Carey, Charles Henry.  "History of Oregon." Vol. 2. Chicago-Portland: Pioneer
Historical Pub. Co., 1922.  p. 124.
 
COLONEL HENRY ERNST DOSCH

     Not seeking honor but simply endeavoring to do his duty, honors have yet
been multiplied to Colonel Henry Ernst Dosch and prosperity has followed all his
undertakings.  There is perhaps no man in Portland who has done so much to make
known the advantages and resources of Oregon as Mr. Dosch, who has been the
representative of his state in various national and international expositions.
     A native of Germany he was born at Kastel-Mainz, on the Rhine, June 17,
1841, a son of John Baptist and Anna (Busch) Dosch.  The name Dosch is Arabic,
which would indicate the origin of the family.  The ancestry of the family can
be traced back to the early settlement of southern Germany and through
generation after generation the family was prominently represented in military
circles by those who held high rank as officers in the German army.  Colonel
John B. Dosch and his father, Colonel Ernst Dosch, were officers in the army and
the former had two brothers who also held high rank in the service of their
country.  At the close of an honorable record in the army he entered the
diplomatic service and with a creditable record therein retired to his large
estate adjoining Kastel-Mainz.  He had married Anna, a daughter of Ulrich Busch,
who was extensively engaged in the lumber business at Kastel-Mainz.  Her brother
Adolphus Busch, has since become one of the most prominent residents of St.
Louis, Missouri.  In the family were seven children.
     Colonel Henry E. Dosch, the only surviving son, pursued his education in
Mainz, Germany, in the Gewerbe schule fuer Handel und Industrie, from which he
was graduated in April, 1857.  This school bears the same relation to the
present manual training school that the high school bears to the grammar school.
Subsequently he was apprenticed to a large importing house in Mainz, his term of
indenture continuing to January, 1860, and on the 17th of that month he sailed
for the United States.  Making his way to St. Louis he secured a position as
bookkeeper and was so employed until after the outbreak of the Civil war.  In
May, 1861, he volunteered in General John C. Fremont's body-guard (cavalry),
thus serving until November 25, 1861, when the entire guard was mustered out of
service after the famous fight October 25, 1861, at Springfield, Missouri,
General Fremont being removed from command.  At Springfield these valiant
guardsmen met and routed three thousand Confederates in a desperate conflict
which lasted from three in the afternoon until dark and during the engagement
Mr. Dosch was wounded in the right leg.  He reenlisted in Company C, of the
Fifth Missouri Cavalry and rose to the rank of sergeant major and acting
adjutant.  After the battle of Pea Ridge the Fifth was merged with the Fourth
Missouri Cavalry and Colonel Dosch as acting Colonel was mustered out in April,
1863.
     In May of that year he first became acquainted with the west, crossing the
plains with an ox team and walking from Omaha to Sacramento, California.  He
stopped for a brief period at Virginia City, where he rode the Wells Fargo
Express pony on the Overland from that place to Lake Bigler, now Tahoe, known as
Friday's station.  Afterward he walked across the Sierra Nevadas and reaches San
Francisco, where he secured a position as bookkeeper and came to Oregon,
arriving in Portland on the 9th of April, 1864, and then went to The Dalles,
where he assumed his position as bookkeeper and cashier for a firm dealing in
miners' supplies.  The next year he engaged in merchandising at Canyon City,
Oregon, and continued until the loss of his stock and store by fire led him to
come to this city in 1871.  For a long period he was connected with commercial
interests in Portland as a wholesale boot and shoe merchant, having his
establishment of Front street.  Failing health caused him at length to retire
from business in 1890.  Indolence and idleness, however, are utterly foreign to
his nature and he turned his attention to horticulture, which has always
possessed the keenest fascination for him.  In 1889 Oregon's governor appointed
him a member of the board of horticultural commissioners and succeeding
governors reappointed him to the office until his service covered eleven years.
In the biennial reports which have been issued under his direction those
published in 1899 and 1901 have been adopted as textbooks at Cornell University,
the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, Stuttgart University in
Germany and various colleges in England.  Since his retirement from active
business thirty-one years ago colonel Dosch has given most of his time to the
interest of Oregon, particularly along horticultural lines.  He introduced the
French walnut, so prolific now, after experimenting for years as to the best
variety adapted to the climatic and soil conditions here.  He has certainly made
liberal contribution to the progress and upbuilding of Oregon in his efforts to
bring before the world a knowledge of its resources, especially in the
attractive exhibits of the products of the state as shown in the different
expositions of this and other countries.  He was executive commissioner from
Oregon at the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893; at the
Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha in 1898; at the Pan-American Exposition in
Buffalo in 1901; at the West-India Exposition in Charleston in 1901-2; and at
the International Exposition at Osaka, Japan, in 1903.  He was also commissioner
general of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904; was director
of exhibits and privileges at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in
Portland in 1905; and occupied the same position at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific
Exposition at Seattle in 1909.  He was decorated by the emperor of Japan for
valuable services rendered them, first receiving the emblem of the Sacred
Treasure, while recently the insignia of the Rising Sun, the highest honor that
could be conferred, was given him.  Colonel Dosch has been a frequent
contributor to horticultural journals and his writings have commanded wide and
interested attention.  His labors in this direction have been of material
benefit to the state in the improvement of methods, in the introduction of new
species and in disseminating an accurate knowledge of Oregon soil, the
possibilities of the state as an horticultural center and the special fruits
suited to various localities.
     On the 10th of July, 1866, in Canyon City, Oregon, colonel Dosch was
married to Miss Marie Louise Fleurot, a daughter of Pierre and Judith (Pigeon)
Fleurot.  Mrs. Dosch was born in France and came to Oregon with her parents in
1857, making the trip by way of the isthmus and up the Pacific to Portland.  The
children born of this marriage are:  Ernst, who married Winifred Wurzbacher;
Arno, who married Elsie Sperry; Roswell; Lilly Anna; Camellia; and Marguerite,
who married Mr. David Campbell.
     In his political views Colonel Dosch has always been a Democrat.  In 1866
he became a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, filled various
offices in the local lodge and was grand master of Oregon in 1888.  He likewise
belongs to Lincoln-Garfield Post, No. 3, G. A. R., and was its commander in
1893.  A contemporary of Colonel Dosch has said:  "During the long period of his
residence in the west he has kept in touch with the progress in the world of
thought and action and while especially devoted to the great northwest, yet has
no narrow spirit of prejudice but is loyal to the welfare of our country and
interested in world-wide progress.  Frequent trips to the east, as well as
several voyages across the ocean to the old home land, have brought to him an
intimate knowledge of the development of our nation and the influence of modern
thought in the old world; but while loyal to the land of his birth, he believes
the history of the future ages is to be written by the United States and
especially by that portion thereof lying along the Pacific coast."
     Though eighty years of age he is still in the harness with the State Board
of Horticulture, preferring to wear out rather than to rust out.
 
 
 
Transcriber's additional notes:
 
This same biography was written at an earlier date and published in:
 
"Portland, Oregon; Its History and Builders"
Author:  Joseph Gaston
S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.; Chicago - Portland; 1911
 
OREGON DEATH INDEX:
Henry E. Dosch, died February 7, 1925; Portland, Or.; Certificate # 345
Marie Louise Dosch, died September 29, 1923; Multnomah Co., Or.; Certificate #
227
 
 
 
*******************

Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in February 2006 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.