith (Urath) Randall Owings in January of 1762
- Benjamin and Urith had at least 5 children together: Samuel Lawrence (1764-1822), Mary “Polly” Lawrence Chambers (1767-1810), Susannah Lawrence Dorsey Williamson (1769-1818), Rebecca Lawrence Winchester (1771-1822), and Leaven Lawrence (1774 – 1846)
- Their daughter, Susannah Lawrence, married Edward Dorsey (1762-1804) in Maryland in 1786. They traveled to Kentucky in 1802
- Edward and Susannah had at least 6 children together. In my last post, we followed their eldest daughter, Mary Ann “Polly” Dorsey (1791-1833), who married Basil Nicholas Hobbs
Back to the Dorseys with Elias Dorsey Sr.
We’ll now follow another one of Edward and Susannah Lawrence Dorsey’s children – Elias Dorsey Sr. (1796-1872). Elias Dorsey was born in Frederick, Maryland, and came to Kentucky with his family when he was just six years old. Then, at the age of 16, when the War of 1812 began, “he entered the service of his country, enlisting in a Kentucky regiment commanded by Col. Richard Booker.” (Elias Dorsey’s Obituary)
“…when the war was ended, he was honorably discharged, returned to his home, met Miss Martha R. Booker, the Colonel’s daughter, loved her, proposed and shortly afterwards made her his wife.”
~ Elias Dorsey’s Obituary
Elias also inherited about 600 acres of his grandfather’s Vale of Eden plantation estate when Benjamin Lawrence passed away in 1814. (Remember, a portion of Benjamin Lawrence’s original property is now a part of the University of Louisville’s Shelby Campus.)
With that land, Elias became a farmer (including hemp) and a horse breeder. He built his grandfather’s property into Eden Stock Farm, making it into the farm we see in the photograph above. He and Martha filled their two-story brick home with 13 children: John Williamson Dorsey, Richard Edward Dorsey, Leavin Lawrence (L.L.) Dorsey, Benjamin Lawrence Dorsey, Basil Hobbs Dorsey, William Montjoy Dorsey, Frances Cordelia Dorsey Hornsby, Ann Carmalita Dorsey Winchester, Elias Lawrence Dorsey Jr., Mary Matilda Dorsey, Orlena O. Dorsey, Plutarch Hines Dorsey, and Martha R. Dorsey Shields.
“There he engaged in the favorite occupation of the Kentucky farmer–the raising of fine horses for market. His farm consisted of 600 acres of land and prior to the Civil War he owned some 30 slaves. These he subsequently freed. For many years he lived the life of a typical planter, “Eden Farm” being the center of general hospitality and social gaiety, many of the most distinguished members of the polite, business and political world being lavishly entertained there.”
~ Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens of Macoupin County, Illinois
Elias Dorsey was very successful with his farm, so he added a large amount of land to his holdings when he “purchased 13,000 acres of land lying in Madison and Macoupin counties, Illinois.” (Biographical Sketches) Unfortunately, in 1836, badluck came his way. It was while on one of those return trips back from Illinois that Martha, Elias’s wife, was thrown from a carriage while crossing a bridge. She died from the injuries sustained during that accident. She was laid to rest in the Lawrence Family Cemetery.
With at least eight young children still at home, it is no surprise that Elias remarried. In 1838, he married the widow Sarah Henrietta Mayo Williamson, sister of Captain Isaac Mayo of the U.S. Navy. Elias and Sarah did not have any children together. She preceded him in death, dying in 1860. He then moved to Illinois in 1866, “making his home with his daughter, Mrs. Edward Winchester, of Bunker Hill, until his death, which occurred March 2, 1872, at the age of seventy-six years.” (Biographical Sketches)
“He was a man of generous nature, was devoted to his large family and assisted each one of his 13 children with the gift of a farm of 1,000 acres.”
Elias Dorsey Sr. was brought back to Kentucky and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. The cemetery had opened in 1848 as a city cemetery. Martha Booker Dorsey, Elias’s first wife, was moved from the Lawrence Family Cemetery to Cave Hill, next to Elias, on November 22, 1879. Her original tablet headstone remains in the Lawrence Family Cemetery.
L.L. Dorsey Jr. (1819-1888)
Elias and Martha’s son, Leaven Lawrence (L.L.) Dorsey Jr. (named for his Uncle L.L. Dorsey Sr.) inherited the then 600-acre farm from his father. He continued to grow the farm into a nationally prominent horse breeding farm.
Uncle L.L. Dorsey Sr.
L.L. Dorsey Sr. was one of Elias’s brothers that also inherited a part of Grandfather Benjamin Lawrence’s land. His land was in the area near today’s Dorsey Lane and Ormsby Station Road. According to Middletown Days and Deeds, “He owned a tract of six hundred acres which he named Kitchen Garden Farm.” It was on this land that he built the “large and elegant residence” shown in the image above.
He married Susanna W. O’Bannon in 1820. (It is for her family that O’Bannon, in far eastern Jefferson County, was named for. I covered this little detail in my first Dorsey post.) L.L. and Susanna had at least four children together.
L.L. and Susanna are buried in Cave Hill Cemetery amongst many Dorsey family members.
Leaven Lawrence Dorsey Jr. was born on February 7, 1819, in Middletown, Kentucky. He went to private schools in Middletown and was taught by the notable Lawrence Young, a well-known educator in Middletown. He married Lydia Susan Phillips, and they had at least five children together: Rosa Johanna Dorsey, Nanny C. Dorsey Brown, Martha Dorsey Cheney, Robert O. Dorsey Sr., and Lydia Dorsey Houston.
In 1854, long before he had inherited the farm from his father, L.L. Dorsey Jr. purchased a horse named Vermont Morgan, of the Morgan horse line, and also purchased a chestnut mare from Andrew Hoke. The mare from Hoke was also from prominent lines. Dorsey bred the mare with Vermont Morgan, and a racing legend emerged. Golddust was born in 1855 on Eden Farm. Dorsey paid Hoke $100 to keep Golddust.
“L. L. Dorsey Jr., son of Elias who was named Levin Lawrence for his uncle, became widely known for founding the Golddust family of Morgans. However, the breeding of Morgan horses was something of a family affair with the Dorseys. Elias bred Morgans at the Eden Stock Farm himself for many years, which he exhibited at fairs across the country and entered in trotting races, and there is evidence that L. L. Dorsey Sr. owned Morgans as well.”
Now, I know nothing of horses or horse breeding, but it sounds like Golddust was a pretty big deal in the horse industry, and that might just have been the reason he inherited the farm from his father. You see, he had already made a national name for himself in the horsebreeding industry by the time his father passed away, and he had made a name for his father’s farm, as well.
If horses and horsebreeding history are your cup of tea, here are two great resources for you to read more: Morgan Horse.com: Trotting Cousins and Morgan Horse.com: Golddust
L.L. Dorsey Jr. died in April 1888, just 16 years after his father passed away. He was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery among the other Dorsey family members.
Nanny C. Dorsey Brown – More Family Connections
Nanny C. Dorsey was the daughter of L.L. Dorsey Jr. She married Thomas Barbour Brown, grandson of James and Urath Owings Lawrence Brown. I wrote about the Browns in Louisville back in 2023. You can read it here.
Now, if you’re thinking the name Urath Owings Lawrence sounds familiar, you’d be right. It really doesn’t help that our earliest families could never come up with an original name to save their lives. I mean, all they did was name their children after their family members. That’s nice and all, but not so nice for those chasing a family trail… and when you put that with the fact that they were marrying their own family members! I mean, good grief! So, here’s what I think I’ve figured out about this line –
Urath Owings Lawrence was the daughter of Samuel and Sarah Hobbs Lawrence. (Oh yes, another Hobbs in this crazy, tangled web of a family.)
Samuel Lawrence was the son of Benjamin and Urith Randall Owings Lawrence. That’s right! Thomas Barbour Brown is the great-great-grandson of Benjamin Lawrence, the Revolutionary War Patriot who started this whole search! I’ve seriously come full circle! But wait, there’s more! Sarah Hobbs Lawrence was the sister of Basil Nicholas Hobbs. Remember him from my first post? He was Benjamin Lawrence’s business partner, who led me to the Edward Dorsey Hobbs of Hobbs Chapel and Cemetery. Crazy right?
Let’s also take a moment to note that Nanny C. Dorsey, whom Thomas Barbour Brown married, was Benjamin and Urith Randall Owings Lawrence’s great-great-great-granddaughter. Yep, that’s right. Nanny and Thomas were both the grandchildren of the man who sent me into this crazy family labyrinth.
This typically would have been the end of my history search. This Dorsey line had come to an end. However, while I was reading about Dorsey and the business transaction he had completed with Andrew Hoke, I tripped upon the National Register of Historic Homes nomination form for Andrew Hoke’s home. You know me. I had another home to locate and another history trail to follow. So, now I take you to Andrew Hoke and his home located in Jeffersontown, KY.
Andrew Hoke (1801-1887)
A business partner of the Dorseys, Andrew Hoke, “was one of the most respected farmers and citizens of the region.” (The Morgan Horse) He was also “one of the founders and directors of the Louisville and Taylorsville Turnpike Company.” (National Register)
Andrew Hoke II was born in Jeffersontown, KY, in 1801 to Jacob and Catherine Reisinger Hoke. Both of Andrew’s parents were from Pennsylvania. Andrew’s grandfather and namesake, Andrew Hoke (1734-1800), was a Revolutionary War Patriot, also from Pennsylvania, who came to Kentucky in 1790 and purchased 400 acres of land from Colonel Frederick Geiger.
The property that Hoke purchased would end up being a part of Jeffersontown, KY, when it was established in 1797. Hoke first built a log home along the dirt road that led from Louisville to Jeffersontown. (That road is known as Taylorsville Road today.) In 1800, Revolutionary War Patriot Andrew Hoke passed away. The property was handed down to two of his sons, Peter and Jacob. Jacob was Andrew Hoke II’s father.
Two hundred acres of the original property eventually ended up in the hands of Andrew II. He called his farm Wheatland. In 1828, he built a two-story brick Federal-style I-house on the property. That home was the one I found on the National Register of Historic Places.
“Initially it appears to be a typical five-bay, center hall I-house, however, it was built in two sections. The oldest portion, dating from 1828, was built as a two- thirds, or side-hall-plan house. The ell section was probably built at the same time or very soon after. Woodwork in these two sections has simple moldings. Windows and two doors opening onto a side porch all have similar jack arches of brick. The right side of the main block was a later addition, date unknown. Woodwork in the parlor of this part is more formal-a modified “eared” Greek Revival design. There are panels beneath the windows and paneled reveals. The date “1828” and initials “A.H.” are carved in the limestone threshold at the front door. A large stone springhouse is still on the property. A stone chimney and fireplace stand behind the house, but the building, possibly the old kitchen, has been razed.”
Hoke II filled his home with eleven children from four different wives. He first married Julia Susan Funk in 1824. (While I did not research it further, I suspect that Julia was of the Jeffersontown Funks that I wrote about a while back.) She died in 1834. Hoke then married Elizabeth Yenowine in 1835. She died in 1840. He then married Caroline Hummel in 1841, who died in 1842. His final wife was Matilda Zilhart, whom he married in 1843. She outlived Andrew by 17 years.
Andrew Hoke II died in 1887 and was buried in the German Reformed Presbyterian Cemetery in the center of Jeffersontown, KY, with his father, grandfather, and the three wives who preceded him in death. The farm was sold out of the family just two years later, in 1889.
My Visit…
You know very well that I went looking for Andrew Hoke’s home, and you know that since I’m writing about it… I found it. As stated, the farm was in Jeffersontown along Taylorsville Road, but with the neighborhood developments since then, it is now situated on Llandovery Dr. off Marioneth Drive between historic Jeffersontown and Stonybrook. The front of the home would have originally faced the railroad and main road, but today, the front of the home is actually facing the backyard. Since the home is on a corner lot, the rear and side of the home face the road. The neighborhood was clearly not designed around this home properly.
The Andrew Hoke Home / All Photos Property of KHT
The home is privately owned, so I took all my photos from the sidewalk. As the National Register nomination form stated, there is a springhouse on the property. I had to zoom in to truly see it. To me, it doesn’t look as old as 1828 when the home was built, but that’s from a distance. It just didn’t make me think it was an “old” springhouse. The chimney still stands from an outbuilding of some sort – maybe a slave cabin or a detached kitchen. I also think that today’s garage could have been another outbuilding of some kind. To me, that structure could have been a detached kitchen as well, except it’s missing a chimney. I certainly would like to know more about this home, but since it’s personally owned, I suppose I’ll never know.
After snapping my photos, I headed down the road for one more FINAL stop, the German Reformed Presbyterian Church Cemetery, where Andrew Hoke was buried.
This is a cemetery I have passed more times than I can count. I grew up in Jeffersontown, visiting the library and driving up and down Watterson Trail, but not once have I ever stopped at this cemetery. I’ve always wanted to, but never taken the time to do it. I was finally stopping, and I was on a mission to find Andrew Hoke. When I stepped out of the car and saw the condition of many of the headstones, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to find him.
The German Reformed Presbyterian Cemetery on Watterson Trail in Jeffersontown, KY / Photos Property of KHT
I wandered through, saddened by the condition of so many headstones, so many that couldn’t be read. In the far corner of the cemetery, an American flag in front of a headstone caught my eye. I headed straight for it and was surprised to see the name Andrew Hoke. The name I was looking for, but when I stood right in front of the headstone, I knew this was the wrong Andrew. This was Andrew Hoke Sr, the grandfather of the Andrew I was looking for. I was still thrilled to have found Jacob Hoke, Revolutionary War Patriot. So, of course, I took photos. Just a few feet away, another flag, another Hoke. Only this time, it was Adam Hoke. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but as a Revolutionary War Patriot, I took a photo. Since then, I have learned that Adam Hoke and Andrew Hoke Sr. were brothers.
Having found these two, I continued to look along the same line. I snapped photos of other Hoke headstones I came upon, not knowing who any of them were. Finally, I came upon a headstone that had been knocked over, lying flat on the ground. I looked down at the headstone and who was looking up at me, but Andrew Hoke. The Andrew Hoke that I had come to find. I told you, history finds me. Of all the burials in this cemetery, how I managed to walk along the right row of headstones and look down at the right spot would be called luck. But I seem to be really lucky when it comes to finding the history I’m looking for. Instead, I truly believe history finds me. Satisfied with finding Andrew, I headed for the car and went home. It had been a very successful day.
Andrew Hoke (left) and other Hoke family members buried within the German Reformed Presbyterian Church Cemetery / All Photos Property of KHT
…and Reflection
I typically don’t write posts for my website that include places that no longer exist or are personally owned, but the history I found from one photo was more than I ever dreamed possible. It felt as if I was called to tell this story. There was more history here than I could put into a Facebook post, and now I’ve written two posts full of this family’s history.
So, back to that painting I started with… it was painted by Joshua Warfield (J.W.) Owings, who was the nephew of Urith Randall Owings Lawrence. J.W. painted Eden Farm as it looked when Elias Dorsey ran the farm. Elias and J.W. would have been cousins of some form. I didn’t dig deep enough to find out if the painting still exists. My guess is that it is either long gone or hanging on the wall of some Dorsey descendant somewhere. There are certainly plenty of them. And what happened to the Eden Farm home in the painting? It is definitely long gone, demolished at some point along the way. Eden Farm left the family after L.L Doresy Jr. died. It was sold off in parts and pieces over the years. The final parcel was sold in 1958 (see the article below), and other than the U of L Shelby Campus, every piece seems to have been developed into subdivisions, parks, and businesses.
This has been a truly wonderful history rabbit hole to have fallen down, and I am pleased to have the story finished. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have.
I’m now ready to chase another name, another family, another place, and when I find it, I’ll bring it right here to you.
Many thanks for this informative article. I grew up on Dorsey Way and Dorsey Lane. I remember (probably aided by photos) that there was a “plantation house” that was demolished in early 1960s. A hole was dug and the house was pushed into it. This site was later developed and is now Glenda Ct off Dorsey Way. The house was surrounded by a large garden of intact mature trees of several acres. We were told that this garden was purposely planted by the Dorseys and included a number of exotic and specimen trees.
The demolition of a historic home makes me so very sad! If they just dug a hole and pushed it in it, I’m sure they saved absolutely nothing from it. 💔