California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


ROSWELL S. DODGE. The name of Roswell S. Dodge will long be remembered as one 
of the honored pioneers of what is now Kings county, Cal., but what was formerly a part of 
Tulare county. Born in Michigan, August 10, 1831, the boyhood days of Mr. Dodge were spent 
on a farm in his native state, his education being received in the common schools of his locality. 
In 1852 Mr. Dodge crossed overland to California in search of a more promising field for the 
cultivation of his ambitions, but his roseate views of the golden future in this locality were some- 
what lessened by the arduous toil to which the miners were subjected. In connection with 
mining operations, he also followed teaming in the mining district, a somewhat hazardous but 
paying occupation. 

In 1870 Mr. Dodge took up his permanent residence in Kings county, and at that time he not 
only took up a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres of government land, but obtained 
possession of one hundred and sixty acres of Southern Pacific Railroad land just across the 
road from his homestead. This land was new and undeveloped and for a time Mr. Dodge 
teamed for his neighbors to get a start. He was one of the instigators and promoters of the Peo- 
ple's Irrigation Ditch, which he assisted in constructing and which opened up the section it 
traversed for agricultural purposes, converting the arid, sandy desert into fertile fields. Here 
upon this land Mr. Dodge improved and cultivated his place until his death in 1881. By his 
marriage, in 1872, he was united with Mrs. Caroline Adams, who was born in New York, but 
who with her first husband and one daughter, Hattie J., came to California, where the husband 
afterward died. By her union with Mr. Dodge, one child was born, a son, Roswell R., and in 
1880, the beloved mother passed to her final rest, leaving these two children to the care of her hus- 
band, who, however, survived her only one year. Upon his death, the homestead farm passed to 
his son, Roswell R., and the one hundred acres of railroad land was left to his step-daughter, now 
Mrs. H. J. Bulloch. Later events developed the fact that Mr. Dodge's title to the latter place was 
not clear and in order to retain possession. Mrs. Bulloch was obliged to repurchase it from the 
railroad company. This she did and she still resides upon this fine farm adjoining the home 
of her half-brother ; here she witnessed the development of the country from a wilderness into 
fertile and well-improved farms, dotted with happy and attractive homes, and it may be said 
that she has done her part to aid and bring about this transformation. Politically, Mr. Dodge was 
a life-long Republican and took an active part in both local and national politics. To such men as 
he. California owes much of her present prosperity.