Dodge Family Association

10/19/2021

For anyone who has been trying to get a hold of someone on this page I have been in the hospital and now at rehab. If you have a question about genealogy, contact [email protected] via email

06/11/2020

Wenham, Massachusetts Signers of Petition
This petition was found in the National Archives in Washington DC, by Diana Smith in early 2005. The purpose was to attempt to keep slave states from joining the Union
Diana writes: "The 'laid on the table' under the date Dec. 18, 1838, means this petition was never read out loud before Congress. Many towns collected these anti-slavery signatures, but the pro-slavery faction, who also collected signatures, was successful in getting elected officials to 'table' the reading of names. I'm just beginning to research this very volatile time in American history."
Andrew Dodge
Ezra Dodge
Stephen Dodge
Ephriam Dodge
Pickering Dodge
QAnna Dodge
Sopia Dodge
Salome Dodge
Sally Dodge
Sally Dodge(2nd one)
Jacob Dodge
James Dodge
Abraham Dodge
Adoniram Dodge
Augustus Dodge
Perley Dodge
Thoodor (sic) Dodge (Theodore?)
Richard Dodge
Abraham Dodge Jr
William Dodge
Ira B Dodge
Rufas A Dodge

04/29/2020

David Macur sent us this information which I am posting here, just in case anyone can help him:----In the late 1970's the salvaged gilded paneling and parquet flooring of the Music Room came into the possession of Maurice George of George Georges and Sons Antiques here in Hollywood, CA. They were located on Highland Avenue just above Hollywood Boulevard where the Hollywood Highland Center and former Kodak Theatre now stands.

I bought only one thing from Mrs. George's son, George Georges, around 1978. It was a french tazza centerpiece with a rouge marble base, silvered platter with decorative supports and a graduating blown and etched glass vase mounted on top center for flowers. The edges were even beveled-cut. It cost me $ 125.00 back then, a pretty high price for a young office worker. My rent for the single apartment I occupied at the Bryson Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard was only $ 160.00 a month in the late 1970s.

Everything in the George Georges antique shop had quality detail that would bear close inspection. There were other gilded wall panels on display against the high interior walls of the showroom. I think these came from the MGM and 20th Century Fox Studio property departments after they auctioned everything off. The Music Room dimensions approximated 36' x 60' x 21' high. I may seen some of the panels from Anna Dodge's Music Room in the Georges showroom back then without even knowing it. This was before I became acquainted with Andrew Chandler.

My friend, Andrew F. Chandler, purchased the Music Room from Maurice Georges in the early 1980's. Andrew was from the Chandler publishing family here in Los Angeles. He designed and built a magnificent home on Rossmore Avenue in the Hancock Park area, the last house executed by the architect Wallace Neff. Andrew, being a graduate of the Columbia University of Engineering, designed and drew to scale all of the interior rooms.

Andrew selected for the exterior facade the 18th century Pavillion at Luciennes, France. This was the Pavillion King Louis XV of France built for his mistress Madame duBarry. In Wallace Neff's memoirs he described the Chandler home as the DuBarry house. I'm attaching some pictures of Andrew's house as I have known it for over 30 years. Patrick Moran, the President of ABC and the Disney Channel, bought the house for he and his life partner. They have since painted and removed the original gold dore' light fixtures Andrew and his parents installed when first building the house in 1962.

After purchasing Anna Dodge's Music Room from Maurice Georges Andrew had someone named Seymour from the Getty Museum in Malibu, CA completely regild (22 karat gold leaf - water gilding) this room at a cost of $35,000 back in 1981. It took nearly 1-1/2 years to complete. This was when the Getty Museum offered restorative services and before "The Getty" was built in Brentwood above Sepulveda Pass. I'm not sure what the former Getty Museum (Villa Pompeii) is now being used for but I've reached out to them as well for any archive records on Seymour's work.

The newly regilded and disassembled Music Room panels were carefully wrapped along with other crated items and put into storage around 1982 where they have been ever since. Please see the attached pictures taken at the storage facility. The cornice was only gilt plaster and therefore was not salvaged from Rose Terrace. Some of the gold dore' window espagnolette handles were missing so I replicated these for Andrew about 20 years ago. I still have a few spares.

Andrew passed away approximately 3 years ago. His Executor had no idea he was Andrew's Executor until the houseman informed him of such. The Executor was presented with the legal documents empowering him - and a large coffee can filled with keys. Since then most of the estate has been dispersed. I received the better part of of Andrews library of several thousand art books, some french furniture and related as well as the Music Room itself. As Andrew did not leave any specific instructions regarding the Music Room, as he intended to build the new house in his lifetime, the Executor had no idea what to do with it.

Over the years at the cocktail hour I've listened to Andrew's many detailed stories and plans to build another house around the Music Room. Andrew also spoke of the Rossmore house and the 'unusual', if not, unique manner of construction. Another new house was to be constructed in the Clear Lake district near San Francisco utilizing the Music Room. This room would be the center focal point of the new house with rooms built around it. The exterior would be very plain so as not to attract the attention his Rossmore Avenue house did, and still does.

I've seen the plans for this new house and many actual pictures of the Music Room taken by the dismantler's staff in the 1970s. Those pictures and any "loose" items belonging to the room have since been lost or discarded.

Therefore, I was hoping someone could provide more complete and detailed photographs of aspects of the Music Room interior other than usual ones found on the Internet. They aren't very clear when blown up. I'm in the process of reviewing the archives of Horace Traumbauer, the architect of Rose Terrace. There may be additional archives elsewhere on the construction of the house and how this paneled room was originally incorporated at Gross Pointe. Any information, pictures or leads would be appreciated.

We have all the ingredients but not the recipe to reconstruct the Music Room. I wouldn't want to do a piece-meal job of it or sell off partial sections of the room. My plans are to reconstruct the Music Room with few alterations. There is one structure I'm been familiar with for many years that has a large ballroom that was never completed since first built around 1914. This was due in part to the outbreak of World War I.

This room, in a Beaux Arts style structure, is comparable in dimensions to Anna Dodge's Music Room. Additional gilded paneling would have to have made as the ceiling heights in this structure are higher than 21 feet. The intended room still has it's original herringbone pattern parquet wood flooring. If I installed the paneling in this room the Parquet de Versailles wood flooring from Rose Terrace would be left over. It's interesting though, both rooms have 5 pairs of demi-lune (half-circle top) exterior doors and are of nearly the same dimensions.

If I do reconstruct the Music Room in this space similar bronze dore' wall sconce and crystal chandelier light fixtures would have to be recreated as well. I have many pictures of these original fixtures from the Detroit Institute of Art and Christies Auctioneers which allows for more severely correct replications.

It's not clear if the original marble mantel and over mantel pier mirror are in my current storage inventory. I'm relying on what Andrew told me in years past. However, if I had more complete pictures of the overall Music Room I could replicate all of the missing features to scale as this is the mainstay of my work here in Los Angeles - historical restoration services.

Again, I would appreciate any help you or others from even the Dodge family could provide. .....
Very truly yours,
DAVID MACUR

04/27/2020

The cover photo, taken in Stockport, England while the Dodge group attending St. Mary's church...I glimpse in time....I can see at lest 8 people who have passed on, including my husband, Earl F. Dodge, sitting on the front, left.

04/10/2020

FROM OUT OF THE PAST

From out of the past, they came alive . . . those ancestors gone on so long ago. Hon. Augustus C. Dodge, son of Henry Dodge, first Governor of the Territory of Wisconsin; Maj. Grenville Dodge, that great general who was in charge of the complete construction of the Union Pacific Railroad; Rev. Ebenezer Dodge who was the president of Madison College, Robert Dodge who wrote the very first Tristram Genealogy, Lieut. Col. Richard Irving Dodge, William E. Dodge, that great philanthropist, Theodore A. Dodge, another great military man and author; Maj. Ben Perley Poore, the well known journalist; their words jump from the pages and come alive as I look through the book, “Report of the 1st Memorable Reunion of the Dodge Family in America by Robert Dodge, 1879”.
So many names that are now written in the pages of history once belonged to our ancestors who lived, worked, and struggled in their daily lives to keep this county growing into the great nation it has become today.
I was going through my piles of papers and books in an effort to make the piles more organized and I could not help but stop in my efforts when I picked up the above mentioned book.
To hold a reunion in New England and get the message out across the wide expanses of this country in a day when there was not the speed of communication or of conveyance that we have today was a remarkable feat in itself. To have so many people attend that reunion was another amazing accomplishment.
Many were there who are not well known to us today but were just as important for they also were the progenitors of those of us who today call ourselves ‘Dodge’.
Rueben Rawson Dodge, Christopher Gore Dodge, Edmund Stedman, grandson of David Low Dodge, Rebecca W. (Dodge) Sire of St. Louis, MO, William J. Dodge of Searsport, ME, Lewis Dodge of Grafton, MA, Arthur Dodge of Nova Scotia, Horace Dodge Ranlett of Oakland, CA, and so many more.
The words of these ancestors from the distant past, are always with me as I sit at my desk each day. Everytime I grab one of our genealogy books in order to look up some information, I also can’t help but read some of the biographical information on other Dodges from which we have sprung and in many cases, their own words in the form of letters sent so many years ago to family members and friends.
In each Journal, I hope to be able to publish some of these voices from the past. If you have any of these “voices” that you would like to see published, please send them to me at the e-mail address on the top of this column. It is important for those who follow us to understand in some part, those from whom they have descended, for THAT blood runs in their veins also

03/27/2020

A nurse who attends my daughter's church and is on the transplant team at Anchutes said that the corona virus is small enough to go through the mask from the outside to the inside but cannot get through the mask from the inside to the outside. So if a person is NOT sick, wearing the mask does not prevent them from getting the virus if they come in contact with someone who has it because of its ability to go thru the mask from the outside to the inside. The reason is that the mask is made to prevent sick people from passing on germs .It is not made to keep well people from getting germs. The people in the trauma team in the hospital do not wear masks.
People who are well, should not think they are safe by wearing masks to stores to shop for food, etc. because it will not keep them from getting any virus AND they are using masks that are needed by people who are sick!

01/20/2020

Just so you all know, we do not do instagram, twitter, or any other of the social media...all we do is Facebook and of course, will answer any email's sent to our email addresses.

01/20/2020

To Kelly Williams, please contact Eileen dodge at [email protected]
with your gen. problem

10/03/2019

If anyone comes to this site to post something please also, email me what you are posting assuming it is Dodge related. FAcebook has changed so much, I now cannot ever find what I want on the DFA page. I am sorry I ever started it. My email address is: [email protected]
Just contact me there.

05/28/2019

Here is the photo that goes with the post about mybackyardnews.com. Earl and Barbara Dodge and Norman and Eileen Dodge visited this cemetery years ago because This was the 1st time we had come across a marriage between a Tristram Dodge and a John Branch Dodge. The Richard Dodge and Tristram Dodge lines intermarried in Attleboro, Massachusetts when Martha Ann Dodge, a descendant of Richard, married George Henry Dodge, a descendant of Tristram on October 2, 1839. You can read about this trip at: https://www.dodgefamily.org/CemeteryHeadstonePages/Massachusetts/Attleboro/AttleboroIndex.shtml
At that time, My Backyard News was a hard copy newspaper but since then Jim Hanley has made it only digital and has millions of readers from all over the world.

05/28/2019

Check out this Memorial Day observance for Civil War Veteran John E Dodge!

Members of The Museum At The Mill and Friends Of The Ten Mile gathered at the Dodge Family Cemetery in Dodgeville, Massachusetts to honor and celebrate the life of John E. Dodge Jr. for Memorial Day.