Des Moines County IA Archives Biographies.....Dodge, Augustus C. 1812 - 1883
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Author: Cyrus C. Carpenter (1896)

GEN. AUGUSTUS C. DODGE, deceased, is numbered among the honored pioneers of
Iowa, and during his life was among the most noted men. He sprang from good old
Revolutionary stock, and the patriotism of his ancestors found an abiding place
in his heart. Henry Dodge and Christina, daughter of James McDonald, were
married in 1800, a few miles west of St. Louis. Of their children nine grew to
maturity, Augustus C. being the fourth in order of birth.

   He was born January 2, 1812, at St. Genevieve, Missouri, then in the
Territory of Louisiana, the oldest settlement on the west side of the
Mississippi river, about sixty miles below St. Louis. In that new and sparsely
settled country his boyhood days were passed. His father was a man of note, even
at that time, and during the struggle with Great Britain, from 1812 to 1815, was
in command of a battalion of militia whose duty it was to keep the Indians at
bay. For his services he was appointed Brigadier General of the militia of
Missouri Territory. On the return of peace he engaged in mining and smelting,
and in the manufacture of salt. The educational facilities of that region were
very scant, and the only school Augustus attended for a few months was kept in a
log school-house, in which the light came through greased paper; pencils were
made from bullets beaten into shape and hammered to a point; pens were made with
a Barlow knife, and ink from the boiling of butternut bark, or gunpowder.
Meanwhile the boy gained strength and self-reliance for the struggle of life in
which he was to engage.

   In 1827 the family removed to the Fevre river lead mines. Upon arriving at
Galena July 4, they found the town in a state of alarm from fear of an attack
from the Winnebago Indians. Henry Dodge was at once waited upon by citizens and
asked to take command of forces for the defense of the mining district. Young
Augustus wished to join them, and, when told that he was too young, appealed to
his father, who, giving him a small shotgun, advised, "Shoot well, my boy."

   Upon the restoration of peace, Henry Dodge located at a point about
forty-five miles northeast of Galena, to which was given the name of Dodge's
Grove. When the Black Hawk war broke out in 1832 he was Colonel of the militia
of Wisconsin Territory, and on the 25th of April was directed by General
Atkinson to raise as many mounted men in the mining regions as could be obtained
for service against the hostile Indians. In one company then raised Augustus was
elected Lieutenant of volunteers for home protection, and in the battle of the
Wisconsin he conducted himself bravely. On the march, or camping out, he was
always cheerful and obliging to the men.

   During these years the family divided their time between their residence near
Dodgeville and St. Genevieve, and Augustus made frequent trips between the two
places. In February, 1837, he visited the national capital, where, as a son of a
friend of the president, and one who had made a national reputation in the Black
Hawk war, and through the attentions of his uncle, Senator Linn, he enjoyed
unusual facilities for seeing public men and observing public affairs. Returning
home, on March 19, 1837, he was united in marriage with Miss Clara A. Hertich,
daughter of Prof. Joseph Hertich. Their union was an exceedingly happy one, and
to them were born eight children: William J., Marceline M., Augustus V.,
Christiana, Clara A., Henry J., Charles J. and William W.

   In 1838 Mr. Dodge was appointed by President Van Buren Register of the United
States Land Office at Burlington, and removed to that city, which was his home
the rest of his life. He made an exceedingly popular officer, often going out of
the way to help some unfortunate settler in securing the title to his land. The
services then rendered were remembered in after years.

   January 14, 1839, Mr. Dodge was appointed by Governor Lucas as Brigadier
General of the Second Brigade of the First Division of the militia of Iowa
Territory. In the fall of that year Missouri laid claim to a portion of Iowa
Territory, on its southern border, which was the occasion of great excitement.
December 11 General Dodge's brigade was called out. On reaching Van Buren county
General Dodge was sent with two others to the encampment of the Missouri
militia, and, a friendly conference following, an amicable settlement was
arranged and the troops disbanded.

   In the summer of 1840, without thought or effort on his part, General Dodge
was nominated delegate to Congress. He made a canvass of the Territory in
company with his Whig competitor, Alfred Rich, and was elected by a majority of
585, receiving many Whig votes. On the second of September he took his seat in
Congress, and on the seventh of December following he welcomed his father to a
seat by his side, as a delegate from the Territory of Wisconsin,-the first and
only instance of a father and son sitting together in the House of
Representatives since the foundation of the Government. He served as delegate
until the admission of Iowa into the Union, December 28, 1846, a period of six
years of laborious service. In the limits of this sketch a record of his service
cannot be given, and the reader's attention is called to the life of General
Dodge by Dr. William Salter, published in 1887.

   The first General Assembly of the State of Iowa was not able to agree upon
the election of United States Senators, but the second Assembly, December 2,
1848, elected General Dodge and George W. Jones. Mr. Dodge drew for the short
term, ending March 4, 1849, and was at once re-elected for the term ending March
4, 1855. As seven years before the son had welcomed the father to a seat by his
side in the House of Representatives, so now the father, who had entered the
Senate on the 23d of the previous June, as one of the Senators from the State of
Wisconsin, greeted the arrival of his son in the Senate chamber. This was an
unprecedented occurrence. It was also noteworthy that Augustus C. Dodge was the
first person born west of the Mississippi river to become a Senator of the
United States. He was congratulated by Mrs. Fremont, wife of General Fremont,
who said: "General, I am sure that you will be the best behaved man in the
Senate, on the ground that a dutiful son will be exceedingly decorous in the
immediate presence of his father."

   The time in which General Dodge served in the United States Senate was an
exciting one in the history of the country. He favored the Compromise bill of
1850, but voted against Jefferson Davis's proposition to make void the
prohibition of slavery that had existed under the Mexican law, and extend the
Missouri Compromise line of 1820 so as to authorize slavery north of it, and he
voted for the admissson of California under her constitution prohibiting
slavery. Mr. Dodge served as chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, and
favored the passage of the Homestead bill. In the Kansas-Nebraska struggle of
1854, he followed the lead of Stephen A. Douglas. One of the best speeches
delivered in the Senate in favor of the organization of Kansas and Nebraska
under the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and sneeringly spoken of as "squatter
sovereignty," was by him. In answer to Senator Brown, of Mississippi, who said,
"There are certain menial employments which belong to the negro," he replied,
"Sir, I tell the Senator from Mississipi, I speak upon the floor of the American
Senate, in the presence of my father who will attest to its truth, that I
perform and do perform when at home, all of these menial services to which the
Senator referred in terms so grating to my feelings. As a general thing I saw my
own wood, do all my own marketing. I have driven teams, horses, mules, oxen, and
considered myself as respectable then as I do now, or as any Senator on the floor."

   On the 8th of February, 1855, Mr. Dodge resigned his seat in the Senate, and
on the following day President Pierce nominated him to be Minister
Plenipotentiary to the Court of Spain. He was confirmed and served with great
credit to himself and the general Government until the summer of 1859, when he
returned home and made the race for Governor of Iowa on the Democratic ticket,
but could not overcome the strong Republican majority. The following extract is
from Salter's life of the General:

   "Withdrawn the rest of his life for the most part from official station, Mr.
Dodge retained to the end of his life his interest in public affairs, and his
unswerving devotion to the Democratic party, of which he remained a recognized
leader. On several occasions his name was presented as a suitable candidate for
the highest offices in the nation, but he himself never aided or abetted any
movement to that end. In 1872 he advocated union with the liberal Republicans,
and the election of Horace Greeley for President. In 1874 he was elected Mayor
of Burlington by a spontaneous movement of citizens, irrespective of party. In
1875 he served, by appointment of Governor Carpenter, on a commission to
investigate alleged abuses in a reform school at Eldora, and aided in
introducing a more humane discipline into that institution. An ardent friend of
youth, he was a frequent visitor at schools, and gave help and cheer to many in
their struggle for an education. He sustained the cause of temperance in
vigorous addresses, discountenanced the drinking habit by consistent example,
and looked to the invigoration of man's moral sense for the suppression of
intemperance,-not to prohibitory legislation. At meetings of pioneers and old
settlers he was an honored guest, and never wearied in commemorating their
exploits and labors.

    "He presided over the semi-centennial celebration of the settlement of Iowa,
on the first of June, 1883, at Burlington, and gave surpassing dignity and zest
to that occasion. It was a sight that can never be looked upon again, to see
that illustrious pioneer of Iowa, at the age of more than three-score and ten.
pour forth from his capacious, accurate and ready memory treasures of
information concerning the beginning of the commonwealth. It seemed as if he
were inspired with a religious zeal to snatch from oblivion the memory of our
founders for the instruction of after times. A few months later came the fatal
sickness and the final hour. He died at Burlington, Iowa, on the 20th of
November, 1883, in the bosom of his family, sharing the consolation of religion,
his last words being 'Bless the Lord.'"


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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