Dodge, Henry R.

DODGE, ANDREWS, JENKINSON, FUNK, ENTRIKEN, BARR, JOY

Posted By: Janelle Martin (email)
Date: 4/9/2011 at 19:01:18

History of Hamilton County, Iowa, Vol. II, 1912, J.W. Lee, pp.236-238.

Henry R. Dodge has gained success as a business man and by reason of the honorable and upright policy which he has always maintained in his identification with the partnership of Dodge & Baker, marble and granite workers, has attained a reputation in Webster City as a representative factor in its industrial development. He was born in New Boston, New Hampshire, in 1846, and is a son of Israel and Priscilla (Andrews) Dodge. His father's family were early settlers in Massachusetts, representatives of the line having been prominent in that state since 1629. The first American of the name, Solomon Dodge, the great-grandfather of our subject, was a first lieutenant of a Massachusetts regiment during the Revolutionary war and he it was who founded the family in New Hampshire. On the maternal side Mr. Dodge comes of early Massachusetts stock. His maternal grandfather was a captain of an American privateer during the Revolution and afterward maintained his residence in Vermont. The Dodge family was founded in Webster City, on October 2, 1869, by the parents of the subject of this review. His father was extensively engaged in agriculture in Hamilton county for a number of years and died in that section in 1908 in the eighty-eighth year of his age. He had long survived his wife who passed away in 1882 at the age of sixty-two.

Henry R. Dodge received his early education in the public schools of New Hampshire and later received an academic course in that state. Even before his removal to Webster City he started in active life for himself as an agriculturist in his native state. When his parents removed to Hamilton county Mr. Dodge accompanied them and taught school near Webster City until 1880. He met with a gratifying measure of success in this line of activity but eventually abandoned it to form a partnership with J. A. Viquesney in the granite and marble monument business. This association existed for one year and in 1882 the partnership was dissolved. In the same year Mr. Dodge, in conjunction with Mr. G. W. Baker, established his present enterprise under the name of Dodge & Baker, and the association in the monument business is today the oldest copartnership in Hamilton county. They have kept exclusively to their original line and have always specified in high-grade monuments and granite work.

In 1875 Mr. Dodge was united in marriage to Miss Galatea Jenkinson, a daughter of Jesse and Mary (Funk) Jenkinson of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Dodge resided in the latter state until her mother's death and was brought when a child of six years to make her home with her aunt, Mrs. Margaret (Funk) Entriken, who established her residence in Webster City in 1872. Mrs. Dodge's father died two years later in 1874. To our subject and his wife have been born eight children: Jessie, who became the wife of Mr. C. O. Barr of Webster City; Warren B., who married Miss Mabelle Joy, and who makes his home in Webster City; Bayard, born in 1888, who resides in the same place; John F., whose birth occurred in 1894; Almon V., born in 1886, and who passed away in 1889; Acis J., born in 1876, and who died in 1882; Earl E., who was born in 1883, and whose death occurred in 1884; and Emma, who was born in 1892 and died in 1910. The family reside at No. 717 Walnut street, Webster City.

Fraternally Mr. Dodge is active in the Order of Odd Fellows, holding membership in Elmo Lodge, No. 62, of which he is past grand, and a member of Ridgeley Encampment, No. 9, of the same organization. His success has been won by indefatigable and unwavering promotion of worthy principles in his life and has been attained at the expense of hard work and industry. He is a business man of marked ability and shrewd discrimination combined with a high standard of civic conscientiousness. Mr. Dodge is representative of the spirit of industry which upbuilds our American municipal life, spreads our commerce and makes us great among commercial nations.