Des Moines County IA Archives Biographies.....Dodge, William Wallace 1854 - 
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Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896)

HON. WILLIAM WALLACE DODGE, of Burlington, Iowa.- Throughout the great State of
Iowa can be found no name so thoroughly interwoven with the history of the State
as is that of the Dodge family. In making that history they have been most
important factors, and have marked with deeds the vanishing traces of
swift-rolling time.

   The name of Augustus C. Dodge, the father of the subject of this sketch, will
ever be revered throughout the Hawkeye State, and the son who has risen to
prominence solely by his own merit is in every way qualified to maintain the
honor, ability and integrity for which the preceding members of the family have
been renowned. Like his father and his grandfather, his career has been
characterized by ability, thoroughness and persistence, and, although he has not
yet attained his forty-second year, his reputation has extended far beyond the
boundaries of his native State, and he is undoubtedly better known to the
outside world than any of its younger men.

   William Wallace Dodge was born in Burlington, Iowa, April 25, 1854. He was
elected State Senator from the Ninth Senatorial District of Iowa for eight
years,-from 1885 to 1893.

   His father was the late Augustus C. Dodge, who was the Territorial delegate
as also the first United States Senator from Iowa, of whom a sketch is given
elsewhere in this volume. His grandfather, Governor Henry A. Dodge, was the
first Governor of Wisconsin, and also served as United States Senator from that
State.

   William Wallace Dodge received his literary education at Notre Dame
University, Indiana, taking a scientific course and graduating in the class of
1874. He then entered the law department of the State University of Iowa,
graduating in June, 1876. He had the honor of being chosen president of
class-day exercises on that occasion, June 19, and was awarded the literary
prize offered to the graduating class for the best written argument on a given
thesis of law. Immediately after taking his degree, Mr. Dodge entered upon the
practice of his profession in his native city, in company with his brother
Charles J., under the firm name of Dodge & Dodge. By his brilliant talent, high
moral character and close application to business, he has won a prominent
position at the bar.

   Mr. Dodge is an earnest Democrat, and seems to have been born with a natural
instinct for politics: in fact it might be said to be hereditary with him. His
father and grandfather before him were eminent statesmen and Democrats of the
Old Hickory type. Both were members of the United States Senate at the same time
(the only instance in the history of the country where father and son sat side
by side as members of that body), one from Iowa and the other from Wisconsin.
Mr. Dodge began reading and talking politics in his youth, and made his maiden
campaign speech while in company with his father at the little town of Franklin,
Lee county, Iowa, during the presidential campaign of 1876, since which time he
has taken an active part in every local and national campaign, speaking from the
stump, serving on committees, presiding at conventions and working at the polls.
He was chosen captain of the Cleveland and Hendricks Club during the campaign of
1884, served as chairman of a number of Democratic county conventions, and as
delegate to local and State conventions and as an alternate delegate for the
State at large to the national convention at St. Louis, at which Grover
Cleveland was nominated the second time. At the Democratic convention held at
Des Moines September 1, 1887, he had, for a young man, the distinguished honor
of being chosen temporary chairman of that organization, and performed the
duties of his position with dignity and dispatch. During many years of
indefatigable effort in behalf of his party Mr. Dodge never sought, nor would he
accept public office till the fall of 1885, when his friends induced him to
accept the nomination for State Senator, when, as if to prove the exception to
the rule that "a prophet is never without honor save in his own country," he was
elected by a majority of 934 over a popular Republican candidate who had the
advantage of age, political experience and the prestige of a good soldier
record. It was charged that while Mr. Dodge possessed superior ability and
unquestioned integrity, he was guilty of the heinous crime of being a young man,
and was lacking in legislative experience. The first fault his friends claimed
time would remedy, and the latter he would more quickly overcome by placing him
where the necessary opportunity existed. His course in the Senate fully
justified the most sanguine expectations of his friends and constituents, and,
as a result, he was re-elected to the State Senate in 1889 by a majority of
1,876, more than double his former majority. His introduction of important
bills, and able, management in securing their adoption, soon proved his lack of
experience no serious hindrance to his usefulness. His manly course in rejecting
the so-called "$216 salary grab," growing out of the impeachment trial of
Secretary of State John L. Brown, and his sensible speech opposing it, was
consistent with his high sense of honor, and was generally approved by his
constituents. He was first to introduce a bill in the Iowa Legislature on the
subject of child labor, designed to prohibit the employment of children under
fifteen years of age in factories, mines and workshops. Mr. Dodge had made the
subject of that bill and the laws of other States and countries in regard to the
same a special study. His correspondence in relation to the subject was
voluminous and varied, until he was well qualified to be the champion of that
worthy cause. June 21, 1890, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel on the staff of
Governor Horace Boies.

   Near the close of the session of the Twenty-second General Assembly of Iowa
he was appointed one of the two selected from the Senate to act on the committee
of five appointed to investigate certain charges that had been preferred against
the State University of Iowa. The investigation began on May 15, 1888, ended
July 20, 1888, and to his credit be it said that he was the most faithful member
of the commission, not having lost a day from his labors. This was but
additional evidence of his fidelity to public duty.

   At the Twenty-third General Assembly Senator Dodge introduced a bill creating
the first Monday in September as a legal holiday, to be known as "Labor Day,"
which was approved April 5, 1890. He is known throughout the State of Iowa as
the "Father of Labor Day."

   At the Twenty-fourth General Assembly he was the author of a bill which at
that session became a law, being "a bill to protect working men in the use of
their labels and trademarks," now known as "Dodge's Union Label Bill."

   Senator Dodge was selected on the part of the Senate to deliver the eulogy
over the remains of State Senator P. G. Ballingall, who died at Hong Kong,
China, March 7, 1891. The eulogy was delivered April 14, 1891, in the Coal
Palace at Ottumwa, Iowa. Governor Horace Boies and staff, as also the members of
the State Senate and Representatives, were present, in additon to a vast
concourse of people. He delivered an able and beautiful address over the remains
of his dead friend and colleague. In speaking of his absent friend, Senator
Dodge said:

   "He was born amidst humble, obscure surroundings, and while on his journey up
the great ascent to life's summit the hand of poverty, at times, almost staid
his progress, yet hope ever wore its roses in the blue web of the future; he
conquered both, and could fairly claim to be self-made. It is a Divine
appointment that all must enter 'the blind cave of eternal night,' but when and
where the touch of God's finger is to put us to sleep it is not of flesh or
blood to tell.

   "This hour, with bowed head and sorrowful heart, on our mournful journey to
his tomb, we pause a moment in this structure that has been aptly called
Ballingall's Black Diamond Temple, a mute witness of his genius, generosity and
goodness, and whose very walls, like dissolving views, present to our gaze that
kind and genial face lit up with an ever pleasant and sweet smile."

   Mr. Dodge is a most indefatigable worker in whatever he undertakes,
possessing intellectual faculties of a high order, and, with studious habits,
his abilities, both natural and acquired, are such as attract attention and
command respect. Nature has happily endowed him with a fine physique, a good
voice and a gift of oratory, and for a number of years past his has been a
familiar figure at State conventions, as also public gatherings, being
frequently invited to deliver addresses and responses at banquets. Quick in
perception and correct in analysis, his conclusions are logical and convincing.

   The scope of Mr. Dodge's capabilities is not confined to his senatorial
career. In the legal profession he is recognized as one of the leading lawyers
in the State, and his far-reaching thought enables him to cope successfully with
the most intricate problems of jurisprudence. He is the possessor of those
admirable qualities so essential to every statesman, of being able to deliberate
with caution, act with decision, yield with graciousness and oppose with
firmness. Tact, sense, and a quick appreciation of the right, are
characteristics he possesses in such high degree that they are the elements of
his success both at the bar and in the administration of his public trusts, and
public ambition is always subordinate to the public welfare.

   Already an approving constituency is favoring his name as a future candidate
for Congress, and it is only a question of time when this talented young lawyer
will be found following closely upon the footsteps of his illustrious ancestors
in the hall of the national Congress, and his name, like theirs, will be placed
foremost and remain lustrous in the annals of our country.

   May 18, 1892, Senator Dodge was married at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, to Miss Delia
J. Stubbs, a beautiful, charming and accomplished lady. On June 19, 1893, a son
was born to them, who was named William Wallace Dodge, Jr. The Senator and his
wife are living on the old homestead (of General A. C. Dodge) in Burlington, Iowa.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."'—MACAULAY.

"Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant,
of all things."—CARLYLE

"History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896


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