from The History of Hendricks County (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914)--pages 754-756
The career of the well-known gentleman whose name forms the caption for this biographical memoir was a strenuous and varied one, entitling him to honorable mention among the representative citizens of his day and generation in the county with which his life was so closely identified for so many years. Although he passed to the great beyond March 22, 1914, yet his influence still pervades the lives of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances who delighted to honor him. As a private citizen, as a man of business, as a valiant soldier of the Civil War, he was always true to himself and his fellow men, and the tongue of calumny never touched him. Although he had been in this country but two short years when the Civil War opened, he went to the front and fought as bravely for his adopted country as any of her native sons.
Richard T. Dorman, who lived a retired life in Indianapolis for about one year after a long and successful business career in Hendricks County, was born April 10, 1843, in Brighton, England. Both of his parents were natives of England, and his father, Richard, never came to America. After his father's death his mother, Ann (Kent) Dorman, came to this country with her five children, landing in New York in 1860. While Richard, the subject of this sketch, remained in New York for some time, his mother and the other children went on to Kansas, where the mother died several years ago. The five children are as follows: Richard T., the oldest one of the family; James, who is now living in Kansas; Alfred, deceased; John, now a resident of Kansas; and Henry, who lives in Washington.
Richard T. Dorman was seventeen years of age when he first saw the shores of this country and for the first eight months of his life in the New World he worked in the city of New York. In 1861 he came west and finally stopped in Hendricks County, Indiana, where he found employment on the farm of Jack Parker, a farmer living south of Pittsboro. He continued to work for him until September, 1862, when he enlisted in Company H, Ninety-ninth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He served until the close the war and participated in thirteen engagements, among which were the battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and all the battles which General Sherman fought in his famous campaign to the sea. At Dallas, Georgia, he was shot in the head on June 13, 1863, but his heavy cap saved him from fatal injury.
Mr. Dorman came back to Hendricks County after he was mustered out and at once enrolled as a student in the Northwestern Christian University at Indianapolis. After remaining in school for some time he was compelled to take up some occupation for a living and, getting an opportunity to learn the plasterer's trade, he took that up and followed it until 1875, when he started in the mercantile business at Pittsboro, in Hendricks County. He was very successful from the start and for the next thirty years he maintained a general store in that place. He was a worthy representative of that foreign-born element in our population which has played such an important part in the development of our state. During his long business career he not only gained the confidence of his fellow business men, but as a man of force of character, upright and honest in his dealings with his fellow citizens, he gained the esteem of a large circle of friends and acquaintances in Hendricks County.
In 1902 Mr. Dorman sold his store at Pittsboro and removed to his farm in Putnam County, where he lived until 1911, but the call of the cunter and the jingle of the cash register took him back into the business world again. He went to Elwood, Indiana, in 1911 and engaged in the mercantile business for eight months, but Father Time induced him to sell out and retire permanently from active business and he took his advice. He went to Indianapolis, where he lived until a few days before his death, when he moved to Brownsburg.
Mr. Dorman was married in 1873 to Seralda J. Dillon, who was born in Pittsboro. They are the parents of a very interesting family of ten children, all of whom are living but one. The children, in the order of their birth, are as follows: Ivan, of Martinsville, Indiana; Earl, who is an officer in the Fourth United States Cavalry, and now stationed in Hawaii; Erwin, of Montana; Ulrey, who is connected with the government survey service in New Mexico; Hubert, who is a solicitor for the Metropolitan Business College of Chicago; Clifford, who is now studying to be an electrical engineer; and three who are still under the parental roof, Alma, Mina (now Mrs. I.C. Gharst) and Kent. Mr. and Mrs. Dorman had just pride in their children and gave them the best eduction obtainable. They are all making a success in life and reflect honor on their parents.
Mr. Dorman was a life-long Republican, but was never a candidate for any public office, feeling that his business affairs demanded all of his time. However, he always kept in touch with the current issues of the day and discussed them intelligently. He was a consistent adherent of the Christian Church and always contributed to the support of that denomination. Personally, Mr. Dorman was a man of clean character and ever exerted a wholesome and healthful influence in the community, giving his support to every movement which promised to advance the welfare of the localities in which he lived.