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Ethnic Diversity in Montana

Solomon Thomas “Tom” Dorsey

By: D. Gardiner, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Montana

Solomon Thomas "Tom" Dorsey was born to Ephraim On March 20, 1898, Dorsey was discharged at Fort
T. Dorsey and Hester (Hettie) Pennington (Dorsey) on Keogh (near present day Miles City, so named for General
September 16, 1867, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nelson A. Miles). After having previously been listed as
"excellent" when re-enlisting, the remarks attached
Tom Dorsey left Philadelphia after he enlisted with to him upon his exit were "indifferent." S.T. Dorsey is
the Army on March 21, 1890, at the age of 22. Dorsey related as marrying Annie E. Oglesby on February 21,
was attached to the 10th Cavalry, or "Buffalo Soldiers," 1898, at Miles City. However, a newspaper account
as they were often later called, and became a veteran of of her petition for divorce states that they married in
the "Indian Wars." While in Kansas City, Missouri, he was November 1898 and divorced just one month later in
appointed corporal with Troop B of the 10th Cavalry. By December, following an altercation. At that time she
March of 1895, he was stationed at Fort Custer, Montana was 24 years old, and he 32.
(near present day Hardin, MT), and in 1898 was at Fort
Keogh (near Miles City). S.T. or Tom Dorsey (he used both; others usually used
Solomon T. or Solomon Thomas Dorsey) ended up in
In Marvin E. Fletcher's article "The Black Soldier- Missoula and spent the remainder of his life there. Tom's
Athlete in the U.S. Army, 1890-1916," the following is older brother, Ephraim T. Dorsey, also lived in Missoula.
related: "The soldiers of the Tenth, while at Fort Keogh Here, both men thrived. S.T. Dorsey worked as a porter
and at Fort Custer, Montana, kept the [parade ground's at the Southern saloon, and janitor at H.O. Bell company
ice skating] rinks in constant use. Skating was not – a car dealership selling Fords. S.T. married a woman,
confined to the post area, however. Two sergeants of Sarah or "Sadie," in 1901. They remained married until
the Tenth, J. Graham and S.T. Dorsey, skated thirty miles 1910 when they divorced. What is significant is that she
down the Little Horn River to the Crow Agency, an Indian is listed on the 1910 census as "white" (her father having
reservation." been from Ireland, her mother Illinois), and in 1909
One of these photos is supposed to be from 1890 Montana passed an anti-miscegenation law. This law
shows Buffalo Soldiers from Fort Keogh and their wives, followed several other western states (only Washington
probably along the Yellowstone River near Miles City. did not adopt one) in banning interracial marriage.
The photograph is attributed to Robert C. Morrison.
Visible just behind the heads of those posing is a covered Anthony William Wood, in his "The Erosion of the
wagon crossing the icy river. Further back is probably Racial Frontier: Settler Colonialism and the History of
a ferry. Ferries such as this were usually frozen in place Black Montana, 1880-1930," says: "It is no coincidence
until March, when the river ice was broken up. On the that Montana was among the most ethnically diverse
other side of the bank are men and horses. Solomon states in the country in 1890 when the frontier ostensibly
Thomas Dorsey would have skated down a river much closed."
like this one, and possibly knew some of the subjects in
the picture. [pictured] Montana, however, never had more than a couple
thousand residents identifying as black until after the
1970s. Wood later states, "By the numbers, roughly
around the time the anti-miscegenation law was passed,
there were three interracial couples living in Anaconda…
In Missoula, five of the seven couples featured white,
foreign-born husbands and black wives."

Further: "Other impacts seem more apparent. In
Missoula, Solomon Dorsey, the younger brother of
Ephraim Dorsey, the most prominent member of that
city's black community, had been married to his wife
Sarah, a white woman, for nine years when the marriage
ban was passed. The next year, after the 1910 census
was taken, they divorced… The cause of Solomon's
and Sarah's divorce is unknown. However, even if
their marriage was already strained, the cloud of legal

Montana Freemason Page 19 Jan/Feb 2022 Volume 98 No.1