The following is long, but I thought the information might be of interest not only to those researching the Dorris family, but also others whose families moved between Sumner Co., and Nashville during this time period. I found it very interesting and hope others do also. Nancy Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. The Dorris Family-In tracing the origin of the Dorris family, we find that the name "Dorris" is a Greek name. It was first spelled Doris, and we have been able to trace it back to the Greek city of Doris. In this city the first Doric column was built and was built by one of the Doris family. It was first called the Doris column and afterwards changed to the Doric column. We also find that Hellenus gave the name of Hellenes to the Greeks, and that he had three sons. The second son was Dorus. The country that Dorus inherited was named by him "Doris," and from this country came the family name "Dorris." (Hollins' Ancient History.) View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. In the Roman army under Julius Caesar fought a Greek general by name of General Josef Dorris. After the conquest of Great Britain he was awarded by Caesar the county of Downs, Ireland, for meritorious service rendered. This was about the years 54 and 55 B. C. (Caesar's Commentaries.) View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. Josef Dorris, a lineal descendant of General Josef Dorris, and a native of County Downs, Ireland, had nine sons, seven of which emigrated to America in the early part of 1700, locating first near Baltimore, Maryland. After a short period, William, Isaac and John went to Amhurst county, Virginia, and located. While here William married, and a son from this marriage by name of Josef Dorris migrated to Mecklenburg, North Carolina, and became a noted Baptist minister. He married Cynthia Irwin, and from this union there were two sons, John Irwin and Thomas. After her death, he married Mary Williams and by her had ten sons and three daughters, among whom were: George P., Stephen, Isaac, William, Roland, etc. Several of these sons were with General Francis Marion, who led the North Carolina forces in the Revolutionary war, and made efficient soldiers. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. John Irwin married Elizabeth Menees near Springfield, Tennessee, and had one son and two daughters. The son, Dr. William Dawson Dorris, of Nashville, a noted physician in his day, and one of the first to advocate the germ theory when the cholera was so bad in Nashville in 1869, and it is to Mrs. Emily Dorris Cooper, daughter of Dr. William Dawson Dorris and wife of W. T. Cooper of Nashville, that the writer is indebted for the foregoing history of the Dorris family, it having been written and given to her by her father. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. page 833 William Dorris married Katherine Frost, and from this union there were two sons and six daughters: Samuel Frost, Betsy, Rebecca, Kate, William D., Tobitha, Drusilla and Levina. Samuel Frost, Betsy, Rebecca and Kate were born in Baltimore, Maryland, before the family moved and located at Fort Hamilton. After locating at that place William D., Tobitha, Drusilla and Levina were born. Samuel Frost married Susanna Pitt of Cottontown, Tennessee. Betsey Dorris married John Hudson. Rebecca married Samuel Hendricks. Kate married Drew Edwards. William D. married and went to Illinois to live; his wife's name is unknown to the [p.833] writer. Tobitha married John P. Hendricks. Drusilla married James Hendricks. Levina married Pleasant Mays. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. After Samuel Frost Dorris and Susanna Pitt married they moved near Fountain Head, Tennessee, on Stroughters branch, and here made their home for many years. From this union there were eight sons and four daughters: Henry, William Gibbs, Jeremiah, James, Isaac G., Daniel W., Benjamin F., George B., Katherine, Zilpha, Susan and Martha. Katherine Dorris married Richard Shaffer. Zilpha married John Calvin Shivers. Susan married Robert Ruth. Martha married William R. Cornelius. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. Samuel Frost Dorris, father of these children, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, November 20, 1787, and died at Nashville, Tennessee, October 16, 1878. Susanna Pitt, mother of these children, was born in Cottontown, Tennessee, April 23, 1794, and died at Nashville August 24, 1870. Samuel Frost Dorris, while living at Fountain Head, Tennessee, was engaged in transporting goods by teams from Nashville, which was the distributing point for all merchandise for miles around, including nearly the whole of Tennessee and southern Kentucky into the interior. Nashville was then a small hamlet with scant promise of its present size and prosperity. Mr. Shelby owned the land lying on the east side of the river, which is now known as "East Nashville." Mr. Dorris had a fine saddle horse which Mr. Shelby was so anxious to possess that he offered to exchange all of that large tract of land for the animal. In those days there was no sale for the land, and as Mr. Dorris had use for the horse he refused to trade. Mr. Dorris in 1825 removed from Fountain Head, Tennessee, to Nashville, where he spent his closing days, dying at the venerable age of ninety-one years, and was laid to rest in the old City Cemetery beside his wife, Susanna Pitt. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. In tracing the history of the Dorris family from its early beginning the writer was not able to find or learn of any one by the name of Dorris with but one exception who ever possessed any great amount of wealth. They all seem to be content with living quiet and peaceful lives. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. Rev. William Gibbs Dorris, son of Samuel Frost and Susanna Pitt Dorris, and father of Finley M. Dorris, was born near Fountain Head, Tennessee, on Stroughters branch, May 6, 1815. In 1825 the family moved to Nashville by wagons, coming over the Nashville and Gallatin dirt road, there being no pikes in those days. Arriving at the Cumberland river on the east side, they had to cross in flat boats. The family located on North Front street, just below the site of the old Methodist Publishing House. He relates that General LaFayette had just made his visit to Nashville by boat up the Cumberland river. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. page 834 William G. Dorris had now joined the Masons, and a brother Mason and chum of his, Charlie Lane, went into the dry goods business with him, and he was again very successful. They continued this business until the death of his wife, which occurred in 1846. Charlie Lane often told him he had no business behind a counter selling goods and often suggested to him that he would make a good preacher. Neither of these young men were members of the church at that time, but a few years later they both joined the Methodist church and both made good and useful preachers. Charlie Lane joined the Texas conference and W. G. Dorris the Tennessee conference in October, 1849, which at that time comprised the whole of Middle Tennessee and northern Alabama. The conference sent him to his first charge as a junior preacher to the Lime Stone circuit, Alabama. Two years later, in October, 1851, he was sent to his first station at Shelbyville, Tennessee. While here he met Miss Elzira Ruth, daughter of George W. Ruth, a jeweler, whom he married October 27, 1853. From this union were born twelve children, three [p.834] dying in infancy and nine coming to maturity: William Murphy, who married Fanny Oden of Rutherford county, Tennessee; George Benjamin, who died in infancy; Florence Eugenia, who never married; Blanche Gibson, who married Charles W. Bedford of Bourbon county, Kentucky; Charles Westley, who died in infancy; Finley Marborough, who married Mattie Carter of Nashville, Tennessee; Henry Beaumont, who married Nettie Comfort of Warren county, Kentucky; Virgie Abston, who died at the age of twenty-three; Martha Summers, who married Lindsley Bender of Sumner county, Tennessee; Annie Ruth, who married Maudaut Patterson of Robertson county, Tennessee; Birdie Frazier, who died in infancy; Robert Pane, known as Bishop, who married Kate Stroud of Wilson county. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. In October, 1855, William G. Dorris was sent to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and in 1857 to McKendree church. He also served the churches of Columbia, Tennessee, Andrew Charge, which is now known as Elm Street and Hobson's Chapel. About this time he bought out the Eclipse Foundry and made Eclipse stoves, and had his warehouse at 56 Broad street. For a while he had as a partner a man by name of Kitch but he soon bought him out and ran it alone until the Civil war came on and forced him to give it up. In October, 1861, he was sent to Clarksville, Tennessee, remaining there during the Civil war. In 1865 he was sent to Columbia, Tennessee. The country at that time was in a torn up condition and he found it impossible to secure a home for his family, so he decided to buy a farm, which he did in Sumner county, near Saundersville, moving his family on it the latter part of October, 1865. It was on this farm that Finley M. Dorris grew up, the original residence still being used by him as his summer home, and known as "Elmwood," the name given it by his mother. His son, Finley Carter Dorris, also makes his permanent home on the Dorris place, building his residence there a few years ago, after his father purchased it from the other heirs in 1912. From here on William G. Dorris served various charges until 1880, when D. C. Kelly, the station pastor at Gallatin, Tennessee, concluded to make the race for prohibition governor and W. G. Dorris was sent there to fill out his unexpired term. In October, 1880, he was sent as presiding elder to the Lebanon district, and in October, 1882, was sent as presiding elder to the Murfreesboro district for four years, which concluded his work as an active member of the conference, and he was placed on the superannuated list and retired to his farm, where he lived until his death, which occurred April 8, 1900. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. "William G. Dorris was born in Kentucky, May 6, 1815, and died at his home near Nashville, Tennessee, April 8, 1900. In his early manhood he was a model for the artist, being tall and symmetrically proportioned, and withal possessing a strikingly handsome face. To a dignified mien he added an easy, graceful carriage, and a stranger passing him on the street would involuntarily turn for a second look and mentally inquire: 'Who is it' A full, round, sonorous voice, with tender, persuasive tone, and his benignant eye ever impressed those with whom he conversed that he was a man of loving heart and kind spirit. In character he was integrity personified. I would at any time have been willing to subscribe an unqualified endorsement of him in this regard, and that was the general estimate. An incident in his early life illustrates his reputation with those who knew him well. He and another young man had formed a copartnership to enter into the dry goods business at Decatur, Alabama, and young Dorris had gone to Philadelphia at purchase the first stock of goods for the firm. There he met a friend who was retiring from business at Huntsville, Alabama, who introduced him to a wholesale house, saying: 'Sell this man all the goods he wants.' This endorsement was never dishonored, of course, and it is a noteworthy fact that after years of successful business the two young partners became each an itinerant Methodist preacher, one of them finally dying a member of the Texas conference, and the other, at an advanced age, falling asleep in Jesus, a superannuated member of the Tennessee conference. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. page 835 "William G. Dorris never enjoyed the advantages of thorough college training, but he was nevertheless an educated man. His mind was disciplined to think, and that is education. He was a self-made man, as every man is who is made at all or amounts to anything worth the mention. It is application, not genius, which makes the difference between men intellectually. This good man applied himself and learned from all sources. He gathered great store from books and had the gift of absorbing much from persons with whom he associated; and even in his old [p.835] age he conversed and preached out of the fullness of his mind to the delight and edification of his hearers. A wealth of incidents, anecdotes and facts of life made him a charming fireside companion and a peculiarly interesting public speaker. View full context Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 3 HON. FINLEY MARBOROUGH DORRIS. Of the record here made the writer has received much from his own parents; also from Mrs. Margaret Walsh, of Murfreesboro, daughter of James Ruth, now in the seventy-second year of her age. Some information, also some interesting tradition, was obtained from the late Robert Ruth, who was a son of David Ruth, first mentioned. Robert Ruth was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. When a young man he came to Nashville and died here at an advanced age. He was a man of much strength of character, and by extensive reading and study he attained a high literary culture. For some of the facts here stated, as well as a verification of his own knowledge, the writer is indebted to his sister, Mrs. W. G. Dorris, of Avondale, Sumner county, Tennessee.