Kings County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


 
FRANK L. DODGE
 
member of the firm of Dodge Brothers, proprietors of the Hanford Sentinel, was 
born in Dunham, McHenry County, Illinois, in 1846.  He was the sixth born in a 
family of eleven children, and made his home with his parents, Elisha and Susan 
(Smith) Dodge, until his twenty-third year.  His education was obtained in the 
district and high schools, and at the age of eighteen he began teaching in the 
winter, passing his summers at home on the farm.
            Mr. Dodge was married, in 1868, to Miss Anna A. Hills, of Dunham, 
Illinois.  He continued teaching in his native County until 1871, when he moved 
to Parkersburg, Iowa, accepted the principalship of the Parkersburg schools, and 
in that capacity taught till 1874.  In that year he purchased the Parkersburg 
Eclipse, which he edited and managed until 1881; he sold it to his brother, Fred 
A. Dodge, and removed to Allison, the new county seat, and there established the 
Allison Tribune.  During the long temperance fight in Iowa, Mr. Dodge conducted 
his paper on radical prohibition principles, and thus exerted a powerful 
influence through the community.  In 1885 he leased his paper while making a 
trip through California.  Becoming infatuated with the soil and climate of this 
State, he was induced to settle in Hanford; and in January, 1886, he established 
the Hanford Sentinel, which he managed with great success until November, 1889, 
when he was appointed postmaster of Hanford.  He then sold a half interest in 
the Sentinel to his brother, Fred A. Dodge, who is now editor and manager.  The 
firm then purchased on Doughty street a brick building, 25 x 80 feet, the front 
of which is occupied as postoffice, stationery and jewelry store, the rear 
portion being used for the printing of the paper.
            Mr. and Mrs. Dodge have had four children, two of whom are living, 
Susie F. and Eva E.  Mr. Dodge is interested in farm lands in Fresno and Tulare 
Counties and resident property in Hanford.  As a newspaper man his experiences 
have been without very marked incident.  In politics he is independent, though 
leaning toward Republicanism, and in his paper he makes a specialty of local 
news.
 
Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, 
California
Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892  p. 717-718
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler