| Sumner D. Dodge Reference: Taken from "History of the St. Croix Valley", published in 1909 |
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Sumner D. Dodge has resided in River Falls, Wis., for over a half century. He was born August 22, 1829, in Lincoln county, Maine, where he was educated and where he lived until he was twenty-one years of age. He learned the trade of a tinner and then went to Boston, Mass., and followed his trade for eight years. In 1856 he removed to River Falls, Wis., and conducted the tinner's trade and hardware business very successfully for about thirty-four years, and about 1890 he sold out to his son. He occupied a store in the Tremont Block and then he removed to a building he erected and occupied it up to the time he retired. His father's name was John and his mother's name was Sarah Dodge before her marriage. They were both natives of Lincoln county, Maine. The father was a mason by trade and he followed that and farming during his life. He died January 1857, at the old home place. The old block house is still standing in the township of Edgecomb which he helped to build in 1809, in advance of the War of 1812. The mother died in 1842. Sumner D. was the youngest of a family of eight children and he is the only one now living. Mr. Dodge is a stockholder in the Farmers and Merchants State Bank of River Falls, and was for many years a director of the bank. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and has passed all of the chairs three times. Mr. Dodge married, January 1, 1854, Eliza A. C. Pratt, of Weymouth, Mass. Mrs. Dodge was born at Braintree, Vt., July 21, 1829. Her father was Samuel Pratt and her mother was Anna White before her marriage. Mr. Pratt was born at Braintree, Mass., and Mrs. Pratt was a native of Vermont. Her father was a tin peddler for many years and later he was in the hardware and tinware business in Weymouth. He came to Wisconsin in 1855 and purchased a farm in Pierce County and there he conducted the farm until a few years before his death. He was well advanced in years and died at Hastings, Minn. Her mother died at about seventy-five years of age. Mrs. Dodge is one of six children. She attended the district schools of her native place and remained at home until her marriage. Mrs. Dodge has had seven children, all born in Pierce county except the oldest, who was born in Massachusetts. Ella is the widow of Oliver Heasley and resides with her mother. She has had two children: Ethel is married to Harry Hurlbert and Hattie G. is dead. George J. is the second child; he resides in River Falls and is conducting the business established by his father in 1856. He married Miss McKag, who bore him two children. Cecil is now in partnership with his father. He married Kate Kennedy and has one child-Allen. Morris resides in Seattle, Wash. He is married and has one child. George J. Dodge married for his second wife Ida Evans and by this union they have six children-Ella, Mabel, Arthur, Everett, Theodore and Louise. Hattie is the third child born to Mr. and Mrs. Dodge and is the wife of J. E. Bailey, of Tacoma, Wash. They have an adopted daughter-Edna. Wendall S. is the fourth child. He is a baggage master on the Omaha branch railroad and resides at Ellsworth. He married Lizzie Huber and has three children-Howard, Royce and Jerald. Everett, the fifth, died at the age of thirty-one. He married Gengina Harper. Anna is the wife of George F. Hernandez. Clarence S. married Amelia Bayloff, of Durand, Wis. They have two children-Sumner and Yalta. Mr. Dodge is a young looking gentleman for his age; one would guess his age at about sixty years. His memory is good and he is enjoying splendid health. He and his good wife have grown old together, as they are about the same age. |