in St. Paul society. In 1873 he married Nina Sturgis, and the couple moved to St. Louis, Missouri. They had five children: Violet, Virginia, Nina, Louis, and Judith Dousman. Dousman's father had also had prominent connections in St. Louis. Dousman readily entered its uppermost social circles. He began a career as an art collector, amassing a collection of nearly a hundred paintings, mostly Academic art from France. In 1879, he constructed a gallery adjoining his St. Louis home to showcase his collection and began opening the gallery to the public. His art collection was eventually published in 1881. Dousman received much attention in both St. Louis and other major cities across the nation for his collection. He served as art director for three years for the St. Louis Fair. In the 1880s his interest began to shift. Following the death of his mother in 1882, Dousman sold most of his art collection at auction in New York City. He made plans to return to Prairie du Chien. He wanted to develop the larger part of his property into a stock farm for the breeding of Standardbred horses, specifically, a line descended from Hambletonian 10. Dousman had stables and a racetrack built in Prairie du Chien, and began hosting an annual race in July 1883. He named his estate as the Artesian Stock Farm, because of the artesian wells on the property. Dousman moved all of his family from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien in 1885. Dousman's plans for the Artesian Stock Farm were never fully realized. On January 13, 1886, he died unexpectedly of appendicitis in Prairie du Chien. After Dousman's death, his wife Nina sold the horses and closed the stock farm. She renamed the mansion and its associated property as Villa Louis in honor of her late husband. Today Villa Louis is preserved and operated as a museum by the Wisconsin Historical Society. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark. Notes 1848 births 1886 deaths American art collectors American socialites People from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin