Grave Tales: Co-Founder's Son Journeys West and East Before Coming To Rest Back Home

I wish Charles Dodson had written his memoirs, because the life he lived between his birth in a log house on the Fox River in 1840 and his death in Connecticut in 1930 was surely worth reading about.

Charles was one of a pair of twin sons born to Geneva co-founder Christian Dodson and his wife, Harriett, two years after the couple settled in Geneva. Christian had surveyed parts of the new city of Chicago and supervised the relocation of the Pottawatomi Indian tribe to Iowa before homesteading on the east side of the river. The east-west street that runs along the north side of was named Dodson Street to honor Christian’s and Harriett’s contributions to Geneva’s early growth.

Though Charles’ twin brother, Julius, died tragically at age 3 of burns suffered when a servant accidentally spilled boiling water on him, Charles and four of his six siblings thrived in the pioneer settlement. When Charles reached adulthood, he accepted a horse and some money from his father, then set out for the Wild West, where he worked as a cowboy “for many years”, according to his obituary in The Geneva Republican, cited courtesy of the .

Returning older and, presumably, wiser, Charles married Lucy Moore, daughter of Geneva’s first banker, and settled down to raise a family in town. He and Lucy owned and operated a boarding house on James Street: some of their boarders included prominent businessmen Fred Hill, John Hollands, Harry Werle and Roy Danforth, whose reaper design nearly eclipsed that of rival Cyrus McCormick. Their dining room table must have hosted many fascinating conversations over the years.

One of the couple’s two daughters, Bessie, married Geneva resident John Holland. However, she died soon after giving birth to her only child, a son named after Charles. When Lucy’s health began to fail, she and Charles moved in with their remaining daughter, Helen, who had moved to Connecticut with her husband, Henry Alden.

Lucy died sometime between 1920 and 1930, and her body was sent back to be buried in West Side Cemetery. When Charles joined her there, The Republican printed that he had been the oldest person alive who had been born in Geneva. “In many ways, Charles Dodson was an unusual man. He was a most likeable fellow, a great reader, an efficient accountant and most interesting conversationalist, original and quick at repartee,” the obituary added.