Washington County Ohio Genealogy Trails A part of the Genealogy Trails History Group

Washington County

On December 20, 1790, the Court of Quarter Sessions established three townships : Marietta, Belpre and Waterford. The following resolution fixed the bounds of Waterford:

Resolved, That the seventh and eighth townships in the eleventh range, the fourth and fifth townships in tenth range, and mile square, No. 33, in the fourth township of the ninth range, be, and they hereby are incorporated and included in one township, by the name of Waterford.

The first town officers were: Capt. Ebenezer Gray, town clerk; Noah Fearing, overseer of the poor; Dean Tyler, constable. To these three townships—Marietta, Belpre and Waterford—Rev. Daniel Story was employed by the Ohio Company to minister.

The early history of Waterford township is given very fully in other chapters. The following article on Beverly, prepared by Miss Virginia V. Dodge, leaves little more to be desired as to the history of that town, and also gives us many items of general interest relating to the surrounding country. The sketch of the Dodge family, likewise prepared by Miss Dodge, also fills out the history of Waterford township and the town of Beverly.

BEVERLY.

The colony from which Beverly on the Muskingum had its origin has a most highly creditable and romanic history. Rising out of the wilderness only a few months following the advent of the Ohio Company at Marietta, its sons and daughters were of that heroic mold that has not failed to leave its impress on the character of the present life.

Within a few miles of here were born some of the most noble men and women that our country has known. So enchanting is this heart of the valley, that it is small wonder that Silver Heels, the last chief of the Lenni-Lenape Indians, was loath to abandon the realm that had been his hunters' paradise, time without memory to the white man, and that out of the rebellious spirit of this chief the last arrow should have gone to its mark in the heart of the settler, Abel Sherman.

The immortal Garfield said in the House of Representatives something that has so direct a bearing upon the birth of the town of Beverly proper that it is but justice to the man whose conception it was to here give the extract:

"There is a force greater than that of State and government. It is the force of private voluntary enterprise, that has built up towns and schools and colleges in these United States, with enthusiasm and wonderful energy."

This especial quality was perfectly exemplified in the character of one of the first of Ohio's colonists, John Dodge, Esq., who founded the town of Beverly.

In laying out part of his estate for public sale, and in making donations of a number of valuable properties to improve the advantages naturally at hand, it was the dream of Mr. Dodge to make this point a convenient center of civiliation where its productions and opportunities would afford benefit to the surrounding population. The town was not laid out in a spirit of personal aggrandizement, as its founder gave away to its schools, park, churches, ministers and business enterprises more than he kept for himself and his heirs. A clause from a will by Mr. Dodge, relating to the name of Beverly, which, not being embodied in the historical part of this work containing the Dodge biography, is included here, as follows:

I. John Dodge, now intending to establish on a spot (before selected by my father. Captain Dodge, "as an exceptional site", a town for the further convenience and advancement of this region we chose as cur pioneer home, am of the firm intention to name the town Beverly, for three reasons—In that I have a reverence for the name as that of my birthplace in the mother State of Massachusetts. Also that many who came to the Northwest Territory with our company were from that pilgrim coast where that Beverly stands and would thus feel an affection for the name. Again, that I trust in the Providence of God it will be an augur for the protection of the new village; as Beverly in Old England escaped the destroying army of the Norman because of the sanctity of her great prelate, John of Beverly, so I trust those here may be spared all future disaster through our integrity in the keeping of God's laws.

Mr. Dodge made a plan for Beverly in 1831, but on account of national conditions he deferred the actual laying out of the place, although operating a ferry at this period across the river and being interested in other public enterprises.

From 1837 to 1843 the uncertain state of the public credit hardly seemed to touch the most prosperous population in the Muskingum Valley. There were improvements being made by the State upon the river dams and locks were being built, and a navigation was thus acquired that for many decades made the products of these fertile lands available to the world. There came a real need for an incorporated town, in the protection it would lend to the community.

The following letter from Hon. Thomas Ewing, just made Secretary of the Treasury, to Mr. Dodge, whose wife was a relative of Mr. Ewing's, is of prophetic value:

Washington. March 25, 1841.

To John Dodge. Esq.,

I am much interested in your proposition to lay out a town near the home of my family; it would draw new strength there and help to build up our State on a foundation of high character.

Posterity owes you a debt of gratitude for your untiring efforts for the advancement of the community life around you, and likewise for so beautiful a choice of a town site, for I have looked upon that bend of the river in my journeys by stage and horseback as the fairest view on the face of earth. Though endeared to me by association, even the most impartial observer would not fail to be impressed with its great beauties.

The notable February (1843) that found President Tyler so deeply burdened with the refusal of foreign governments to make even a loan to our agents, and many conditions unpropitious, did not deter the long-cherished plan of Mr. Dodge in the establishment of an incorporated town. There was levied a tax of two mills on the dollar and an officer of the law appointed, with a Town Council. There was a population of several hundred people, and new-comers arriving on account of the improved river traffic, the works having been completed at this place a year before. There were two general stores, also several buyers and shippers of agricultural products. There were three churches, a college and two schools then conducted here.

Newspapers.—The first newspaper was started about eight years after this by Mr. Baker, who more recently was appointed United States Minister to Guatemala. Following this, the Beverly Gazette having expired with the Know Nothing party, Beverly College conducted a weekly paper. Then the Beverly Advertiser was inaugurated by Mr. Preston in 1862 and was well conducted. He was succeeded in the press work for the town by W. T. & Howard Atlierton, who edited the Times. In the same year the Beverly Citizen and Washington Advertiser were started. In 1879 C. E. T. Miller and William Walter started the Dispatch. They sold the same to C. N. McCormack. In July, 1888, Professor Smith, formerly president of the College, took up editorial work on this paper. At his death he was followed in this by Miss Roberta Smith, and later by his son, Robert, who sold the Dispatch recently to Mr. Goodrich. The present editor has used every effort to call the attention of the world at large to the great but undeveloped resources of the vicinity, and deserves success.

Beautiful Situation—An the beginning of the new century, the old town finds itself the much-sought but still exclusive resort of people who want the quiet of its hills, the fishing, hunting or boating and the indescribable enchantment of its woods and country drives. Added to these are the historic associations that linger about the site of its two old forts, the Indian traditions and prehistoric mounds, and there is a wealth of diversion for even summer visitors. The location for health is perfect, few epidemics or diseases have invaded its comfortable precincts.

Several well-known painters and poets have made it the theme of their brushes and songs, and the town and vicinity have produced also some artists of note and a number of authors mentioned later in this article.

The location of Beverly from any approach is a delightful surprise. Set in the deepest bow of the whole river, with a broadness of green fields stretching away toward the east and a rolling plain rising from the bottom to the north, the shining water, of which Judge William Fowler has sung so delightfully, running like a band of shimmering silver at the base of the village streets, the rugged hills in their coats of green rising above the whole like steadfast sentinels on guard, make Beverly the gem of gems in the midst of many precious surroundings. The original pursuits will give place to new occupations, as by the influx of travelers more and more is developed of its hidden beauties and wealth.

Oil.—According to the philosophy that nothing is lost but something is gained in its place, while some of the early sources of income to the town have been absorbed by the larger places nearby, chiefly Marietta and Zanesville, the capital brought to the village for investment in the oil territory lying all about will be of greater benefit eventually; a recent revival of operations at this point renewing those begun about 20 years ago.

Where once cattle, sheep and horses grazed upon the farm and Agriculture was undisputed Goddess whose reign not the most chimerical would have ever supposed usurped, there even oil has come to be king. The tall derricks rise in many directions and men stake their claims for game after game of chance. The number of companies drilling and the rich returns of some call still others to these fields where the resources unseen are greater than those which the forefathers saw in the earth, sun and air of this fruitful township.

Coal, Lumber and Clay.—Beverly is also a depot for quantities of fine lumber, splendid oak for ships being taken out of its surrounding forests only last year. Coal is also brought here from banks at different points nearby. There is within the corporation limits clay, of excellent use for brick and tile, and limestone. The town is lighted by natural gas and a fine electric plant. The general annual expenditures amount to only between $3,000 and $4,000.

Public Institutions.—By an act of the General Assembly of Ohio, a college was established at Beverly, in February, 1843, for the purpose of co-education. This was the joint gift of John Dodge and Benjamin Dana, Mr. Dodge giving out of his estate adjoining the town of Beverly a tract of land very beautifully located and erecting at his personal expense a fine brick building of three stories, well equipped for the day in which it was built, and for the purpose for which the College was designed.

Benjamin Dana left a tract of land upon which was a coal bank to supply fuel for the institution, and also some lots which were to be sold for the benefit of the institution. The learned and foreign languages and the liberal arts and sciences were to be taught here.

It was the expectation of the donors that the trustees would make their gift a nucleus for obtaining further donations as time went on, and thus add those advantages, influences and profits to the community that an institution for higher education would bring. Its successive Boards of Trustees, having been at times somewhat scattered and occupied to the exclusion of public interests, have not after nearly three-quarters of a century obtained any gifts toward the further revenue required at this period. It has at earlier times brought a great deal of life to the town of Beverly. A schism in the Presbyterian churches of this place, which finally concluded in a law suit for property formerly occupied by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, deprived the College of its full quota of local patronage for some years, but it is now reviving.

Both Mr. Dana and Mr. Dodge were originally of the Puritan faith of their forefathers, but later in life they could not subscribe to all the tenets of the old school profession of faith, and so became members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. For this reason, as being a somewhat more liberal body, the appointment of the Board of Trustees was by them vested in the synod of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Churches and Religious Revivals of the early period were conducted first by Rev. Mr. Story, who held services near the great elm tree  close by what is now the Baltimore & Ohio station. A powerful awakening was later held by Rev. Mr. Lindlev in the first colonial church on the old stage road in the south part of Beverly, then the Presbyterian and afterward the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. When this congregation moved to the brick church up town, the old river church was occupied by the followers of Alexander Campbell. It was quite an interesting building, with high pews, the flour rising toward the back of the church, and the high pulpit between the two front entrance-ways having semi-circular stairs leading up to the desk. Externally, the building was colonial, yellow with white trimmings. The Disciples during the latter part of the last century purchased, and moved to, the very fine audience room formerly built and used by the Baptists on Main street.

After the separation of the Presbyterian element of the town from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, a new and quite artistic Presbyteriarn Church was erected on Fourth street about 1895, to which various friends contributed stained glass window's. Mrs. Mcintosh gave the lot upon which this church was built.

Mr. Dodge donated the land for all the other churches in Beverly, regardless of denomination, as they each came to be organized.

A remarkable series of meetings was conducted in Beverlv about the midsummer of 1841, by a Universalist minister and editor then residing in Zanesville—Rev. G. T. Flanders—which resulted in the organization of a Universalist Church to which many of the most intelligent families of the vicinity united.

In 1856 Rev. J. H. Barker came as a missionary to Beverly and started the Baptist Church with 15 members.

The Methodists had services in Waterford township from the first quarter of 1800, but did not have a church in Beverly until 1837. Since then services have been held uninteruptedly at the corner of Sixth and Center streets with many able men in the pulpit.

Each of the churches named has had its societies for social and charitable purposes.

The Episcopalians have had special services at homes in the neighborhood, and the Roman Catholics a lecturer now and then at the Opera House.

Fraternal Orders.—Mount Moriah Lodge, No. 37, Free & Accepted Masons, was established on the 28th of September, 1816. The first meeting was held at the residence of John Dodge, Esq., and the officers elected were: Ebenezer Bowen, master; Eli Cogswell, S. W.; Obadiah Scott, J. W.; William Riply, secretary; William Rand, treasurer; William White, S. D.; Elias Woodsorf, J. D.; John Dodge and Andrew Story, stewards; Samuel Andrews, tyler. St. John's Day of 1817 was celebrated with all the rites of the order. The lodge, beside being one of the earliest in Ohio, contained in it the best men of this region, and still maintains its high character.

In 1879 a fine brick and stone building was erected for the use of Mount Moriah Lodge. The present membership is about 80. Many more have been initiated here, however.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows was founded March, 1847, being Beverly Lodge, No. 84. The first officers were: Samuel Thompson, noble grand; Robert Ramsey, vice grand; C. L. Bowen, secretary; W. V. N. Wheeler, treasurer. They have for their use today one of the best assembly halls in town. In the building built by them is also an opera house of quite considerable seating capacity.

The Grangers have a society in Beverly which had several years ago about 75 members.

Physicians.—The physicians of the early days were Drs. Mcintosh, Farley, Baker and Pardee. Of a little later period Dr. Bowen was identified with medical work many years, as was Dr. Israel Stone Dodge, who, however, soon located in Cincinnati and practiced there over 40 years.

Drs. Gilbert Campbell, Berkly and Reynolds were well known about 1849. Dr. Ramsey practiced, and died here at the time of a fever epidemic. Dr. James Little was a successful physician and took an active part in educational affairs.

Dr. P. Kellev has had from 1850 until recently a constant patronage in his profession.

Dr. Joseph Parker continued in practice here until he lost his health and died. Later came Dr. Frank Clark, and after him Dr. Kennon.

Dr. John Reynolds succeeded his father in 1865, but later moved to Oregon.

Dr. Culver resided here and practiced some years, as also did Dr. Chas. M. Humston, of Kentucky. Dr. John Patterson Dodge was in partnership with him two years, later, going to California,—he was appointed brigade surgeon in the Spanish-American War from Ohio.

Dr. Adair has practiced several years in Beverly, as has also Dr. Funk from Northern Ohio.

Dr. Arthur Bowen practiced in Waterford up to 1880, when he moved to Columbus.

Dr. Wallace Seely. who was horn here, became an oculist of reputation in Cincinnati.

Dr. A. S. Clark has had a large practice here for years. Dr. Theodore Hayward is now practicing in the vicinity of Beverly and Waterford.

Dr. Henry Clark was a well-known dentist. Dr. Howe, who afterward moved to Mexico, was likewise a successful dentist. Also Dr. Connor of Cumberland. Dr. Hartnell is at present the leading practitioner in this branch.

Schools.—The public schools of Beverly were inaugurated in 1854. the amount paid all the teachers that year being $380. The firsts chool building cost $3,000. This has been superseded by a very much more convenient and modern one, built during the last decade at a cost of about $20,000. A view of this school appears on a preceding page of this history. The superintendents have been: John Tarbell, Z. G. Bundy, Mr. Smith, T. C. Ryan, Jefferson Heston, and Frank Wagner. Dr. Little and Dr. Glines, as school directors for some years, took a marked interest in the methods of instruction.

Industries.—Industries now operating in Beverly and the vicinity are two flouring mills, two sawmills, a wagon shop, three black-smith's horseshoeing shops, and a veneering and box factory on the Waterford side, most of those engaged living in Beverly. A fine woolen factory, flouring mill, planing mill and iron foundry were destroyed by fire within a few years, greatly injuring the prosperity of the town.

Merchants.—The leading merchants engaged in business are: Warren W. Paimer, who has been very successful and has an attractive store. The leading bakery is owned by Mr. Smith, who succeeded Mr. Meller. who is now connected with the dry goods house of Mr. Palmer. William Maygucken, who is a G. A. R. man, is very popular both personally and in trade, being engaged in a dry goods and grocery house. William Morns has the leading clothing house and chinaware store; he is a merchant of experience and has an extensive acquaintance through the country about here. Charles Langenherg has a fine grocery trade, and also buys in various lines for shipping. Miss Minnie Mathews has kept a grocery and woolen store for some years very profitably. Oliver Tucker has been in the mercantile business longer than any one now in business in Beverly. Rufus Tucker, brother of O. Tucker, is associated with him in the same building but has a separate hardware store. Hart & Flowers also combine hardware with other lines. Louis C. Robinson has been for some years in the carriage and agricultural implement business but is now engaged in manufacturing carriages in Coshocton. Mr. Fowler, one of the early citizens of Beverly, has had a store and tinware trade combined with that of undertaking, which he recently conveyed by sale to Mr. Schob. W. P. Robinson was also formerly in the agricultural impiement business. Pomeroy Brothers have a large lumber, hardware and shipping business in which they are very successful. Mr. Dye's novelty store is a convenient home for many lines of goods at bargains. The leading drug store of the town is owned by W. R. Parker; there is combined with this quite an extensive general store for books, china, glass and objects of art of a character much better than is common in a town of this size. Dr. Funk has also a handsome drug store. Miss Reynolds for many years has been the leading; milliner; Mrs. Jackson more recently went into the same trade and has been popular in her work. Air. Mitchell has a large nursery for fruit and other trees.

Horses.—There have been some very fine horses raised and owned in the vicinity of Beverly. The region is as conducive to success in this direction as the blue grass country of Kentucky, this part of the valley having special advantages. The Humston and Mcintosh farm has large stables near town.

Mr. Shaw three miles below has usually a number of horses for persons from abroad. There is a race track and some stables near town connected with the Tri-County Fair Grounds. The Dana farm and others have fine flocks of sheep.

Park.—Beverly has a beautiful park of several acres given to the town by the founder. John Dodge, Esq., and planted by his grand-daughter; also a small park or open green that was Mrs. Dodge's gift, near the boat landing or lock.

Banking.—Waterford township, particularly that part around Beverly, having long been the wealthiest township in the country, has made Beverly quite a financial center. Aside from having regular houses in business, there was always a large trade in wool, lumber, agricultural products and live stock and from other products brought to this point.

As there was great necessity for a bank, a meeting was held at Union Hall in September, 1863, after the "National Banking Act" made the founding of a bank likely to be a success. The directors for the First National Bank of Beverly were: George Bowen, Patterson 0. Dodge, E. S. Mcintosh, H. C. Fish, J. B. Bane, Charles Bowen and C. M. Devol. George Bowen was made president and William Mcintosh, cashier. The capital was $150,000.

The Citizens Bank was organized in 1875. E. S. Mcintosh was president and C. W. Reynolds, cashier. The bank is conducted at the comer of Fifth and Ferry streets, in the same building as the American House. There wias a post office established in Beverly in 1838.
John Key hoe being the first postmaster.

Prominent Persons.—Among the persons who have been identified with the history of Beverly, and who became eminent were Hon. John Sherman; Thomas Ewing. whose family lived close by Beverly: and C. A. Dodge. The last named, who was in the United States Senate and was afterward minister to Spain, lived here in his youth, as did for a time John Sherman.

Stephen Powers, who was a war correspondent and went with General Sherman on the "March to the Sea" resided on the old Powers farm near Beverly. Mr. Baker, one of the early editors, became minister to Ceniral America in Cleveland's administration. The Fawcett family at one period lived here; one of its members. Mrs. Fawcett, is one of the singers of Ohio, having published a volume of poems.

Rev. Oliphant Patterson, whose family came from Virginia to Beverly or Waterford township, was an eminent divine and theological writer, having been in active service in the Presbyterian denomination for over 50 years, dying at Oxford. Ohio, about 1870.

Miss Virginia V. Dodge, of Beverly, has written quite extensively upon art and upon Spanish-American subjects, also a number of poems. As a critic in certain lines of art, she was made a member of the first board of judges where women have ever been appointed at the Columbian Exposition, also later at other international expositions.

Mr. Craig, a landscape artist living in Colorado, was born near Beverly. Mr. Rhinehardt, an artist of much talent, spent some time here, as did also Lily Martin.

There have been quite a number of minor inventors. Phinehas Yates had some good ideas upon aerial navigation, but his machine for flying was not perfected. George Hahn patented some inventions.

The lawyers who practiced longest in Beverly were Samuel B. Robinson and J. C. Preston, now mayor of Beverly. Both these gentlemen held the office of prosecuting attorney of Washington County. Will Ellsworth Fowler of Beverly became judge in Gay County, Missouri, and has been recently nominated for Congress; he wrote a nunvber of poems about Beverly and the environs.

Charles Fowler, cousin of Judge Fowler, also of Beverly, is colonel and president of the Kentucky Military Institute and has written text books in mathematics.

Dr. James Little and son, Dr. Jenison Little, prosecuted their studies in astronomy and higher mathematics, as well as in medicine, with marked success. The untimely death of Dr. Jenison Little only prevented the completion of what astronomers regarded as a valuable work. Dr. Little was the possessor of a very fine telescope with which they made their observations.

Prof. E. S. Cox. formerly of Beverly College, is a special instructor in "English usage" and is arranging a work upon this subject.

Col. E. S. Mcintosh, a prominent citizen, kept a diary that was of local value.

Beverly in the Wars and Reforms.—As Washington County furnished a larger per cent, of soldiers for the Civil War than any county except Hamilton, it is not strange that the spirit of patriotism ran high in the vicinity of Beverly, inhabited, as it was, by the descendants of a fighting and heroic stock. There was not a man left in town or about at times during the war to attend to necessary work. Those who were unable to go, by reason of health or too young, and a few from political opposition, were all left to stand guard when the famous raider from the Confederate side. Morgan, swept across the valley. Women buried their treasures and hid their horses and children.

There was a Union meeting called at the first outbreak, and committees appointed to enroll men for enlistment and provide for their wants. The resolutions adopted by the "Union League" are truly thrilling, and they stood nobly by the work until the last soldier returned.

One of the resolutions shows the spirit of sacrifice that animated the people:

Resolved. That we heartily wish Godspeed to our fathers and husbands, our sons and brothers, who go to the front to defend the Union. That we will do all in our power to sustain them in the heat of battle and in illness.

A Soldiers' Aid Society was loyally kept up all during the Civil War and sent quantities of supplies to the camps and hospitals.

The G. A. R. Post of Beverly is named for the first soldier who was killed. Capt. Dick Cheatham. The Post roster contains the names of many brave men and officers. Dr. Lindner, a surgeon with General Crook, still resides in Beverly. He had also seen service in Europe. Gen. Hiram Devol also lived in Waterford until within a few years.

The Fearing family, of which Gen. Ben Fearing of the Civil War was a member, lived in Beverly from its early settlement. Captain Grubb and other war veterans reside in Beverly.

During the Spanish-American War, Lieut. Carroll Devol, formerly here, was connected with the Quarter-master's Department. Dr. John Patterson Dodge, of Beverly, was made, by President McKinley, brigade surgeon with the rank of major. Milton Nixon, a teacher of Beverly, served in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. Clifford Wistell who was a volunteer from Beverly in this war, died at Camp Alger from fever. Joseph Null was in the service in the Philippines..

The spirit under which the Northwest Territory Constitution was conceived made most of its settlers strongly Anti-Slavery. Several families lived at Beverly who used, to help slaves escape to Canada on all occasions possible.

In the temperance cause several ladies from the most prominent families took part in the original "Ohio Crusade" and a society for the furtherance of this needed work has long existed, but neither this nor the Prohibitionists in town have succeeded in abolishing the liquor traffic, as public or general opinion supports it still.

THE DODGE FAMILY,

The Dodges of Washington County are lineally descended from Pierre Dodge {or Douge), who came from Normandy, France, to England in the army of William the Conqueror, and whose descendants were settled in Cheshire and Kent counties, England, and came to Massachusetts in 1629. The direct ancestor of the Dodges of Beverly was John Bathurst Dodge, to whom was given a coat of arms and crest (recorded in College of Arms, London,) for valiant service in the wars of Edward I. In America there have been members of the family conspicuous in military and civil life since the first colonization of Massachusetts.

Capt. John Dodge, a portrait of whom appears on a preceding page, engraved from a drawing that was prepared for this purpose, was the head of that branch of the family which has the distinction of helping to establish civilization in the Northwest Territory and Ohio. He was an officer from Beverly, Massachusetts, who had entered the Revolutionary War at an early age and served until its close. He joined the Ohio Company of Associates with the others of his name when it was organized in Boston in 1787.

Following the commission Captain Dodge held in the Continental Army, he had executed an undertaking which had a very important bearing upon the ability of these Northwest Territory colonists to arrive in Marietta the year they did, and for this he received a vote of thanks on his return to Congress.

In order that the treaty might be effected for the safe removal of the Ohio Company to the Northwest Territory, it was necessary that someone take the long and hazardous journey into the Ohio Valley, to confer with and escort the various chiefs of the tribes owning its lands, to Philadelphia, where Congress was then sitting and where the final arrangements were to be made for the ceding of a tract of country. That Captain Dodge was the officer delegated to this mission speaks in itself of the great confidence reposed in him and of his unusual qualifications. Having been bred to the profession of arms from the time he was a lad, and having accompanied several military and surveying expeditions to distant parts of the new country, he had acquired a knowledge of Indian customs and languages that made him able to approach, and succeed in his mission with them at this perilous time, when to pass into the wilderness of the Ohio and Muskingum valleys, where an almost incessant border warfare raged for rights of possession, was a deed of daring in itself. Captain Dodge was a firm believer in the power of God to protect him, and though, like Eleazar in battle, he "clave unto his sword," he also knew the arts of peace, and the annals of the historical societies recording this mission show it to have been accomplished without one act of blood-shed.

He had a most intelligent, enduring and fleet horse called "Dart", as accustomed to the crackle of forest trails, mountain roads, torrents and frontier fare as was his master. On this horse he returned to Boston from Philadelphia after his trip of thousands of miles over the Alleghanies and back. When Captain Dodge again set out for the Ohio country with the colonists he was accompanied by his young wife and child. John Dodge, who afterward became the founder of Beverly, Ohio.

While out on this preliminary expedition Captain Dodge made camp one night in the Muskingum Valley, beyond Fort Harmar about 25 miles, near the mouth of what was afterward called Wolf Creek, and found a beautiful fall of water that would afford at that time quite a strong power. He thereupon located the place with a view to its future usefulness. Upon the advent of the Ohio Company at Marietta, Captain Dodge showed this to a relative and a brother officer—Maj. Haffield White and Col. Robert Oliver.

The three officers, Major White, Colonel Oliver and Captain Dodge then formed a partnership, very notable both because of its enterprise and because of its being the first corporation for doing business in the vast territory of the Northwest, since so richly teeming with great industries. They erected at these falls, about one-half mile from the present town of Beverly. Ohio, and Waterford, grist and saw mills, and built nearby a fortification or block-house for the protection from Indian attacks of those connected with the mills. These mills, according to Dr. S. P. Hildreth and other historians, furnished the bread stuff for the colonists of Marietta for a year or so before any other mills were erected in the Northwest Territory. The products of these mills were conveyed to Marietta in pirogues (a kind of dugout canoe), and attended by an armed guard. The banks of the Muskingum River at this time were covered with a labyrinth of foliage and vines that furnished a safe hiding place for many an unfriendly redman. As hostilities increased toward the last outbreak of the Indian wars of this special period, it became necessary to abandon the mills until the close of the war, when they were again put in operation. The millstones used in these mills were of very fine quality and quarried in the Blue Ridge Mountains. At the time of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago the Ohio State Historical Society asked the privilege of exhibiting these in the Anthropological Building, where they were objects of great interest. The stones, in a perfect state of preservation, remain in the possession of the Dodge family of Beverly, and are relics of extraordinary interest, also the gun which was used here and which Captain Dodge brought with him from Massachusetts when he joined the Ohio Company. An accompanying illustration depicts one of the millstones; also the gun referred to, and other objects associated with the family's history.

During the Indian War Captain Dodge took his family from the settlement in what is now Waterford township to reside in the blockhouse in Marietta, where they had relatives.

Mrs. Susanna Morgan Dodge, wife of Captain Dodge, like her kinsman. Gen. Daniel Morgan, to whose line she belonged, took a brave and active part in the frontier life of this period. According to the records of the military surgeon who came on periodical visits to Fort Harmar, Marietta, Beverly, the French settlement of Gallipolis, and other points, "there being no physicians in the forts in his absence, "Susanna Morgan Dodge" cared for a number of his patients. The gifts which had shown in the society of the East were adapted with saving common sense and courage to the exigencies and sacrifices of life in this new country. At the mill settlement made in Waterford township by her husband, flax, fields were planted and wheels for the making of thread and looms for weaving were started under her care. A linen garment made at this time is preserved by the Ohio State Historical Society. Twice a week after the establishment of Forts Dean, Tyler and Fry, when she had returned to their place near Beverly, she instructed the children from these settlements in the catechism of the Puritan faith and spiritual essentials. Family worship was maintained by her, and for many generations after her death the custom was still kept up in the same house, her works truly following her.

The Marquis De La Fayette, who had known Mrs. Susanna Morgan Dodge, at the close of the War of the Revolution, when he heard that she had joined the Ohio Company, said to an American gentleman: "There will be a Princess in the Courts of the Wilderness." Such an impression had this matron who had come to preside over one of the best known homes in the heart of the Muskingum Valley made upon the aristocratic ally of the American cause. Her wedding ring was inherited by Mrs. Susannah Dodge Cook, her granddaughter, of Marietta, Ohio.

Her son, John Dodge, Esq., of Beverly, Ohio, married for his first wile Mary Stone. The eldest son of this union. Dr. Israel Stone Dodge, was for 40 years a prominent physisician of Cincinnati and also identified with the medical college there as lecturer. His portrait accompanies this article. She was also the mother of Sidney Dodge, of Iowa, of William A. Dodge, of Christopher Columbus Dodge, of Eliza, of Melissa, and of John Dodge, who died in his youth. Of the other members of this branch of the Dodge family, one of them, Sidney Dodge, moved from Beverly to Ioiwa and became a leading citizen of Muscatine County. His son, Judge John Edward Dodge, was the youngest judge to sit upon the bench in Nebraska. Another of them became United States Minister to Spain, and still another a member of the United States Senate, a father and son both being in Congress at the same time. Of those of Captain Dodge's branch of the family who were engaged in the Civil War, Maj. Gen. Granville M. Dodge, the son of his brother, Phineas, from Massachusetts, attained perhaps the greatest distinction, although the army register of the United States contains the names of a number of other relatives directly connected with the Capt. John Dodge branch who have given brilliant military service to their country.

John Dodge. Esq., of Beverly, married for his second wife Nancy N. Patterson, of Virginia. Her family were closely related to the Baltimore Patersons. whose daughter, Elizabeth, married Jerome Bonaparte, and Mrs. Nancy Patterson Dodge bore a striking resemblance to her cousin, Madame Bonaparte. Her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Patterson, came from Virginia to Waterford at a very early date in the last century, to reside near Mrs. Dodge. Mr. Patterson held several public offices in Washington County and died there, being buried near his wife and daughter. Prudence (who was betrothed to Mr. Stewart, a statesman of Pennsylvania, at the time of her death) in the old Waterford cemetery, where are also buried a large number of the Dodge family.

The sons of Mr. Patterson were all collegebred men educated in the East. The eldest was Rev. Oliphant Patterson, an eminent Presbyterian divine, who preached over 50 consecutive vears in the Ohio Valley and was the author of a number of theological works. He died at Oxford. The other sons were Alfred Patterson, for many years a banker in Pittsburg; Thomas Patterson, a large cotton planter, who lived in Louisiana and Texas, dying in New Orleans; and Ewing Patterson, who entered the ministry, but died in his youth.

The children of John Dodge, Esq., of Beverly, and Nancy N. Patterson, of Virginia, were Patterson Oliphant Dodge and Colina N. Dodge, who married S. B. Robinson, a lawyer of Beverly, also at one time prosecuting attorney of Washington County.

Patterson Oliphant Dodge, who inherited that part of the estate of his father which remained of the plain land and hills back of Beverly after Mr. Dodge had laid out the bottom in the town proper, was the only one of Mr. Dodge's sons who remained in his native town until his death. Although absent in St. Paul and the West and in New Orleans for extended periods at different times, he was deeply attached to the Muskingum Valley. He took an active interest in agriculture as practiced upon his own place. He was a director in the First National Bank, established in Beverly, and one of the principal promoters and owners of an oil refinery built there. He also, in company with J. B. Bain, built the "Island Mills." then the largest flouring mills in Waterford township. He owned other manufacturies at different periods, an iron foundry, a tannery, and also operated a steam ferry between Waterford and Beverly, the rights for which he inherited from his father. Mr. Dodge was a very intellectual, as well as a patriotic man. At the outbreak of the Civil War he offered his services to his country. On account of his then failing health he was not permitted to do service, but he contributed generously to the fitting out of several military companies. He had been quite an extensive traveler in his own country. He died in the prime of his life, about 44 years of age, and is buried in Beverly, Ohio.

Patterson Oliphant Dodge, in 1859. had married the youngest daughter of Hon. Silas Heimway Jenison. a statesman who was Governor of Vermont for four terms and an author, residing at Shoreham, on Lake Champlain. The widow of Mr. Dodge, Mrs. Laura Louise Jenison Dodge, now resides with her family on the estate left to her husband. She was educated in the most cultured and exclusive society of the New England of her day, and received additional advantages in the famous French convent of Montreal, Canada, where she was taken by her father, Governor Jenison, receiving afterward also instruction from private tutors. Mrs. Dodge was one of the organizers of the Soldiers' Aid Society at the beginning of the Civil War. She was one of the original members of the "Ohio Temperance Crusade." She has presided over her household as hostess to a long succession of guests and friends, with the gentle dignity of the chatelaine of that school of manners and morals in which she was so fortunately born and reared. The last of that perfect flower of her generation whose like is not reproduced in the atmosphere of this later day. Her portrait, reproduced from the painting by Rhinehardt It, is shown on a near-by page.

Major John Patterson Dodge, eldest son of Patterson Oliphant and Laura Louise Jenison Dodge, was educated for the profession of medicine, practicing several years in Beverly in partnership with Dr. Charles M. Humston and afterward lived some time in Arizona and California. He was a graduate of Starling Medical College, of Columbus, Ohio, and also attended post-graduate courses there and at the New York Post-Graduate School and Hospital. At the beginning of the Spanish-American War, Dr. Dodge was appointed by President McKinley brigade surgeon with the rank of major, serving until the disbandment of the Cuban and Puerto Rican forces on the staff of Generals Andrews, Wade and Coleby. His services in the Montauk Detention Hospital work and elsewhere are given very honorable mention in the report of the Surgeon-General, Sternberg, upon the Spanish-American war. His portrait accompanies this sketch.

Jenison Brooks Dodge, second son of Patterson Oliphant and Laura Louise Jenison Dodge, was educated in the public schools and college of Beverly, and afterward took a business course at Poughkeepsie, New York. He has been engaged in the lumber and drug business previous to his removal to California. He is at present a resident of Kansas City, being connected with a chemical company. He is the last of the family of Ex-Gov., Silas Heimway Jenison to bear his name. The daughters of Patterson Oliphant and Laura Louise Jenson Dodge were Virginia Ve Dodge, who lives at the Dodge place, Beverly, and Agnes Dodge, a young lady who died in 1890. Agnes Dodge was a very gifted musician, her inspirational power being of a high order. She had produced several musical compositions of merit for the piano and banjo, and was also the possessor of a soprano voice of extraordinary quality and scope, that had been cultivated by the best masters. Her early death deprived the world of the fruition of a genius that would doubtless have made a brilliant career for itself.

All the members of the Dodge family from the earliest settlement of Washington County have been members of the Masonic order and loyal to its principles. During the time of the disaffection in the United States with Masonry on account of the supposed killing of one Morgan, the Mount Moriah Lodge of Beverly, Ohio, one of the first in the State, was enabled to maintain itself in its proceedings through this period by the courtesy of John Dodge, Esq., who gave up the finest upper room in his house for the use of this lodge. There the members met secretly until public disfavor was removed.

The political faith of the Dodge family has been that of the Republican party since the day of its establishment in 1856. Various members of it have been prominently identified with its work and interests. All have been loyal to its principles.

John Dodge, Esq., the founder of Beverly and of Beverly College, was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, in the year 1784, and came as a child to live in the block-house at Marietta with his parents during the Indian wars of that period. At their close in the last decade of the 18th century the home where he was reared was built by his father, Captain Dodge, on the left bank of the Muskingum, in what is now the town of Beverly. Although John Dodge, Esq., inherited a goodly estate, he was the promoter of a great number of enterprises in his day which not only added materially to the fortune left him but increased the general prosperity of the region where his family, as pioneers of the Northwest Territory, had cast their lot.

Early in the centurv it was the desire of Mr. Dodge to advance the educational interests of the community in which he lived; he therefore obtained from the State of Ohio a charter for the establishment of a college, intended by him to be the nucleus of a large institution for classical instruction. He built entirely at his own expense a substantial brick building of three stories well arranged for the purpose for which it was designed in that day, and secured the co-operation of well known educators. The bell placed on this building was from a noted firm of bell makers and is one of the finest-toned in the valley.

In the life time of John Dodge, Esq., he made liberal and frequent gifts to several schools and to the promotion of religious works. His home was a rendezvous for all ministers of Puritan faith who frequented the vicinity where he lived, or who passed through the vallev bound east or west. In order that Beverly College might draw to itself strength from outside sources, Mr. Dodge vested the charge of this institution in the synod of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church but not as a sectarian school. Benjamin Dana, a friend of the same faith as Mr. Dodge, later co-operated with him toward the support of the college, by giving a tract of land and coal bank, in order that the revenue from these might help to maintain the college at Beverly.

The Dodge Park—At the time that John Dodge, Esq., founded the town of Beverly, he gave for park purposes a piece of land very beautifully located on a plain in the upper part of the town. It had been a portion of the land grant made his father, Captain Dodge, for his services in the War of the Revolution. It was also a spot held as an Indian conference ground, and he considered that it would be of special interest for the purpose for which he donated it on account of its historic associations. No improvements were made on this however by the town which received the gift, until within the last decade when the granddaughter of Mr. Dodge, Miss Virginia Ve Dodge, asked the Town Council the privilege of planting it with trees and shrubbery in order that it might be completed in her life time according to the original intention of the donor. Miss Dodge was elected by vote of the people, park director. The Park is now very well grown and a great improvement to the town. It was for about 50 years after the gift was made used as a circus ground, common and pasture. Mr. Dodge also gave to the town of Beverly a plat of ground adjoining the lock walls which would answer for a boat landing and serve other purposes of conveniences. Since the government took charge of the Muskingum River improvements, this plat of ground has been kept in a beautiful lawn and has a very sightly little house for the lock keeper and makes an inviting approach to the village.

John Dodge, Esq., also made gifts of land to churches of all the denominations then existing in Beverly on which to erect church buildings. He was the means of making the town of Beverly, which he named for his birthplace Beverly, Massachusetts, the beautiful and famous spot that is now known to be, as a resort and place of residence, in a valley so widely celebrated for its charms.

Hamilton Brooks, son of Melissa Dodge and Maj. Samuel Brooks, was prominently associated with the business of Beverly previous to the Civil War and operated in company with his uncle. Patterson Oliphant Dodge, the "Island Mills." then the largest in Beverly. Following this he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he has since become one of the wealthiest and most honored men of that place.

Source: History of Marie tta and Washington County, by Martin R. Andrews, MA, 1902, Transcribed by C. Anthony