In celebration of the 250th Anniversary of our country, local members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will highlight the patriots buried in Southeast Missouri.
John Dodge III was born July 12, 1751, in Colchester, New London County, Connecticut to John Jr and Lydia (Rogers) Dodge. John married Anne Marguerite Keen on December 3, 1770, in Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut. John and his wife moved west as a trader settling in the Wyandot villages near Sandusky, Ohio, where he acquired influence over the natives.
Upon the outbreak of the Revolution, he sympathized with the colonies and worked to secure Native neutrality. By request, he attended the Pittsburgh Treaty of 1775 and in early 1776 Governor Hamilton had him imprisoned. He was held first at Detroit and then in Quebec. John escaped in 1778, and we know of John Dodge’s captivity because he wrote a narrative of his sufferings among the British at Detroit that was published. After the escape, Dodge called on Jefferson, who appointed him commissioner of Indian affairs in the Illinois County. He served as an Agent for the State of Virginia at Fort Jefferson by the Mouth of the Ohio River. By 1782, Dodge held the fort that dominated Kaskaskia and was listed as a captain of the infantry. Around 1787, John Dodge moved his family to Ste. Genevieve in the Spanish Territory on the West side of the Mississippi where he was involved in salt making. The Dodge family (John, brother Isreal, and nephew Henry) operated a salt works along the Saline River (Creek) about six miles south of the main town of Ste. Genevieve.
John and Anne had seven children, four sons and three daughters. Their sons were Jean Dodge, Thomas Dodge (married Constance Bequette), John Dodge, and Isreal Genereax Dodge (married Susan Conrad). Their daughters were Marie Dodge (married Louis Deguire), Marguerite Dodge, and Theodocia Dodge (married John Milton Dodge).
John died on April 5, 1796, and is buried in Ste. Genevieve’s Memorial Cemetery, but there was no marker for him. The Sons of the American Revolution honored the Patriots buried in Memorial Cemetery by placement of a memorial marker.
Compiled by Pamela Johnson, John Guild Chapter NSDAR and Vera McCullough, Louisiana Purchase Chapter NSDAR
Sources
Mr. Dodge’s Narrative of his Sufferings among the British at Detroit
https://www.familysearch.org/en/memories/memory/47239450
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/203353701/john-dodge
https://mossar.org/french-militia-patriots-sainte-genevieve-missouri/
Dodge Genealogy Descendants of Tristram Dodge, By Theron Royal Woodward, Published in Chicago, Illinois 1904
https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G001930.pdf
