Calhoun County AlArchives Biographies.....Dodson, John L. 1837 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 9, 2011, 9:52 am

Source: See below
Author: Smith & De Land, publishers

    JOHN L. DODSON. President of Oxford Male and Female College, Oxford, is a
native of Georgia, and was born April 10, 1837. His early life was spent on his
father's plantation, in his native State. His education was acquired at some
boarding school, the County Academy, and at Davidson College, North Carolina. He
came to Alabama in 1860, and at Jacksonville taught school one year. From
Jacksonville, as professional educator, he taught successfully at various places
in this State and in Georgia, during the period of the war. After the
declaration of peace, he returned to Calhoun County, and at Brock's school-house
taught two years. In 1868, he located at Oxford and, associated with Mr. W. J.
Borden, founded Oxford College. One year later he became sole owner and
proprietor of this popular institution of learning, and to it has since given
his time and talents.

    Professor Dodson, as will be seen by this brief recital, has given almost
his entire life to the cause of education, and of him it may be truthfully said,
that that great cause has appreciated as much from his efforts as from that of
any one man. The success of Oxford College attests at once his superior ability
as an organizer, disciplinarian, and educator, and the people of this vicinity
are justly proud of him and his institution.

    July, 1883, Professor Dodson, at Oxford, led to the altar Miss Fannie S.
Gladden, the accomplished daughter of James A. and Martha (Kelley) Gladden, of
this place. The Professor and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church,
and he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masonic
fraternity.

    Samuel and Rebecca (Gardner) Dodson, the parents of the subject of this
sketch, were natives, respectively, of Green and Morgan Counties, Ga. The senior
Mr. Dodson. a farmer by occupation. was born in 1788, and participated in the
war of 1812. He was partially reared in South Carolina, and spent a portion of
his early manhood in Mississippi. His father, Joshua Dodson, was a native of
Virginia, and his grandfather came from England. He reared a family of six sons
and four daughters. One of his sons, James W., now a farmer in Texas, took part
in the Florida War and the Confederate War: another son, Joshua M., was in the
Confederate service during the late war as quartermaster in the
Trans-Mississippi Department. He died in Texas. Christopher C., another son, was
in the Mexican War from Texas, as a lieutenant, and during the late war
commanded a troop of Indians from Arizona. He died in Tucson, Ariz. The fourth
son, Samuel P. died in Texas; Elijah M. was major of the First Confederate
Georgia Regiment, and is an attorney-at-law at Chattanooga. Tenn., and George W.
was in the Fifty-first Alabama Regiment, and is a farmer in Georgia.

    The Gardner family, in the person of the grandfather of the subject of this
sketch, Christopher Gardner, on account of political troubles, came from Ireland
away back in the eighteenth century, settled in Virginia, and was a soldier in
the Revolutionary War, and was severely wounded at Brandy wine. He died in
Georgia, after having reared a large family of daughters and two sons.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART III.
HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE VARIOUS COUNTIES IN THE STATE.
MINERAL BELT.

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