Hodgson, Robert

HODGSON

Posted By: Plymouth CC (email)
Date: 11/12/2003 at 20:55:12

Robert Hodgson

Although a quiet and unassuming man, with no ambition for public position or leadership,
Robert Hodgson,
for many years a general farmer in Plymouth county, now living retired in Le Mars, has
contributed much
to the general welfare of his adopted locality and is held in high esteem by all who knew him.

Mr Hodgson was born in County Durham, England, November 13, 1851, and is a son of
William and
Jane (Lowes) Hodgson, both also natives of the vicinity in which their son Robert was born.

There they
grew up, were married and established their home. The father was a miner. He brought his
family to
America in 1872, and settled in Ft Dodge, Iowa, but he was fated to survive only two weeks in
the New
World, for after working there two days he contracted blood poisoning, from which he could
not recover.
His widow died in 1877. They had eight children, namely: John, who is living in Boone county,
Iowa;
Mary, who lives in Palo Alto County, Iowa; Robert, the subject of this sketch; William, who
died in
Oregon in 1913; Phoebe, the wife of John Dempster, of Le Mars; Stephen, who is farming in
North
Dakota; Jane, who lives in Palo Alto County, Iowa, and Joseph, who is farming at Carvel,
Colorado.

Robert Hodgson had little chance to obtain an education. He grew to manhood in England,
where he started
working in the mines when ten years of age as a washer-boy. He later worked in a limestone
quarry at
Stanhope, England, and was twenty-one years when he came to America with the family in
1872. He came to Plymouth
county in 1878, and bought railroad land in Stanton township, in partnership with his brother,
William and
his brother-in-law. They were all very poor and did not have enough money at the time to make
the first
payment on the land. Robert Hodgson located on that land in 1880; worked hard in bringing it
up
from the raw prairie to a high state of cultivation, making all improvements, and there he
carried on
general farming and stock raising successfully until 1914, when he retired and moved to Le
Mars, where he owns
a pleasant home.

In 1883, Robert Hodgson was married to Sarah Bainbridge, of Lafayette county, Wisconsin, a
daughter
of George and Sarah Bainbridge, natives of England, from which country they came to America
and
located in Wisconsin, later moving to Kingsley, this county. They were parents of eleven
children,
namely: Ralph, deceased; Joseph, who lives at Kingsley; Jane, who makes her home in
kingsley; Sarah,
the wife of Mr Hodgson; George, Mary, John William and Lizzie, all living at Kingsley;
Maggie, who
lives in Oregon and Frank, who lives in Kingsley.

Five children have been born to Mr and Mrs Hodgson, namely: William, who is farming the
old home
place in Stanton township, married Sarah Allison; George, who is unmarried and lives with his
brother,
William , on the farm; Robert C, who is attending school in Le Mars; Jennie, the wife of Frank
Harker,
of Le Mars, and Ethel, who is at home.

After his marriage, Mr Hodgson lived on his farm in Stanton township, to which he added

more land until
he owned an excellent farm of two hundred and forty acres, on which he made the present high-
grade
improvements. He made a specialty of raising Shorthorn cattle of a good grade, also draft
horses
and Poland China and Chester White hogs. He also owns a half section of good land in South
Dakota.