DODDS, WILLIAM

DODDS, GREIG, RUSSELL, WARD, MORGAN

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 5/4/2004 at 16:52:40

Biography reproduced from page 378 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

William Dodds is living retired in Algona, Iowa, and is giving his time to the management of his half section of land in Kossuth county and his eighty acres in Lyon county, Minnesota, and to the improvement of his extensive town property in the city in which he lives. He was born in Montreal, Canada, August 1, 1845, and is a son of William and Jeannette (Greig) Dodds. His father was born in Scotland, October 14, 1804, and crossed the Atlantic to America, where he settled in Canada when he was thirty-six years of age. He lived in that country and followed the carpenter’s trade until his death in 1859. The mother of our subject was twice married. Her first husband was John Russell, by whom she had five children: Ellen, Jessie, John R., and Isabella, all of whom are deceased; and one other child, who died in infancy. John Russell was stricken with cholera in 1832 and died as a result of that scourge in that year. His wife landed in Canada in the same year and settled in Montreal, where she married William Dodds, the father of our subject. There was only one child born of this marriage, William Dodds, the subject of our sketch. His mother lived until she was eighty years of age, when her death occurred in the year 1880.

William Dodds was educated in the common schools of Canada and supplemented this by a course in the normal school at Hamilton, in that country. At the age of thirteen he removed to Oneida, Knox county, Illinois, where he spent the summer months working on a farm and attended school during the winter. When he had earned enough money he sent for his mother, who joined him in Oneida and remained with him until the time of her death. He remained in Oneida, Illinois, until 1885, when he removed to Kossuth county, Iowa, and purchased a farm in Union township, where he remained until 1907. During that time he was very successful. He added to his original purchase at various times until, upon his retirement in 1907, he was the owner of half a section of land in Kossuth county, which he had developed and improved until it was one of the most prosperous farms in the state. He is also the proprietor of eighty acres of well cultivated land in Lyon county, Minnesota, and owns much property in the town of Algona. He is now giving his entire attention to looking after his extensive interests. He owns a whole business block in the city in which he lives and one acre in Call’s addition. He is prominent in various lines of activity in the city of Algona and is one of the organizers and directors of the County Savings Bank of that city.

On December 2, 1877, Mr. Dodds was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Ward, a native of Kentucky, and they are the parents of eight children: William I., living on the home farm; Mary Jeannette, the wife of Clarence Morgan, of Eagle Grove, Iowa; Walter F., engaged in general farming in Lyon county, Minnesota; Robert G., living on his father’s farm in Kossuth county; Richard E., who makes his home at Lethbridge, Canada; Amanda and Grace, both of whom are living at home; and Archibald A., student in the Algona public schools. Mr. Dodds has reared his family in honorable and worthy principles and in addition to his own sons and daughters has brought up a family of children of his sister. He is possessed of a keen and compelling sense of duty which never allows him to shun the work which he finds to do. He is conscientious, honorable and upright in all relations of life and has spent the sixty-seven years of his life in a worthy and Christian manner.

Politically Mr. Dodds gives his allegiance to the republican party and has held the office of trustee of Union township for nine years. He is active in religious circles, and he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church of Algona, in which Mr. Dodds acts as an elder. He has held membership in the Odd Fellows lodge since 1874 and also belongs to the encampment and the canton of Mason City. His wife is prominent in the affairs of the Rebekahs. Mr. Dodds is now living retired after an active life. He has done his duty in the various relations of his life and is well known and highly respected in Algona as an upright and honorable Christian gentlemen.

(Photo of Mr. and Mrs. William Dodds accompanies the biography.)

Kossuth Biographies maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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