CORRECTING IDENTITIES

NOTE: After spending much time looking through multiple sites with posts about Osborn Dorsey, we've determined most of those sites do not have correct information.

The information about Osborn Dorsey's life we are using in this post we found on a blog, by a person who did extensive research looking for the information we are using in this Correcting Identities Post.
-End Note-
.

Words On Image:
OSBORN DORSEY was born enslaved, who at the age of 16 In 1878 submitted a patent to the USPTO for improvements on the door latching device, and thus introduced America to the door knob.

Prior to doorknobs, most people used latch-string devices which could only be opened from the inside. Wealthier individuals often used keyholes and locks.

There are many posts about him, but they all have a photograph of a Black man who is Not him.

This post is to correct that misinformation. So far there are no verified images of Osborn Dorsey.

These are the Black men whose photographs are attached to the life story about Osborn Dorsey.
1st image: this is James Meredith, civil rights fighter.

2nd image: this is a young Garrett Morgan who was an inventor.

3rd image: this is Fritz Pollard who was a football player and coach.

Left image: On December 10, 1878, patent #210,764 was issued to Osbourn Dorsey of Washington DC, who had “invented certain new and useful improvements in door holding devices”.

The diagrams and written description are clearly recognizable as what we now call a doorknob. Although it has more parts than we use today; it involves a rod that extends horizontally between the doorknob and the doorframe.) Doorknobs have only been around in America for a little over 140 years.
.

From the blog: Fact Kaleidoscope
Where Credit Is Due -Posted August 15, 2020

"I can’t even find a Wikipedia article about him. To find any sort of biographical information, I’ve had to resort to census records, city directories, and slave emancipation documents.

The inventor in question was born a slave, freed at the age of eight months, and didn’t show up on many documents and records after that. But at the age of sixteen, he invented a very common and handy device that you probably use every day: the doorknob.

Osbourn Dorsey was probably born in September 1861. His mother’s name was Christina Dorsey and he had two older siblings, Mary and Levi.

We know this from the Washington DC slave emancipation records from April 1862, where he is listed as “Osbourn Dorsey- son of the above named Christina- Aged about eight months- ordinary size- dark complexion.”

For the record, Mary was six years old and also “ordinary size” while Levi was four and “large in stature”.

The children’s father is not mentioned. Mary Peter, the Dorseys’ former owner, submitted a petition for compensation after they were freed. Evidently, Mary Peter had no slaves other than Christina Dorsey and her three children.

They had previously belonged to a family by the last name of Washington, but after Ann Washington died, Mary Peter acquired the Dorseys in April 1861, prior to Osbourn’s birth.

Mary asked for $1350 in compensation for the freeing of her four slaves.

We next see Osbourn Dorsey in the 1870 census, although it lists him as being eleven years old, which must have been an error. The other members of the household were his parents, (the father’s name is Levi) a “domestic servant” named Barbara, and three siblings: Mary, Levi, and a younger sister named Cecilia.

According to the 1880 census, 18-year-old Osbourn worked for a butcher and lived with his parents, sister, brother, and brother-in-law named Isaac Williams. Cecilia is not listed.

The salient part of this story came shortly before that 1880 census. On December 10, 1878, patent #210,764 was issued to Osbourn Dorsey of Washington DC, who had “invented certain new and useful improvements in door holding devices”.

The diagrams and written description are clearly recognizable as what we now call a doorknob. (Although it has more parts; it involves a rod that extends horizontally between the doorknob and the doorframe.)

The name Osbourn Dorsey does show up in city directories and a couple censuses.

Actually, it shows up a little too often; it would appear that there were at least three Osbourn Dorseys living in Washington DC in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Because of that, it has to be acknowledged that it’s possible that I’ve been looking at the wrong Osbourn Dorsey.
The inventor of the doorknob was definitely not the Osbourn Dorsey who was born in 1878 and was incarcerated as of the 1900 census.

But it could have been the Osbourn Dorsey who was born around 1830, worked as a janitor, had a wife named Rachel who died prior to 1910, and had either two or three children.

It appears that he had two daughters named Cora and Christy, but that his household also included a boy named William Smith who later married Christy. However, neither the 1870 nor 1880 census records specified that William’s last name was not Dorsey or that he was not the son of the head of the household.

As a side note, if you Google the name Osbourn Dorsey, you might find a picture that has been posted in various places with his name, but that is incorrect. It’s actually of James Meredith, a civil rights activist who was more than sixty years younger than Dorsey.

I’m just going with the Osbourn Dorsey born in 1861 because that the estimated birth year that I saw on a couple websites that may not be entirely reliable.

Also, the city directories from 1907 to 1910 list this Osbourn Dorsey as an engineer, so it makes sense to speculate that he’s the one who had patented a significant invention. Unfortunately, I can’t find anything to indicate when Osbourn the Engineer died, or whether he had a wife and children.

Also, I find it interesting that these two Osbourn Dorseys never seem to be listed in the same city directory. Yet they can’t actually be the same person; they both show up in the 1870 and 1880 censuses, and the older Osbourn Dorsey was an adult by the year 1870.

Maybe someday, someone will find an old diary or some letters that will clear up this mystery, or maybe someone will figure it out just by poring through these same records more thoroughly than I have.
(To be honest, I have spent way too much time on this. It’s a little ridiculous.) If you know more than I do, please share your information in the comments. But as things stand now, we know very little about this brilliant inventor who changed the world by revolutionizing the way we open and close doors. "