DODGE FAMILY JOURNAL Volume 18 No. 4 May/June 2002 Selwyn A. Dodge - Hero of Dogs for the Blind http://www.geocities.com/kenockee/AvocaMemories.html One native of Avoca, Michi- In 1952, the Ruby Lions still stands today. Dodge ad- rom out of the past when gan, Selwyn A. Dodge, better Club, of which he was a mem- vertised himself as a "dealer letters could be sent for F known as S. A. Dodge, gained ber, planned a homecoming in grain, hay, agricultural im- TWO cents! A copy of this world wide fame as President celebration for S. A. Dodge plements, wagons, carriages, letter was sent to us by Cleo of Lions International. He was and his wife, Verna. Approxi- etc." When the bank was built A. Dodge of California and the son of Edgar Dodge. In mately 400 people attended the at the turn of the century, Ed was originally sent about 1917, he graduated from the program, which was held Octo- Dodge sold the elevator to 1928 from Vermont to Mr. University of Michigan and by ber 15, 1952, at the County Frank Hill and Robert O. A. Dodge, Oakland, Cali- 1922, had become a Certified Warehouse in Avoca. All the Wadsworth and went to work fornia Public Accountant. Later, he Lions Clubs of the state were as a teller in the Avoca Bank. became Vice-President and represented and those of On- Hill and Wadsworth remod- “Dear cousins - I guess you Treasurer of Solventol Chemi- tario, Canada. The program in- eled and enlarged the existing will think I have forgotten to cal Products, Inc. and Director cluded a "This Is Your Life, S. building. write you what I know about of several business concerns. A. Dodge," conducted by Rev. As a child, circa 1894, this Dodge family but I have In 1952-53, S. A. Dodge Shelby Lee. WHLS Radio Sta- Harry Smith recalls going not been very well this win- was elected President of Lions tion came out and broadcast the with his father, Warren, to Ed ter so have not written much International by a unanimous speech made by Mr. Dodge. Dodge's Elevator. There he but am better now and hope ballot. During his tenure, he The Avoca Elevator, 1946 - watched with fascination as as the weather grows warmer visited Lions Clubs all over the Throughout the years, the ele- the big, gray horse, named I will feel better. We have world. vators have played an impor- Frank, walked round and had a very long and cold Not only did he grow up in tant part in the economy of round against the lead bars on winter and there has been a Avoca, but he also married Av- Kenockee's farm community. the treadmill, to run the ma- good deal of sickness. We oca girls. His first wife was Shortly after the building of the chinery and raise the buckets have had a nice rain and it is Vera. Upon her passing, S. A. railroad in 1882, Edgar S. of grain. warm and sunny today and I Dodge married Vera's sister, Dodge built the first grain ele- On Sundays, Mr. Dodge hope it will remain so for a Verna, both daughters of Dr. vator in Avoca. This was the hitched the same horse to his week at least. and Mrs. Lancelot Ardiel. beginning of the elevator that The folks are all pretty (Continued on page 2) well as far as I know. I had a letter from the west last week ithout doubt, one of the chased an old farmhouse which ing fiscal year 1998 which and Julia and family are Wmost dramatic and best still stands in the center of a ended June 30, 1998, Lions and well. Hope you and yours are known service activities of complex now valued at over Lioness have contributed well. Write me some time in The Lions Club is the Leader seven million dollars. The nearly 2.5 million dollars. the near future so I may Dog program. The Leader Dog Leader Dog School in Leader Dog offers its services know what you think of the School was founded in 1939 Rochester, Michigan, is adja- through the Lions and Li- Dodge record. I will not by three Lions who were un- cent to an estimated 45% of the onesses of all states to the write anymore this time as I able to obtain Leader Dogs nation's blind. blind. Lions and Lionesses have to write Louie. It is his from any other source. During its first years of op- help spread the word that blind birthday next Friday. He is Founders were S.A. Dodge, eration, only a few people people who want to be free and (Continued on page 3) Donald P. Schuur and Charles graduated. In fiscal year 1998, mobile can have a Leader Dog A. Nutting; all of whom later 279 Leader Dog teams gradu- for the asking and can write in On the Inside served as President of the ated; 279 more blind people behalf of a blind candidate to Leader Dog organization. Sand in My Shoes 2 went out into the world able to obtain an application. g Conceived in a dream, Leader live a life of their own, despite he above information was Barbara’s Byline 3 Dog has grown to be one of the blindness. Nearly 11,000 taken from the following largest and finest dog guide T Passepartout 4 Leader Dogs have been trained two sites on the internet. schools in the world. since the founding of the rollanet.org and sirinet.net David Dodge, England 4 The whole enterprise began, school in 1939. For 57 years Where does Edgar Dodge, the with more courage than any- Earl’s Pearls 5 Lions and Lioness have in- father of Selwin, fit into the thing else, when a few Lions vested untold time and effort in Dodge genealogy? Genealogy Requests 6 from Detroit, Michigan, pur- the Leader Dog program. Dur- 1 THE DODGE FAMILY JOURNAL May/June 2002 Sand In My one story and a loft, for the evidences (Continued from page 1) of his habitation and outbuilding, small buggy and old Frank became a "Sunday Shoes elevations and depressions, extents up- horse." Later, a gasoline engine was used by ward on the hillside above us for nearly for power and eventually, all was con- Stephen Allen Dodge 100 feet. Once beaten paths branch out verted to electricity. [email protected] from the spring and can hardly be fol- Few people remember Dave Quail's Ele- lowed as we try to retrace the footsteps vator, which before the turn of the cen- tury, sat just to the southeast of the depot, The Homestead of Henry Dodge of this pioneer. along the railroad tracks. In 1900, Wesley A look into the past When the Black Hawk war cloud Bricker and Stanley Smith rented this ele- arose, Henry erected a stockade which “If you can secure W. H. Thomas as a vator. he called Fort Union to protect his fam- In 1902, after two very successful years guide, you will be able to locate south of ily and the townspeople from hostile Dodgeville some 5 miles, the farm where of renting Dave Quail' s Elevator, Wes Indians. The site is completely over- Bricker built another elevator just north- lived Col. Henry Dodge, distinctly one of grown with raspberry and gooseberry the greatest characters of territorial Wis- west, up the railroad track, behind the bushes, plums, goldenrod six feet tall, “Dodge” Elevator. At this point, Quail's consin and leader in the savage little with wild cucumber vines clambering Elevator ceased to exist. battle of the Pecatonica on June 1832, vagrantly over all, and a willow fit- Farmer's would bring their loads of when a war party of fourteen Sacs and tingly shading the spring, of whose cold grain and hay into Avoca and a man from Foxes were exterminated, and perhaps water we freely partook. Great white each elevator would come out and bid, justly entitled to the same designation in oaks tower above the tanglewood and with the load going to the highest bidder. relation to Black Hawk’s primary defeat besides a dry creek bed lies a giant For fourteen years, the two elevators were at Wisconsin Heights on July 21, that cottonwood over five feet in diameter. in competition, until the Handy Brothers same year, and also to his utter rout at “This giant” Mr. Thomas tells us “is Railroad was built through Fargo, in 1915 Bad Axe on August 2. To be sure, said to have been planted by Mr. and the Bricker Elevator was moved to Brigadier General Atkinson was in com- Dodge”. Clearly based on its size, it that community in 1916. Rueben Green mand, but Colonel Henry Dodge and might date back to his arrival to Wis- did the carpenter work necessary to pre- pare the elevator for its move and Arthur Colonel Zachary Taylor, with their consin from Missouri over ninety years Nye did the moving with horses and troops, composed the front, and, soon ago.” “It is believed” Mr. Thomas tells after, at Fort Crawford, did not Gen. skids. Note: The D. B. C. and W. Rail- us “That the discovery of Lead Mines road, locally known by the name of its Atkinson, addressing Col. Dodge, grate- in Southwestern Wisconsin, and the fully exclaim “You have led me on to builders, the Handy Brothers, was started promise of wealth lured Henry to from Bay City in 1908, reaching Port victory - you have saved me.” Dodgeville about 1827.