San Francisco County
Biographies
EDWARD J. DODGE
E. J. Dodge, senior member of the firm of Pollard &
Dodge, manufacturers and wholesale dealers in lumber, shingles, posts, bark,
etc., and shipping and commission merchants; office, No. 3 Stewart street, San
Francisco. This firm was established in 1883, and is one of the
substantial lumber firms of San Francisco.
Their immense trade in redwood, which is a specialty, is not confined to this
State alone, but extends also throughout the entire Pacific coast, they having
five steamers engaged in the coast trade.
The subject of our sketch, Mr. E. J. Dodge, was born in the
old town of Henniker, New
Hampshire, in 1836, the eighth in order of birth in a
family of ten children. The parents were Israel P. and Anna (Connor) Dodge, the
father a native of Massachusetts.
His ancestors emigrated to America
in the sixteenth century. Mr. Dodge’s great-grandfather was a patriot soldier
of the Revolutionary war. The mother was born in New
Hampshire; her ancestry were
among the early settlers of that State. She died in 1843, when our subject was
a mere lad, the father surviving until 1890, at the age of eighty-nine years.
Mr. Dodge passed his boyhood on his father’s farm. In 1853
he went to sea and followed it until 1856, when he returned home and remained
amid the haunts of his boyhood until 1861; then he came to California
and located in Amador county, where he engaged in
mining and various pursuits until 1865. Then he went to Humboldt county, engaging in mercantile pursuits and establishing the
first business in that line in the now thriving town of Ferndale,
where he was Postmaster for ten years. In 1877 he went to Santa
Ana, Los Angeles
county, and built the first brick building in that
flourishing city. The following year Mr. Russ, his former partner, desired him
to join the firm of Russ & Co., and take charge of the company’s business
at San Francisco, which he did, and
remained with that firm about four years, when a change was made by connecting
the firm with a foreign syndicate. Mr. Dodge, not approving this move, retired
from the firm. The connection referred to did prove financially a success to
Mr. Russ. After doing business alone for a year Mr. Dodge formed a partnership
with Mr. Pollard, under the style mentioned. For the past twelve years he has
resided at 2,013 Alameda avenue,
one of the most pleasant and charming suburbs of San
Francisco. He is also officially connected with the
Eel River Valley Lumber Company, being now its president. The mills of this
company are situated in Eel river valley, Humboldt county,
and manufacture redwood exclusively.
In his domestic affairs, Mr. Dodge is decidedly a home man,
rarely leaving home except when required by business. He has been married three
times and has four children.
Politically he is a Republican and a staunch advocate of
temperance. During his seafaring life Mr. Dodge visited many parts of the
world, among which may be mentioned the Azores
Islands, the island
of Juan Fernandez, almost all parts
of South America, Mexico,
Sandwich Islands and parts of Asia.
He is a thorough Californian and proud of the progress of his adopted State and
of the position she takes among her sister States of this glorious Union.
Transcribed
by Donna L. Becker.
Source: “The Bay of San Francisco,” Vol. 2, Pages 130-131, Lewis Publishing
Co, 1892.
© 2006 Donna L.
Becker.
California
Biography Project
San
Francisco County
California
Statewide
Golden
Nugget Library