He was the heir to the estate of Wisconsin millionaire Hercules Louis Dousman, who had made a career in Prairie du Chien.

Dousman had a new mansion built on the site of his family's house, and then soon moved away, living for years in St. Paul, Minnesota, and St. Louis, Missouri.

[1] After his mother's death in 1882, Dousman began to develop the family property to establish a stock farm and racing for Standardbred horses.

His father had been a fur trader and developed great wealth as an investor and entrepreneur on the frontier, influential in expanding railroad construction across the state, exploiting the lumber industry, and investing in real estate.

In 1872, he moved to the larger city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, leaving his mother to occupy the Prairie du Chien estate.

Owing to his wealth and his father's onetime partnership with Henry Hastings Sibley, who had earlier served as Governor of Minnesota, Dousman rose quickly in St. Paul society.

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.