The Dorseys

Lawrence was turned over to two Catholic priests who raised him until he was 16. Although nominally a Catholic he never again set foot in a Catholic Church after he left their guardianship.

They paid his tuition to a Barber School in Minneapolis Minn and he became a qualified Barber. A yellowed newspaper account of his prowess stated that he could shave a man in less than one minute, and it also said that he had shaved Jesse James when he and brother Frank robbed the Northfield Minnesota Bank where Grandpa had his first barber shop.

In 1888 he met Sarah Hicks whom he married. Sarah was 19 at the time and they moved to Spokane Falls Washington where they opened a combination Barbershop and Bathhouse.

Grandma Sarah heated the water for the bathhouse in an outdoor fire pit and as well washed out the towels for both the Bathhouse and Barbershop by hand. A shave was ten cents and a haircut fifteen. A bath was twenty-five cents.

Although the business prospered Grandpa Dorsey spent every cent he could spirit away from Grandma Sarah on his two favourite pastimes, Card-playing and horse-trading and they turned the barn on the bathhouse property into a livery stable.

In 1889 Spokane falls had a great fire and Grandpas rigs became a valuable asset as he charged handsomely to rent his rigs out to persons fleeing the fire with their belongings.

The following is an excerpt about that fire:

The Spokane Fire Department was established in
     1884 after a hot dry summer with several fires,
     one of which destroyed 16 businesses along Main
     Street. The original department had 23 volunteers
     and 2 hose carts. In the summer of 1889 nearly
     the entire downtown area burned to the ground
     including 2 of the 3 fire stations. By the end of
     that year a paid department was established with
     25 members, new horse drawn steam pumpers
     and an annual budget of $33,000. (History of the
     Spokane Fire Department by Stephen B.
     Emerson)

Archie was born followed byLulu in 1894 and my fatherClyde in 1896.

In 1900 some of Grandma Sarah's relatives (The others in the opening photograph) came to take up homesteads in the Grand Coulee region which was opened to homesteading. Grandpa always eager to get out of barbering which he hated talked Grandma Sarah into joining them.

They filed on a homestead near Steamboat Rock and since lumber had to be trucked in by horse and wagon they built a crude sod dugout house. Grandpa said he would have to leave them and earn enough enough to get lumber for a proper house.

Saddled with three young children and with no implements to put in a crop Grandma cooked for a crew of surveyors and took her pay partially in turkey poults which they nurtured through the summer and sold in the fall to get enough money to take them to Yakima for the winter. There was no firewood available other than what sagebrush they gathered to cook with so staying on the homestead for the winter was impossible.

Grandma was able to get her old job cooking in a Yakima hotel which she had when Clyde was born and in the summer they returned to the homestead to "prove up" on it which meant occupancy as well as some visible improvements or ground breaking for tillage. During this time her "Larry" as she called Grandpa, probably contributed very little as he was gone most of the time horse-trading and card-playing.

In 1905 Grandma was able to gain title to the homestead and promptly sold it to move back to Spokane where using two hundred dollars of the sale price she purchased a house at 1509 west fairview.

In 1907 Grandpa returned home and said he and Archie who was 17 would take up freighting homesteaders from Bonner's Ferry Idaho to the Peace river country in Canada as there were no railways running north. Grandpa had accumulated two wagons and teams of horses from his horse trading.

Recalling the easy money he made from his rigs during the Spokane fire he told Grandma this would put them on Easy street.

After a brief stint of this he got the home-steading bug again and decided to move to Canada and homestead there . He took his oldest son Archie who was eligible to file on 160 acres too.

After much coaxing from my Grand-father and his sworn assurances that he would have a proper house built for her in Lacombe Alberta, she packed up the two younger children, my father and my aunt Lulu and moved to Lacombe Alberta. She rented the house at 1509 West Fairview to a soldier and his family from nearby Fort George Wright who paid their rent yearly in advance.