Captain Le Roy Dodge, for many years a wealthy and prominent resident of Scott County, was born in Herkimer County, New York, December 25, 1811. His father was Daniel Dodge, also a native of New York, whose ancestry dated back to the Dutch settlers of the Mohawk Valley, but Le Roy’s desire to see the west, and perhaps to locate in a section where the opportunities for accumulating money might be better than in the East, led him to leave his native County some time in 1832. He had been born on a farm, but farm life was distasteful to him and for several years he taught school, earning sufficient money to enable him to make the journey west without assistance of any consequence from his parents. He reached Dubuque, Iowa, about the time of the lead-mining excitement, but, although he had gone there for the purpose of prospecting, he never spent a day at that occupation. He engaged in other employment, and his success was perhaps better than it would have been had he undertaken to carry out his first plans.
Captain Dodge was a man of strong character and great self-reliance, and these qualities were materially developed in his early youth. While in Dubuque he clerked for a time in a general store and post office, doing efficient work. During these early experiences he developed a first-class business talent, which in comparatively few years made him one of the most prominent men in this section of the country. After working for a while in the Dubuque store he took a clerkship on one of the Mississippi river steamboats, and soon after rose to the dignity of a pilot, running between St. Louis and St. Paul. It was not long until Captain Dodge owned one of the steamboats. His frugality, industry and perseverance had won this for him, and they afterward did more; they enabled him to secure the ownership of several valuable boats.
Some time in the fifties he was instrumental in organizing the Rapids Packet Company and became the manager, making his headquarters in the City of Davenport. He had resided here at different periods in his life for years previous to the organization of this company, and in 1843 had purchased six hundred acres of land situated in Buffalo township, to which he retired in 1860. The farm he purchased then is one of the most beautiful pieces of land on the Mississippi river. It has about a mile water frontage, and has been richly cultivated, so that it is one of the most valuable pieces of property in the State of Iowa. A part of it was purchased from the late Judge James Grant, who had entered it.
When captain Dodge retired from active life in 1860 and took up his residence on his farm in Buffalo Township he gave his attention simply to the direction of those who had in charge the management of his lands. He lived in peace and quiet during the later years of his life and brought up a family of worthy children. At his death, on the twenty-seventh of June 1871, his wife and four children survived him. The first sorrow which has come into the home since the laying away of Captain Dodge was the death of Worth, the youngest son, in 1891. Sorrow again entered the home on the seventeenth day of January, 1894, when Mrs. Dodge passed away from earth. Mrs. E. E. Cook, of Davenport, is a daughter of Captain Dodge by is first wife. Mrs. C. G. Raguet, of Washington Iowa, and Frank Dodge, of Davenport, are children by his second wife. Worth, whose death was referred to, was the child of his third wife.
Captain Dodge was at one time a member of the Legislature, having been chosen by the democratic party to represent his county as a colleague with the late Judge Grant in 1852. In the capacity of Legislator Captain Dodge displayed that firmness and determination which were characteristic of him, in the effort to secure for his constituents the legislature which would be of most benefit to them. He was a member of the school board and held many minor offices as the gift of the people, although, in spite of it all, he was not a politician, and cared very little for political life and the strifes connected with it. He was an enterprising man and believed in all movements which tended to the betterment of this section, particularly the City of Davenport. At a time when he was opposed by almost all of the men connected with river traffic he advocated strongly and determinedly a movement for the construction of a railroad bridge across the river at this point. He was far-seeing enough to perceive that the development of this section depended largely upon the progress which the railroads were enabled to make, and he believed that an opportunity should be given the railroads to push lines farther west than they had at that time been able to do.
Captain Dodge was a man of self-reliance, a man who had read a great deal and gained the education he possessed through his own efforts. He was of a literary turn of mind, spending much of his time during the later years of his life in his library, which was a valuable one. He possessed great force of character, was of a jovial nature and very hospitable, being never happier than when he had around him a group of friends , especially children, at which times he was always among the most youthful in spirit of those whose who enjoyed his hospitality. He was kind-hearted and devoted to his family. His acquaintance throughout the community was very extensive and he was held in the highest esteem by all who knew him.
His father died in New York in 1839 and his mother came west, residing at his home until her death in 1860. His parents are now lying side by side in the cemetery in Buffalo, the remains of his father having been removed here after his mother’s death.
One of the most successful attorneys at the Davenport bar is Frank L. Dodge, born July 20, 1856, son of the late Captain Dodge. Mr. Dodge attended the public schools of Buffalo township in his boyhood, and later graduated from the State University of Iowa, in June of 1877. He entered the law office of E. E. Cook immediately after his graduation and admission to the bar here, and since 1880 has been a partner with Mr. Cook under the firm name of Cook and Dodge.
He was married on the fourth day of November, 1880, and suffered the loss of his wife on the fifteenth day of June 1890. Mrs. Dodge’s maiden name was Caroline Berryyhill, a daughter of the late J. H. Berry hill, of this city. One child born of this union, a daughter, (Helen), eleven years of age, resides in Washington, Iowa, with her aunt, Mrs. Raguet.
BIOGRAPHIES