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John Kilgore Dodge |
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John Kilgore Dodge, farmer, p. O. New California, ex-Commissioner
of Union County, was born in Jerome Township November 17, 1833. He was a son of Judah Dodge, who was born in Vermont, January 23, 1796, His father, Judah Dodge, Sr., moved with his family to Union County at the beginning of the war of 1812, and settled on the Crocker Smith farm in Darby Township. Some years later he moved
to Jerome, locating on a farm of seventy acres. In 1836 he purchased a tract of 400 acres near New California. This whole farm was then covered with a dense forest, without an improvement, save a rude log shanty, which had been erected by the Indians. Mr. Dodge died on the farm in May 1856. He had filled the office of Justice of the Peace a number of terms and was otherwise officially identified with Jerome Township. He entered the county at the time of the last war with Great Britain and was familiar with its early settlement, organization, and the growth and development of it up to the date of his death. Judah Dodge, Jr., was but seventeen when his parents came to the West, and he spent the remainder of his minority in clearing up the land his father located. July 4, 1816, he was married to Elizabeth Kilgore, who was born in Ross County, Ohio, January 20, 1799, and by whom he had nine children, of whom our subject
is the third son and seventh child. In 1867, Mr. Dodge sold his farm and removed to Marysville, where he died April 23, 1870. He was for fifteen years an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a man of honor and highly respected. Mr. Dodge, the subject of this sketch, was reared and brought up on the farm and was educated in the common schools of Jerome Township. November 29, 1855, he married Miss Rebecca Rudolph, a daughter of John and Julia Rudolph. Mrs. Dodge was born in Delaware County, Ohio, July 1, 1833. Nine children were the fruits of this marriage Andrew J. (married Flora E. Harrington)In 1857, Mr. Dodge moved into Mill Creek Township, and in 1865 took up his residence on his present farm. He owns 509 acres of well-improved and highly-cultivated land. His occupation is agriculture and stock-raising ; in the latter pursuit he has dealt extensively for the last twenty years. Mr. Dodge has by his energy and careful business management achieved a reasonable success in the accumulation of property. He was Trustee of Jerome Township two years and member of the Board of County Commissioners one term. His attention has been given almost entirely to his farm, and he ranks with the successful farmers of the county. |