06/12/2026
Starting to think Facebook® is haunted. Trying to get this stuff up about Sheriff Virgil Dorn has been difficult, BUT, Sue Vizecky is a Wizard!! She had research over much faster than Brent, but Brent found a Times from the Past on Glen Dorn and the drug store for next week. Anyway, here is the Obituary. Thanks Sue Vizecky!! Remember that his wife Johanna filled out the remainder of his term. Very interesting.
Death struck suddenly to take the life of Sheriff Virgil W. Dorn, 53, at his home in Ivanhoe at 5 a.m. Saturday. March 25, 1950.
Victim of a heart attack. Sheriff Dorn had been about his official duties on Friday evening as usual. It was late Friday evening that he was taken ill, but having suffered such attacks previously, he had assumed this too would pass. The Doctor was called, however, at about 3 a.m. Saturday and two hours later Sheriff Dorn had passed away. His sudden and premature passing was received with shock throughout Lincoln County.
Funeral services were held at 1 p.m. Tuesday from the residence in Ivanhoe and at 2 p.m. from the Trinity Lutheran church in Hendricks with Rev. Wilbur Dorn of Renville, MN, a cousin of the deceased, and the Rev. R. E. Bretzman, pastor of Trinity Lutheran, officiating the last rites.
Virgil W. Dorn was born in Shaokatan township, Lincoln county, on July 25, 1897, the son of August and Ruby (Wagner) Dorn. It was as a youth that he moved to springfield, MN in 1910, and it was there that he was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith and it was there he finished his grade school.
From 1913 to 1917 he had worked as a carpenter and mason in the Springfield area. On October 2, 1917, he was united in marriage to Miss Johanna Augusta Bauch in a ceremony in Springfield, MN.
It was in 1917 that the Dorn family returned to Lincoln county and the farm southwest of Hendricks where the following children were born. Donald, 31, of Lake Benton; Glen, 25, of Mitchell, SD and Mrs Perwin (Irene) Knutson, 28, of Minneapolis, MN.
Elected Lincoln county sheriff in 1938, he moved with his family to Ivanhoe in 1939 and had resided here since, serving for three terms as Lincoln county sheriff. Virgil Dorn had served his community also as school clerk in Hendricks township, was vice president of the Hendricks Co-Operative Creamery Association from 1933 to 1939 and was a past elder of the Trinity Lutheran church in Hendricks. At the time of his passing he was also a member of the Tri-State Peace Officers association, the Minnesota State Sheriff's association and the West Central Minnesota Peace Officers association. He was also a member of the Ivanhoe Businessman's club and the Ivanhoe Rod & Gun club.
He is survived by his widow Mrs Johanna Dorn and the three children Donald, Glen and Irene. Also a brother Irvin Dorn of Chicago and a sister, Mrs Donald (Eleanor) Lee of Minneapolis, MN.
He was preceded in death by his mother, who passed away in 1906 and his father who died in 1926.
Interment was in the Hendricks cemetery. Serving as honorary pallbearers were County Atty. E. T. McEvoy, Clerk of Court Chris Simonsen, Register Art Kolstad, Auditor J. M. Domek, Treasure John C. Neale and M. L. Anderson.
Family Members
Parents
•
August Dorn
1871–1926
Spouse
•
Johanna Augusta Bauch Dorn
1898–1986 (m. 1917)
Siblings
•
Irvin A Dorn
1902–1988
•
Eleanor D "Ellie" Dorn Lee
1913–2004
Children
•
Donald G. Dorn
1918–2013
•
Glen E. Dorn
1924–1985
Flowers
