|
Progressive Men of
Iowa
1899
 DODGE,
Augustus C. (United States senator), deceased,
is numbered among the honored pioneers of Iowa,
and during his life was among the most noted
men. He sprang from good old revolutionary
stock, and the patriotism of his ancestors found
an abiding place in his heart. Henry Dodge and
Christina, daughter of James McDonald, were
married in 1800, a few miles west of St. Louis.
Of their children nine grew to maturity,
Augustus C. being the fourth in order of birth.
He was born January 2, 1812, at Ste. Genevieve,
Mo., then in the territory of Louisiana, the
oldest settlement on the west side of the
Mississippi river, about sixty miles below
St. Louis. In that
new and sparsely settled country his boyhood
days were passed. His father was
a man of note, even at that time, and during the
struggle with Great Britain, from 1812 to 1815,
was in command of a battalion of militia whose
duty it was to keep the Indians at bay. For his
services he was appointed brigadier-general of
the militia of Missouri Territory. On the return
of peace he engaged in mining and smelting and
in the manufacture of salt.
The educational facilities
of that region were very scant, and the only
school Augustus attended for a few months was
kept in a log schoolhouse, in which the light
came through greased paper; pencils were made
from bullets beaten into shape and hammered to a
point; pens were made with a Barlow knife, and
ink from the boiling of butternut bark or
gunpowder. Meanwhile the boy gained strength and
self-reliance for the struggle of life in which
he was to engage.
In 1827 the family removed
to the Fevre river lead mines. Upon arriving at
Galena, July 4th, they found the town in a state
of alarm from fear of an attack from the
Winnebago Indians. Henry Dodge was at once
waited upon by citizens and asked to take
command of forces for the defense of the mining
district. Young Augustus wished to join them,
and, when told that he was too young, appealed
to his father, who, giving him a small shotgun,
advised, "Shoot well, my boy."
Upon the restoration of
peace, Henry Dodge located at a point about
forty-five miles northeast of Galena, to which
was given the name of Dodge's Grove. When the
Black Hawk war broke out in 1832 he was colonel
of the militia of Wisconsin Territory, and on
the 25th of April was directed by General
Atkinson to raise as many mounted men in the
mining regions as could be obtained for service
against the hostile Indians. In one company then
raised Augustus was elected lieutenant of
volunteers for home protection, and in the
battle of the Wisconsin he conducted him-self
bravely. On the march, or camping out, he was
always cheerful and obliging to the men.
During these years the
family divided their time between their
residence near Dodgeville and Ste. Genevieve,
and Augustus made frequent trips between the two
places. In February, 1837, he visited the
national capital, where, as a son of a friend of
the president, and one who had made a national
reputation in the Black Hawk war, and through
the attentions of his uncle, Senator Linn, he
enjoyed unusual facilities for seeing public men
and observing public affairs. Returning home, on
March 19, 1837, he was united in marriage with
Miss Clara A. Hertich, daughter of Prof. Joseph
Hertich. Their union was an exceedingly happy
one, and to them were born eight children:
William J., Maroeline M., Augustus V.,
Christina, Clara A., Henry J., Charles J. and
William W. In 1838 A. C.
Dodge was appointed by President Van Buren
register of the United States land office at
Burlington, and removed to that city, which was
his home the rest of his life. He made an
exceedingly popular officer, often going out of
his way to help some unfortunate settler in
securing the title to his land. The services
then rendered were remembered in after
years.
January 14, 1839, Mr. Dodge
was appointed by Governor Lucas as brigadier -
general of the Second brigade of the first
division of the militia of Iowa Territory. In the fall of
that year Missouri laid claim to a portion of
Iowa Territory, on its southern border, which
was the occasion of great excitement. December
11th General Dodge's brigade was called
out. On reaching
Van Buren county, General Dodge was sent with
two others to the encampment of the Missouri
militia, and, a friendly conference following,
an amicable settlement was arranged, and the
troops disbanded.
In the summer of 1840,
without thought or effort on his part, General
Dodge was nominated delegate to congress. He
made a canvass of the territory in company with
his whig competitor, Alfred Rich, and was
elected by a majority of 585, receiving many
whig votes. On the 2d of September he took his
seat in congress, and on the 7th of December
following he welcomed his father to a seat by
his side, as a delegate from the territory of
Wisconsin-the first and only instance of a
father and son sitting together in the house of
representatives since the foundation of the
government. He served as delegate until the
admission of Iowa into the union, December 28,
1846, a period of six years of laborious
service. In the limits of this sketch a record
of his service cannot be given, and the reader's
attention is called to the life of General
Dodge, by Dr. William Salter, published in
1887.
The First General Assembly
of the state of Iowa was not able to agree upon
the election of United States senators, but the
Second assembly, December 2,1848, elected
General Dodge and George W. Jones. Mr. Dodge drew for
the short term, ending March 4, 1849, and was at
once re-elected for the term ending March 4,
1855. As seven years before, the son had
welcomed the father to a seat by his side in the
house of representatives, so now the father, who
had entered the senate on the 23d of the
previous June as one of the senators from the
state of Wisconsin, greeted the arrival of his
son in the senate chamber. This was an
unprecedented occurrence. It was also noteworthy
that Augustus C. Dodge was the first person born
west of the Mississippi river to become a
senator of the United States. He was
congratulated by Mrs. Fremont, wife of General
Fremont, who said: "General, I am sure that you
will be the best behaved man in the senate, on
the ground that a dutiful son will be
exceedingly decorous in the immediate presence
of his father.''
The time in which General
Dodge served in the United States senate was an
exciting one in the history of the country. He
favored the compromise bill of 1850, but voted
against Jefferson Davis' proposition to make
void the prohibition of slavery that had existed
under the Mexican law, and extend the Missouri
compromise line of 1820 so as to authorize
slavery north of it, and he voted for the
admission of California under her constitution
prohibiting slavery. Mr. Dodge served as
chairman of the committee on public lands, and
favored the passage of the homestead bill. In the
Kansas-Nebraska struggle of 1854, he followed
the lead of Stephen A. Douglas. One of the
best speeches delivered in the senate in favor
of the organization of Kansas and Nebraska under
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and sneeringly spoken
of as "squatter sovereignty,'' was by him. In
answer to Senator Brown, of Mississippi, who
said "There are certain menial employments which
belong to the negro, " he replied: "Sir, I tell
the senator from Mississippi, I speak upon the
floor of the American senate, in the presence of
my father, who will attest to its truth, that I
perform and do perform when at home, all of
these menial services to which the senator
referred in terms so grating to my feelings. As
a general thing I saw my own wood, do all my own
marketing; I have driven teams, horses, mules,
oxen, and considered myself as respectable then
as I do now, or as any senator on the floor." On
the 8th of February, 1855, Mr. Dodge resigned
his seat in the senate, and on the following day
President Pierce nominated him to be minister
plenipotentiary to the court of Spain. He was
confirmed, and served with great credit to
himself and the general government until the
summer of 1859, when he returned home and made
the race for governor of Iowa on the democratic
ticket, but could not overcome the strong
republican majority. The following extract is
from Salter's life of the general:
"Withdrawn the rest of his
life for the most part from official station,
Mr. Dodge retained to the end of his life his
interest in public affairs, and his unswerving
devotion to the democratic party, of which he
remained a recognized leader. On several
occasions his name was presented as a suitable
candidate for the highest offices in the nation,
but he himself never aided or abetted any
movement to that end. In 1872 he advocated union
with the liberal republicans, and the election
of Horace Greeley for president. In 1874 he was
elected mayor of Burlington by a spontaneous
movement of citizens, irrespective of party. In
1875 he served, by appointment of Governor
Carpenter, on a commission to investigate
alleged abuses in a reform school at Eldora, and
aided in introducing a more humane discipline
into that institution. An ardent friend of
youth, he was a frequent visitor at schools, and
gave help and cheer to many in their struggle
for an education. He sustained the cause of
temperance in vigorous addresses,
discountenanced the drinking habit by consistent
example, and looked to the invigoration of man's
moral sense for the suppression of
intemperance-not to prohibitory legislation. At
meetings of pioneers and old settlers he was an
honored guest, and never wearied in
commemorating their exploits and labors.
"He presided over the
semi-centennial celebration of the settlement of
Iowa on the 1st of June, 1883, at Burlington,
and gave surpassing dignity and zest to that
occasion. It was a sight that can never be
looked upon again, to see that illustrious
pioneer of Iowa, at the age of more than three
score and ten, pour forth from his capacious,
accurate and ready memory treasures of
information concerning the beginning of the
commonwealth. It seemed as if he were inspired
with a religious zeal to snatch from oblivion
the memory of our founders for the instruction
of after times. A few months later came the
fatal sickness and the final hour. He died at
Burlington, Iowa, on the 20th of November, 1883,
in the bosom of his family, sharing the
consolation of religion, his last words
being Bless the
Lord.
 DODGE,
Henry, soldier and statesman, was born in
Vincennes, Ind., October 12, 1782; died in
Burlington, Iowa, June 19, 1867. His father,
Israel Dodge, was a revolutionary officer of
Connecticut. Henry commanded a mounted company
of volunteer riflemen in August and September,
1812; became major of Louisiana militia under
General Howard on September 28th; major in
McNair's regiment of Missouri militia in April,
1813, and commanded a battalion of Missouri
mounted infantry, as lieutenant-colonel, from
August till October, 1814. He was colonel of
Michigan volunteers from April till July, 1832,
during the Black Hawk war, and in the affair
with the Indians at Pickatolika, on Wisconsin
river, June 15th, totally defeating them. He was
commissioned major of United States rangers June
21, 1832, and became the first colonel of the
first dragoons March 4, 1833. He was successful
in making peace with the frontier Indians in
1834, and in 1835 commanded an important
expedition to the Rocky Mountains. General Dodge
was unsurpassed as an Indian fighter, and a
sword, with the thanks of the nation, was voted
him by congress. He resigned
from the army July 4, 1836, having been
appointed by President Jackson governor of
Wisconsin Territory and superintendent of Indian
affairs. He held this office till 1841, when he
was elected delegate to congress as a democrat,
and served two terms. In 1846 he was again made
governor of Wisconsin, and after the admission
of that state to the union was one of its first
United States senators. He was re-elected, and
served altogether from June 23, 1848, till March
3, 1857.
 DODGE,
Hon. William Wallace, of Burlington, Iowa.
Throughout the great state of Iowa can be found
no name so thoroughly interwoven with the
history of the state as is that of the Dodge
family. In making that
history they have been most important factors,
and have marked with deeds the vanishing traces
of swift-rolling time.
The name of Augustus C.
Dodge, the father of the subject of this sketch,
will ever be revered throughout the Hawkeye
state, and the son who has risen to prominence
solely by his own merit is in every way
qualified to maintain the honor, ability and
integrity for which the preceding members of the
family have been renowned. Like his
father and his grandfather, his career has been
characterized by ability, thoroughness and
persistence, and, although he has not yet
attained his forty-fifth year, his reputation
has extended far beyond the boundaries of his
native state. Mr. W. W.
Dodge was born in Burling-ton, Iowa, April 25,
1854. He was elected state senator from the
Ninth senatorial district of Iowa for eight
years, from 1885 to 1893.
William Wallace Dodge
received his literary education at Notre Dame
university, Indiana, taking a scientific course
and graduating in the class of 1874. He then
entered the law department of the State
University of Iowa, graduating in June, 1876. He
had the honor of being chosen president of class
day exercises on that occasion, June 19th, and
was awarded the literary prize offered to the
graduating class for the best written argument
on a given thesis of law. Immediately after
taking his degree Mr. Dodge entered upon the
practice of his profession in his native city,
in company with his brother Charles J., under
the firm name of Dodge & Dodge. By his
brilliant talent, high moral character and close
application to business he has won a prominent
position at the bar. Mr. Dodge is
an earnest democrat, and seems to have been born
with a natural instinct for politics; in fact it
might be said to be hereditary with him.
He began reading and talking
politics in his youth, and made his maiden
campaign speech while in company with his father
at the little town of Franklin, Lee county,
Iowa, during the presidential cam-paign of 1876,
since which time he has taken an active part in
every local and national campaign, speaking from
the stump, serving on committees, presiding at
conventions and working at the polls. He was
chosen captain of the Cleveland and Hendricks
club during the campaign of 1884, served as
chairman of a number of democratic county
conventions, and as delegate to local and state
conventions, and as an alternative delegate for
the state at large to the national convention at
St. Louis, at
which Grover Cleveland was nominated the second
time. At the democratic convention held at Des
Moines, September 1, 1887, he had, for a young
man, the distinguished honor of being chosen
temporary chairman of that organization, and
performed the duties of his position with
dignity and dispatch.
During many years of
indefatigable effort in behalf of his party Mr.
Dodge never sought, nor would he accept, public
office till the fall of 1885, when his friends
induced him to accept the nomination for state
senator, when, as if to prove the exception to
the rule that "a prophet is never without honor
save in his own country," he was elected by a
majority of 934 over a popular republican
candidate who had the advantage of age,
political experience and the prestige of a good
soldier record. It was charged that while
Mr. Dodge
possessed superior ability and un-questioned
integrity, he was guilty of the heinous crime of
being a young man, and was lacking in
legislative experience. The first fault, his
friends claimed, time would remedy, and the
latter he would more quickly overcome by placing
him where the necessary opportunity existed. His
course in the senate fully justified the most
sanguine expectations of his friends and
constituents, and, as a result, he was
re-elected to the state senate, in 1889, by a
majority of 1,876, more than double his former
majority. His introduction of important bills,
and able management in securing their adoption,
soon proved his lack of experience no serious
hindrance to his usefulness. His manly course in
rejecting the so-called "$216 salary grab,''
growing out of the impeachment trial of Auditor
of State John L. Brown, and his sensible speech
opposing it, was consistent with his high sense
of honor, and was generally approved by his
constituents. He was first to introduce a bill
in the Iowa legislature on the subject of child
labor, designed to prohibit the employment of
children under 15 years of age in factories,
mines and workshops. Mr. Dodge had made the
subject of that bill and the laws of other
states and countries, in regard to the same, a
special study. His correspondence in re-lation
to the subject was voluminous and varied, until
he was well qualified to be the champion of that
worthy cause. June 21, 1890, he was appointed
lieutenant-colonel on the staff of Gov. Horace
Boies. Near the close
of the session of the Twenty-second General
Assembly of Iowa he was appointed one of the two
selected from the senate to act on the committee
of five appointed to investigate certain charges
that had been preferred against the State
University of Iowa. The investigation began on
May 15, 1889, ended July 20, 1889, and to his
credit be it said that he was the most faithful
member of the commission, not having lost a day
from his labors. This was but additional
evidence of his fidelity to public duty.
At the Twenty-third General
Assembly Senator Dodge introduced a bill
creating the first Monday in September as a
legal holiday, to be known as Labor Day, which
was approved April 5, 1890. He is known
throughout the state of Iowa as the "Father of
Labor Day. "
At the Twenty-fourth General
Assembly he was the author of a bill which at
that session became a law, being "A bill to
protect workingmen in the use of their labels,
trade-marks and forms of advertising," now known
as "Dodge's Union Label Bill."
Senator Dodge was selected
on the part of the senate to deliver the eulogy
over the remains of State Senator P. G.
Ballingall, who died at Hongkong, China, March
7, 1891. The eulogy was delivered April 14,
1891, in the Coal Palace at Ottumwa, Iowa. Gov. Horace
Boies and staff, as also the members of the
state senate and house of representatives were
present, in addition to a vast concourse of
people. He delivered an able and beautiful
address over the remains of his dead friend and
colleague. Mr. Dodge is a
most indefatigable worker in whatever he
undertakes, possessing intellectual faculties of
a high order, and, with studious habits, his
abilities, both natural and acquired, are such
as attract attention and command respect. Nature has
happily endowed him with a fine physique, a good
voice and a gift of oratory, and, for a number
of years past, his has been a familiar figure at
state conventions, as also public gatherings,
being frequently invited to deliver addresses
and responses at banquets. Quick in percep-tion
and correct in analysis, his conclusions are
logical and convincing.
The scope of Mr. Dodge's
capabilities is not confined to his senatorial
career. In the legal profession he is recognized
as one of the leading lawyers in the state, and
his far-reaching thought enables him to cope
successfully with the most intricate problems of
jurisprudence. He is the possessor of those
admirable qualities so essential to every
statesman, of being able to deliberate with
caution, act with decsion, yield with
graciousness and oppose with firmness. Tact,
sense, and a quick appreciation of the right,
are characteristics he possesses in such high
degree that they are the elements of his success
both at the bar and in the administration of his
public trusts, and public ambition is al-ways
subordinate to the public welfare. Already an
approving constituency is favoring his name as a
future candidate for governor of Iowa, and also
for congress, and it is only a question of time
when this talented young lawyer will be found
following closely upon the footsteps of his
illustrious ancestors.
May 18, 1892, Senator Dodge
was married, at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, to Miss
Della J. Stubbs, a beautiful, charming and
accomplished lady. On June 19, 1893, a son was
born to them, who was named William Wallace
Dodge, Jr. The senator and his wife are living
in the old homestead (of Gen . A. C. Dodge)
in Burlington.
 LAW,
Robert, manager of the Burlington &
Northwestern and Burlington Western Railway
companies, is a resident of Burlington, and has
grown up in the railroad business, which he has
followed since the age of 12 years. His father,
Robert Law, was a steamboat captain on Lake
Erie, and was drowned in a gale at the age of
25, while in charge of the steamer Wave. The
family lived in Hamilton, Canada. John Law, his
grandfather, was also a seafaring man, who came
from England to Canada in his old age and
settled on a farm, where he remained until his
death. His wife's maiden name was Deborah
Elliott. Their son, Robert Law, was married to
Eliza M. McNalage. She was born in Port Hope,
Canada West, and married at the age of 17. Their son
Robert was born in Port Hope, Canada, May 26,
1850. After the death of her husband, when
Robert was only 8 months old, she moved to New
York, where she remained for several years,
going from there to western Nebraska, where she
now resides. Her mother's maiden name was Jane
Baxter, born in London, England, and married Mr.
McNalage, who was associated with his uncle in a
silk store in London.
Robert Law began his
education in the public schools of New York, and
earned his livelihood during the summer on a
farm, when a small boy. When he was 12 years old
he entered the service of the Atlantic &
Great Western Railroad company, now a part of
the Erie system, remaining with that company in
the track department four years, until the
winter of 1866, when he accepted service with
the track department of the Union Pacific, and
was afterwards advanced to division roadmaster,
general roadmaster, division superintendent, and
finally to general superintendent. He resigned
the latter position at Cheyenne, Wyo., in the
fall of 1882 to take charge of the Burlington
lines in Missouri, headquarters Keokuk, Iowa,
where he remained four years, afterwards
accepting service with the Northern Pacific at
Livingston, Mont., as division superintendent,
and was later promoted to the position of
assistant general manager, headquarters at
Helena, Mont. He subsequently became manager of
the Montana Union, with headquarters in Butte. A
few years later he took the management of the
Chicago Railway Transfer association, which he
held for several years, until its dissolution in
December, 1893, when he immediately returned to
the Burlington system as manager of the
Burlington & Northwestern and Burlington
& Western lines.
Mr. Law ranks with the
leading railroad managers of the west,
possessing energy, acumen, knowledge of human
nature in combination with fine executive and
general business ability. He is a staunch
republican, never having voted any other ticket;
belongs to the Masonic order, and is a member of
the Episcopal church. Mr. Law married
during the summer of 1873 Miss Rozette C.
Michael, and to that union there have come four
children. The two eldest, Robert and Morel1,
completed their college education in the
University of Chicago. The third, Leonore, is a
student of Mrs. Loring's Private school, 2535
Prairie avenue, Chicago, and the youngest,
George, is with his parents in
Burlington.
The
information on Trails to the
Past © Copyright
may be used in personal family history research,
with source citation. The pages in entirety may
not be duplicated for publication in any fashion
without the permission of the owner. Commercial
use of any material on this site is not
permitted. Please respect the wishes of
those who have contributed their time and
efforts to make this free site possible.~Thank
you! |
