Dodge City

“ Immediately surrounding Fort Dodge is a rich farming country. To the E. of the city lies a gypsum bed, extending over an area of about 50 sq. m., and considered to be the most valuable in the United States; to the S. coal abounds; there are also limestone quarries and deposits of clay in the vicinity—the clay being, for the most part, obtained by mining. Fort Dodge is a market for the products of the surrounding country, and is a shipping centre of considerable importance. ”

“ Dodge street is a well-known thoroughfare of the city for the passage of foot passengers and vehicles of all sorts, and it is also used by the tracks of a street railway company. There is testimony in the record tending to show that the viaduct, as ordered to be constructed, is of a width and strength sufficient to sustain the street railway system theretofore laid upon Dodge street, and crossing thereon the tracks of the railway company. ”

“ And when you leave town, call for your pistols, but don’t ride out shooting; omit that. Most cowboys think it’s an infringement on their rights to give up shooting in town, and if it is, it stands, for your six-shooters are no match for Winchesters and buckshot; and Dodge’s officers are as game a set of men as ever faced danger.”
Nearly a generation has passed since McNulta, the Texan cattle drover, gave our outfit this advice one June morning on the Mulberry, and in setting down this record, I have only to scan the roster of the peace officials of Dodge City to admit its correctness. ”

“ A LETTER FROM HOLLAND
Amsterdam, July 30, 1873
DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS AT HOME:
If you all could be here with me today, what fine times we might have walking through this beautiful Dutch city! How we should stare at the crooked houses, standing with their gable ends to the street; at the little slanting mirrors fastened outside of the windows; at the wooden shoes and dogcarts nearby; the windmills in the distance; at the great warehouses; at the canals, doing the double duty of streets and rivers, and at the singular mingling of trees and masts to be seen in every direction. ”

“ The larger New York Peace Society is now certainly a thing of the near future. To the men and women who will constitute that society, the noble body of those now working in their various ways in the great city for the cause of peace, is dedicated especially this republication of the old essays of David Dodge, the founder of the first peace society in the world, who by his pioneering and prophetic service gave to New York a place so significant in the history of what is to-day the world’s most commanding cause. ”

“ The pews of the nobility and the dignitaries of the city were circular in form, each surrounding a column. Elaborately carved, they formed a massive base to their great pillars standing out in bold relief against the blank, white walls beyond. These columns, lofty and well proportioned, were nicked and defaced from violence done to them long ago; yet it seemed quite fitting that, before they were lost in the deep arches overhead, their softened outlines should leaf out as they did into richness and beauty.
Soon Ben lowered his gaze to the marble floor. ”

“ Harrod was just as glad to see Dodge as Dodge apparently was to see Harrod, and kindly offered to assist the fugitive to get into Mexico in any way that the latter desired. Dodge, for his part, took advantage of his usefulness to the extent of requesting him to purchase them railroad tickets, the plan being to leave Alice the following morning for Monterey, Mexico. Three hours after the stage bearing Dodge and his party pulled up at the City Hotel, Tom Ross and Jesse drove in behind a pair of fagged-out broncos at two in the morning. ”

“ I have business in the city to-morrow, and if you and Donald say yes, it shall be a party of three."
"Oh, indeed we say yes," cried the now happy Dorry. "Shall you be there all day, Uncle?"
"All day, my dear. We shall have plenty of time for sight-seeing."
"Good! good!" and off she ran to tell the glad news to Lydia. "Only think, Liddy! Donald and I are to be all day in New York. Oh, we'll have such a nice time! and I'll buy you the prettiest white apron you ever wore in all your life!" ”

“ He then hastily purchased a ticket to Houston, Texas, and boarded the train. Dodge's companion had bidden him good-by as the engine started, and Jesse's task now became that of ferreting out Dodge's destination. After some difficulty he managed to get a glimpse of the whole of the fugitive's ticket and thus discovered that he was on his way to the City of Mexico, via Eagle Pass, Texas, while from the Pullman conductor he learned that Dodge had secured sleeping-car accommodation as far as San Antonio, Texas, only. ”

“ Decide quickly, boys--Blue Stairs or Leyden?"
"Leyden," they answered, and were out of Haarlem in a twinkling, admiring the lofty, towerlike windmills and pretty country seats as they left the city behind them.
"If you really wish to see Haarlem," said Lambert to Ben, after they had skated awhile in silence, "you should visit it in summer. It is the greatest place in the world for beautiful flowers. The walks around the city are superb; and the 'wood' with its miles of noble elms, all in full feather, is something to remember. ”

“ Other downstairs rooms are sunporch, dining room, family room, kitchen and half bath. The second floor has five bedrooms and two baths.
Brady was born in 1893 on a farm northwest of Fort Dodge and moved to the city with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Brady, when five years old. The father bought and sold draft horses for eastern markets. When a Fort Dodge man was unable to pay for horses used in a dray 111 line they were repossessed and Brady’s father put the son into the draying business. ”

“ Certainly cities grow without any regard at all for the dignity of old mansions or old families.
And while the ground on which the mansion stood had increased in value until it was worth a considerable fortune, it was a carefully guarded family secret that the actual supply of funds in the family treasury had dwindled down to next to nothing.
One permanent investment brought Mrs. Baron a few hundreds annually, and Mr. Baron drew a modest salary from a position with the city, which he had held many years without complaint or lapses. ”

“ It is next insisted that the ordinance in question is unconstitutional and void, because the railroad company is required to construct a viaduct along the south side of Dodge street only, leaving some portion of the street-that upon the north side-still open to public traffic; in other words, the argument is that the viaduct would be made to carry a part of the traffic, still leaving some portion of the street open. ”

“ A garage is at the rear of the lot where once was a two-story barn that housed the family’s horse, buggy and sleigh.
Mr. Wright was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1840 and came to the United States in 1871. He moved to Fort Dodge in the early 1880s where he was trainmaster for the Illinois Central Railroad’s Sioux City division. Later he was owner and partner in the hardware business here 43 with S. J. Robertson. Their store was at Central Avenue and Sixth Street.
The Wright home
209 So. Seventh Street
After retiring from the hardware business, Mr. ”

“ Erected by John M. Mulroney, it is located at 302 S. 7th St.
The two-story house was built of soft red brick manufactured by one of the city’s early-day brick plants and they are generally in good condition after more than 100 years. Basement walls are of native stone.
Additions have been made to the house since it was constructed—on the west and south sides. The original part of the house has seven large rooms, hallway and stairway and is now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Henry W. Janssen who acquired the property in 1944. ”

“ I sometime since left the place of my nativity in Connecticut, and, in the year 1770, settled in Sandusky, an Indian village, about half way between Pittsburgh and Detroit, where I carried on a very beneficial trade with the natives, until the unhappy dispute between Great-Britain and America reached those pathless wilds, and roused to war Savages no ways interested in it.
In July, 1775, Capt. James Woods called at my house in his way to the different indian towns, where he was going to invite them, in the name of the Congress, to a treaty to be held at Fort-Pitt. the ensuing fall ”

“ The church structure is not, perhaps, so small as my imagination presents it to me; but I cannot see it save with the desert as a background—the desert austere and illimitable. You reach the prim little front door by climbing a street which runs parallel with the Rio Grande, and the church is almost the last structure you will pass before you set forth into a No-Man’s land of sage and cactus and yucca and mesquite lying under the blazing sun.
Harboro his name was. Of course, there was a Christian name, but he was known simply as Harboro from Piedras Negras to the 2 City. She was Sylvia Little. ”

“ In fact, good looks are to this day inherent in the Dodge family.
I have already told a good deal of the history of Francis Dodge, junior, of his marriage to the two daughters of Judge Chapman. He had a son and a daughter by each wife.
In 1851, at the death of Francis Dodge, senior, his splendidly established West Indies business continued under the management of the eldest sons, the name being changed to F. & A. H. Dodge. On the basis of their business alone, Georgetown was made a port of entry and a custom house was established here. ”

“ It enclosed the proceedings of the Virginia Council concerning Hamilton.
Dodge was a great traveler in his day. Born in Connecticut in 1751, he went to Sandusky, Ohio, in 1770, thence to Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) , thence back to Sandusky, thence in succession to Detroit, Michillimackinac (Mackinac) , Detroit, Quebec, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Fort Pitt, Vincennes (Indiana) , Kaskaskia (Illinois) , Ste. Genevieve (Missouri) , and New Orleans. We find mention of the man at these places and it is very probable that his travels were much more extensive. ”

“ Another house built by the Dodges on their farm is the one on 30th Street, now doubled in size and occupied by Dr. Gwynn. Here Henry H. Dodge lived until he moved into his mother's former home, the Chapman house, on Congress (31st) Street and Dumbarton Avenue. [Pg 242]
On the southeast corner of Stoddert (Q) and Washington (30th) Streets, what is now Hammond Court, an apartment, was the house built by Francis Dodge, junior. In the group picture shown, he and Alexander Hamilton Dodge are the two seated in the middle of the front row. A. H. Dodge is the only brother not adorned with a beard. ”

“ Fathers: From the information I have had of the commandant of Detroit, with distrust I accepted your invitation, and measured my way to the council fire with trembling feet. Your reception of me convinces me of his falsehood, and the groundlessness of my fears. Truth and he has long been enemies. My [Pg 17] father, and many of my chiefs, have lately tasted death. The remembrance of that misfortune almost unmans me, and fills my eyes with tears.
The following is another letter by Dodge:
Fort Pitt Decr 13th 1781. ”

“ They find that his treatment of our citizens and soldiers, captivated and carried within the limits of his command, has been cruel and inhumane; that in the case of John Dodge, a citizen of these states, which has been particularly stated to this Board, he loaded him with irons, threw him into a dungeon, without bedding, without straw, without fire, in the dead of winter and severe climate of Detroit ”

“ From Corinth we marched with Sherman in his celebrated trip from Memphis to Chattanooga. We wintered on the line, and rebuilt the Nashville and Decatur Road, and in his Memoirs General Grant, after describing the condition of the Army, and the necessity for rebuilding the railway from Nashville to Decatur, speaks thus of the work of the Sixteenth Army Corps:
General Dodge had no tools to work with except those of the pioneer—axes, picks, and spades. ”

“ This I informed Congress of, agreable to their request, by express, and that the Governor of Detroit was still urging the Indians to war. Soon after this, a party of Savages from the neighborhood of the lakes, came to my house on their way to the frontier to strike a blow: I asked them the reason they took up the hatchet? They replied, that the Governor of Detroit had told them, that the Americans were going [Pg 33] to murder them all and take their lands but if they would join him, they would be able to drive them off, and that he would give them twenty dollars a scalp. ”

“ Sometimes at liberty, engaged in trading, and sometimes confined in jail as a rebel, he remained in Detroit and Mackinac till May, 1778, when he was sent down to Quebec, at which place he arrived on the first day of June.
In the reports of rebel prisoners at Quebec in June and July, 1778, are three entries referring to Dodge as follows: "John Dodge, 24 years old, from Connecticut, a trader settled at Detroit for seven years, sent down by Lieutenant Governor Hamilton. His commercial effects at Detroit. Taken up on suspicion of having been in arms with the rebels." ”

“ Some one some day ought to write the story high among the gallant deeds of men. However, here is not the place nor this the time; for what comes after is to be a tale of stratagem, not battle; politics, not war.
Commonly the face of Dodge was as open and frank and care-free as the face of a Waterbury watch. On the occasion in hand it wore a look of occupation and serious business. This business expression was fairly founded; a sheriff for Ford County must be selected, the gentleman who had filled that post of trust being undeniably dead. ”