My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Dr. Roderick L. Dodge, one of the earliest citizens of Little Rock, was born in Hartland, Vt., on September 7, 1808, and grew to manhood in that place. He graduated from Dartsmouth College in 1834, after taking a full course in medicine there, and subsequently at the Philadelphia Medical College. In 1835 he went as a missionary physician to labor among the Indians, under the patronage of the “American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.’’ After some years spent among the Creeks and Cherokees on our western border, he was induced to enter the United States army as surgeon, at Forts Gibson and Coffee. In 1842 he came to Little Rock, and located here to practice his profession, afterward embarking in. the drug business upon the site where Carroll’s shoe-store now stands, on East Markham Street. In later years, he was engaged in a private banking business, and at one time was the only banker in the city. Dr. Dodge remained in the drug business for over thirty years, at the end of which time he sold out to what is now the C. J. Lincoln Drug Company, and has retired from business for about fifteen years. He was one of the originators of the old Little Rock Gas Company, and was always interested in the up building of his city, several of its finest brick blocks having been erected by him. Dr. Dodge was never a politician, but was called upon by his friends and citizens to act as alderman and mayor. He is a man of sterling worth and honesty, always self-dependent and straightforward. He was made a member of Western Star Lodge No. 2, of Little Rock, in 1843, and from that time to this, has advanced in the fraternity. He is also a member of Union Chapter No. 2, Occidental Council No. 1 and Hugh de Payne Commandery, of which he was Eminent Commander at one time, all of Little Rock. In these orders he has held nearly all of the offices at different times, and for a great many years was Grand Treasurer of all the Masonic grand bodies. In 1878, on account of ill-health, he resigned every office that he was holding at that time, but by a vote of the Grand Lodge, he was made a permanent member, and at their request a fine portrait of himself hangs on the wall at their headquarters. Dr. Dodge was also treasurer of St. John’s College for several years, and for about forty-four years has been a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church of this city, having been largely interested in the development of that congregation, and devoted to its interests ever since. He was married to Miss Emmeline Bradshaw, a native of New England, who accompanied him west. They were the parents of two children: Ellen E. (who afterward married the Rev. William A. Sample, of Fort Smith, but who died about two years ago) and Dr. S. D. Dodge, a practicing physician of Little Rock. Sometime after his first wife’s death, Dr. Dodge married Miss Eliza Bradshaw, by whom he had eight children, six of whom are yet living, viz.: George E. (a prominent attorney of this city), Mary S. (wife of Col. William G. Whipple, mayor of Little Rock), Anna E. (wife of Fred S. Staff, a well-known attorney of Franklin, Ind.), Lucy J. (wife of D. L. Gray, a planter of Pulaski County, residing in Little Rock), Emma J. (widow of Charles E. Kidder) and Minnie (wife of Gen. B. W. Green, of the treasury department at Washington, D. C.). Dr. Dodge is still living, at the age of eighty-one years, and enjoying comfortable health, as is his estimable wife. They are among the oldest residents of Central Arkansas, and are highly esteemed by everyone.

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This family biography is one of 156 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Pulaski County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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