George M. Dopking

DOPKING, HOLMES, KEELEY, KAY, THOMAS, JARVIS, MARTIN

Posted By: Diane (email)
Date: 2/24/2002 at 19:41:09

George M. Dopking was born in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1835. When quite young his parents moved to Erie county, New York. He attended school in the city of Buffalo until thirteen years of age. In 1848 his father, Nathan Dopking, moved his family to Lafayette county, Wisconsin, and settled on the farm where he still resides. George made his home with his parents until nineteen years of age, when he went to Illinois and engaged with the Illinois Central Railroad Company. The following spring he returned to Wisconsin.
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In 1855 he went to New Orleans and engaged as watchman on a steamer. In the fall of 1856 he came to Iowa, prospecting and gunning, making his way on foot across the State to Minnesota as far as the Blue Earth river, and returning to Wisconsin that winter. In the spring of 1857 he started with ten yoke of oxen and two plows for Iowa, where he engaged in breaking the prairie sod in Black Hawk, Bremer and Butler counties until July, when he sold his teams and engaged in the livery business at Cedar Falls.
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The following winter he sold his business and returned again to Wisconsin. In the spring of 1860 he went to Colorado and engaged in mining, returning the following winter. In 1862 he came to Iowa and with Holmes, Keeley & Kay engaged in a flour and saw mill business for one year. He enlisted in 1863 in the Forty-third Wisconsin Volunteers, Company E, and went south to Nashville, where he joined General Thomas’ command. He was with the regiment until the close of the war, and honorably discharged in July, 1865.
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Returning to Wisconsin he bought a farm near his father’s, which he sold in 1870, and went to Harrison county, Iowa, where he engaged in farming, also keeping a hotel, the Clinton House, at Magnolia, for about one year. He then went to Tripoli, where he took a contract to carry the United States mail between Waverly and West Union, afterward between Waverly and Old Wine (Oelwein?), and also between Waverly and Butler Center. After running that five years he came to Shell Rock and engaged in the same business with George Martin. In 1857 he married Miss Abigail Jarvis, a native of Ashtabula county. They have been blessed with six children, four now living – Lewis, Annie, Fred and Homer.
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Source: History of Butler and Bremer Counties, Iowa
Union Publishing Co., Springfield, IL, 1883
Pages 754-755