DAVENPORT PAST AND PRESENT

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CHAPTER XXI.

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CAPT. LeROY DODGE.

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Capt. Dodge was born in December, 1811, in Herkimercounty, New York.  His father was a farmer, and his sons received sucheducational opportunities as are usually given to farmer's children - hard workin the Summer, and the advantages of a District School in the Winter.  Mr.Dodge made his debut in active life, outside of the farm, as a schoolteacher - which pursuit he followed some three winters.  Of his success inthis department, we cannot speak positively - but as he possesses a peculiarityof doing everything well, it can be inferred with a tolerable degree ofcertainty, that his endeavors to "teach the young idea to shoot" we-erewarded with due and proper results.

In 1833, he started West - spent one year in Ohio, then footedit to lake Michigan, crossing in a small schooner to Detroit, and in due timereached Chicago.  He finished his pedestrian tour by footing it to Joliet,and from thence to Dubuque, at which place he obtained a situation as Clerk,with G. W. Atchison.

He remained in this situation one and a half years, and thencommenced life upon the Father of Waters-the Mississippi.  He started asClerk, and fought his way by dint of perseverance and industry from the Clerk'sdesk to the Wheel House, and from thence to the "Captain'sOffice"-evincing throughout these transformations the indisputabel factthat labor is the price of success.  In the Fall of the same year-1836-thathe commenced on the River, he located in Rockingham, and has carried on farmingin connection with steamboating ever since.  In 1852, he represented Scottcounty in the State Legislature, as a Democrat-a character, by the way, which hehas ever uncompromisingly sustained.

He was married in 1846, but subsequently lost his wife.  Hemarried again, and the smae unfortunate case has again resulted-he is once morea widower.

Capt. Dodge is still engaged in steamboating, although he doesnot, as formerly, naviagte the whole upper river-his trips being confined torunning a packet between Keokuk and Davenport.  His Boat-the "BenCampbell"-is a well known and favorite institution among those who have hadoccasion for river transportation along that portion of the Mississippi.

Like many of our pioneers, Capt. Dodge has accumulated an amplecompetence, but unlike that of many others, it is in nowise the result ofaccident.  No Genius of the Lamp erected it in a single night-no sudden andunexpected fluctuations of fortune's tide carried him where he now is. Every stone in the superstructure of his fortune was hewn and piled by hisown arm-and commenced under circumstances that would have discouraged any onewith less perseverance than he possesses.  The most marked trait in hischaracter is determination-it is seen in all his actions, and its firmunflinching character is traced in every feature and expression of his face, asthough wrought in iron.