John Hodgdon (15th Mayor of Dubuque) 1859

HODGDON

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 12/27/2016 at 09:43:16

John Hodgdon was born in Weare, New Hampshire in October of 1800 of Quaker parents.

Up until the time that he was nineteen years of age it appeared that he would follow in his father's footsteps as a farmer, but in 1819 his paternal grandfather died and left him a large tract of land in northern Maine comprising what became the township of Hodgdon.

This inheritance appears to have changed his life including his pursuit of an education. From Phillips Exeter Academy he went on to graduate from Bowdoin College in the class of 1827.

Following graduation from Bowdoin he moved to Bangor to study law under a prominent Bangor lawyer, Allen Gilman, and one supposes to keep a better eye on his investments in the northern part of the State.

Hodgdon was admitted to the bar in 1830 and practiced law in Bangor for the next thirteen years.

He was a member of the Executive Council in 1833 and from 1834 to 1838 he served the State as Land Agent, a very crucial period for both the office and the lumber barons of Bangor.

In 1846 Hodgdon was elected to the Senate and served as its President in 1847. He was reelected the next year but resigned in an unsuccessful attempt to secure his party's nomination for Governor.

In 1843 he moved from Bangor to Hodgdon and managed a large farm while practicing law in nearby Houlton. He was appointed a Bank Commissioner in 1849 and offered a Consulate in Rome by President Franklin Pierce in 1853 which he declined.

In that same year he left Maine and moved to Dubuque, Iowa where he opened his law practice and was elected Mayor of his adopted city just six years later.

Hodgdon was a shrewd man who succeeded in almost everything he attempted with the exception of becoming Governor. Being shrewd and well-connected made him a nineteenth century success story.
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Dubuque Democratic Herald – Jan. 1, 1864
BUILDING IN DUBUQUE
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The Extent of the Building
Done in 1863
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List of the New Buildings Erected

Gen. Hodgdon has erected a house on the corner of Locust and Fourteenth Streets at a cost of from $5,500 to $6,000. The work has been done under the superintendence of P. Mullaly. It is of 42 feet front and of an average depth of 48 feet, with kitchen, wood shed, and stables all connected and of brick. There is a cellar under the whole house except the kitchen. It was commenced in July and is now nearly completed. It will be finished and occupied in the spring.
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HODGDON, John. (Weare, Hillsboro Co., NH, Oct. 8, 1800--Dubuque, IA, Aug. 27, 1883). MAYOR. Hodgdon prepared for college at Exeter Academy. He entered Bowdoin College and graduated from that institution in 1827. He studied law with Allan Gilman, of Bangor, Maine, and was admitted to the bar and practiced law there. In 1838, he was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Amelia Legget, a native of New York. In 1843, he went to Holton, Maine to settle two townships of land, one of which was given him by his grandfather, and one he bought; he remained there ten years. While living in Maine, Hodgdon was elected to the State Senate, served two terms, and was chosen presiding office of that body. When only 33 years of age, he was elected President of the Mercantile Bank of Bangor, Maine. He was a member of the Governor's Council in 1833. He held the office of Bank Commissioner and Bank Examiner six years and also held the office of State Land Agent four years. He was appointed by President Polk Commissioner, on the part of the State of Maine, to confer with George W. Coffin on the part of the State of Massachusetts, to settle and distribute the disputed Territory Fund. He was a member of the first Presidential Convention ever held in the United States held at Baltimore, Maryland on May 22, 1832.

(1) He came West to Iowa, and settled in Dubuque on November 1, 1853 and bought and sold land. In 1859, he again resumed the practice of law. He was elected mayor six years later.

(2) During his term, he frequently boasted that all city expenses during his administration totaled less than $10,000. The disbanding of the police force in the spring of 1859 was followed by an increase in all manner of crimes in Dubuque — fires, burglaries, pickpockets, etc.
The committee on finance of the city council reported as follows in February, 1860:

The present is a critical time in the financial
history of the city. Never will cautious and
prudent management be more needed. The day of
lavish expenditures is past, public improvements
of all kinds abandoned, the credit of the city
exhausted, a heavy burden of debt to be borne and the only source of revenue the taxation of a community embarrassed by unfortunate speculation and many of its numbers struggling to save
themselves from total ruin.

(3) In 1868 Hodgdon was elected president of the board of education and held the office for six years. He declined to run again but did agree to serve as a trustee of the State Asylum for the Blind at Vinton. He also helped organize and then served as a director of the SECOND NATIONAL BANK.
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Encyclopedia Dubuque
www.encyclopediadubuque.org