John Dodson PA and IL

Biographical Sketches of Dodson and Dotson Pioneer Families


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John Dodson 1795 - 1849

"No positive trace of this family, in several years' research, has been ascertained. Records imperfect and dates lacking, and knowledge of them lost almost entirely from living relatives. And this knowledge is now only a pathetic remembrance of a sad history. John Dodson, the father of this family, owned a small but unproductive farm on the east side of the Susquehhanna River, in his native Luzerne County. On this he struggled for several years to maintain his family. One day a stranger called to see him and said : "I hear you wish to sell your farm." The reply was : "It is not worth buying, and any man who would buy it would be throwing his money away. If I had the means to move from it and do something else, I would give it away."The stranger replied : "My friend, you are surely joking or else having a very severe attack of the blues. Won't you name a price for it? I am in earnest and will buy it at a fair price." The reply of the unhappy owner was: "Now you are joking. I would be ashamed to name a price." The stranger said: "Will you take $4,000 for it?" This was still more of a joke on the part of the owner, and he could not believe it. But the parley ended in his receiving the offer, and the farm was sold. The poor farm, so unproductive on the surface, was soon proved by the sequel of the transaction to have its riches underneath. And the sleek stranger soon sold it for the round sum of $100,000. 

The discouraged farmer parted with his unknown and hidden wealth for a song, and with the money received went to the West to buy a farm in the richer prairie lands of Illinois, settling in Ogle County, at or near the little town of Polo. In three months after his arrival he died with cholera, June 24th, 1849. This was but the beginning of sorrows. His oldest daughter, Mrs. Doctor White, was thrown out of a carriage in a runaway of the horses, and killed. Another daughter, Mary, who was a teacher in Mt. Morris Seminary, at the close of the school term, started on her way home and was never heard of again, but was thought to have been robbed and murdered. Two sons, Hilzey and Melville, were in the Civil War, and lost their lives therein. Another son, Fletcher, while en route to California, overland, was slain by the Indians near the site of Fort Wala Wala. Such a chapter of fatalities in sad succession is rare in the history of one family." From: Dodson Genealogy 1667 to 1907 by Thompson P Ege

"In the fall of 1852, while hauling hay, a young man named John F. Dodson, from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, was killed and scalped by the Blackfeet, in sight of the fort. The writer of this has in his possession a diary kept by Dodson from the day that he left Illinois in the spring of 1852, up to the day he was killed. The last entry that he made in it was on the day before he was killed, and is as follows: "Sept 14, 1852. I have been fixing ox yokes and hay rigging. Helped haul one load of hay. Weather fair." The next entry is in the handwriting of Major Owen, apparently made the next day, and in these words: "Sept 15th. The poor fellow was killed and scalped by the Blackfeet in sight of the Fort." From: "History of Montana 1739 - 1885", Warner, Beers & Company, Chicago, 1885. Page 190

However, one son, Arthur McCafferty Dodson, made it to California and lived until 1874.  

"The California progenitor of this family was Arthur McKenzie (McCafferty) Dodson, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (probably Luzerne County), in 1819, and was one of the horde of adventurers that started for California in 1848, attracted by the discovery of gold. For two years he searched for the elusive metal, but the results were disappointing and in 1850 he located in Los Angeles, where he opened the first butcher shop and grocery store to operate in the old pueblo. In 1893 he became the pioneer soap manufacturer. "Georgetown" was created by him, at the corner of Sixth and Spring streets, Los Angeles, by the establishment of a wood and coal yard at that location. He was married in Los Angeles to Reyes Dominguez, a daughter of Nazario Dominquez, who with his brothers, Pedro and Manuel, owned the great Rancho San Pedro, which extended from Redondo to Compton and thence midway to Long Beach. The founder of the family, Juan Jose Dominguez, came to this section of the state when in a primitive state and was given the grant of ten or eleven leagues in 1822. Of the twelve children born to Mr. and Mrs. Dodson only four grew to maturity: James H., the subject of this sketch; Emma, now Mrs. Thompson, of Hobart Mills, Nevada County, California; John F., who died in San Pedro in 1922; and Mrs. Caroline Steele, who died in Reno, Nevada in 1901. The father died in Tucson, Arizona, in 1874, and was buried in Wilmington, California. Mrs. Dodson died in Los Angeles while the surviving children were young." From: "Harbor District of Los Angeles"



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