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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Henry Dodge |
| Address |
Dodgeville, Wisconsin , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
October 12, 1782
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| Died | June 19, 1867
(84 years)
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Aug 12, 2015 04:50pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | DODGE, Henry, (half-brother of Lewis Fields Linn, father of Augustus Caesar Dodge), a Delegate and a Senator from Wisconsin; born in Vincennes, Ind., October 12, 1782; received a limited schooling; moved to Missouri in 1796 and settled at Ste. Genevieve; sheriff of Cape Girardeau County in 1808; moved to Galena, Ill., and operated a lead mine; moved to Wisconsin in 1827, then part of Michigan Territory, and settled near the present site of Dodgeville; served in the Black Hawk and other Indian wars; was commissioned major of United States Rangers 1832; left the Army as colonel of the First United States Dragoons 1836; appointed Governor of the Territory of Wisconsin 1836-1841; elected as a Democratic Delegate to the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1845); was not a candidate for renomination in 1844, having again accepted the appointment of Governor of the Territory of Wisconsin, and served from 1845 until 1848; upon the admission of Wisconsin as a State into the Union in 1848 was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate; reelected in 1851 and served from June 8, 1848, to March 3, 1857; chairman, Committee on Commerce (Thirty-fourth Congress); declined the appointment of Governor of Washington Territory by President Franklin Pierce in 1857; retired to private life; died in Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa, June 19, 1867; interment in Aspen Grove Cemetery.
Henry Dodge (October 12, 1782 – June 19, 1867) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Territorial Governor of Wisconsin and a veteran of the Black Hawk War. He was the half brother of Lewis F. Linn and the father of Augustus C. Dodge with whom, are the first, and so far only, father-son pair to serve concurrently in the U.S. Senate.
Although was born in Vincennes, Indiana, he was raised a Kentuckian. Circumstance drove him to Spanish Missouri at a young age. There, he rejoined his father Israel and an uncle. He dabbled in salt boiling and lead digging. He also served as deputy sheriff of St. Genevieve County under his father. In 1801, he wed Christiana McDonald.
During the War of 1812, Dodge was initially elected as captain of a mounted company, and he finished the war as a major general of Missouri militia. His crowning achievement was the saving of about 150 Miami Indians from certain massacre after their raid on the Boone's Lick settlement in the summer of 1814.
Dodge emigrated with his large family and slaves inherited from his father to the U. S. Mineral District in early July 1827. He served as a commander of militia during the Red Bird Rising of that year, and in October settled a large tract in present day downtown Dodgeville, known then as "Dodge's Camp." He worked a large claim until around 1830, when he moved several miles south in a beautiful treed area known still as "Dodge's Grove." Here he began building what would become a large two-story frame house for his ever growing extended family.
Fate however took a hand, and Dodge rose to prominence during the Black Hawk War of 1832. As colonel of the western Michigan Territory militia, Dodge brought a credible fighting force into being in a very short time. More than fifteen forts, fortified homes and blockhouses sprang up almost overnight. From these forts, Dodge and the mounted volunteers, with four companies of Territorial militia and one of Illinois mounted rangers, took to the field as the "Michigan Mounted Volunteers." Dodge and his men saw action at the battles of Horseshoe Bend (Pecatonia), Wisconsin Heights, and Bad Axe. In June 1832, he accepted a commission as major of the Regiment of Mounted Rangers, commissioned by an Act of Congress.
The ranger experiment lasted a year, and then, in 1833, was replaced by the United States Regiment of Dragoons. Dodge served as colonel; one of his captains was Nathan Boone, Daniel Boone's youngest son. In the summer of 1834, Dodge engaged on a series of long marches and made successful contact with the Comanches.
He was a renowned Indian fighter, most noted for his 1835 peace mission commissioned by President Andrew Jackson, who had called out the U.S. Dragoons to assist.
Dodge was the first Territorial Governor of Wisconsin Territory from 1836 - 1841 and again from 1845 - 1848, an area which encompassed (before Dec 28, 1846, when Iowa became a state) what became the states of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota.
He declined a nomination for the Presidency of the United States in the 1844 Democratic convention. He was loyal to Martin Van Buren and both men opposed the annexation of Texas. Despite their efforts, James K. Polk, the Democrat who favored annexation, became President.
Apon Wisconsin being admitted to the Union, Dodge was elected one of its first two senators. He served two terms. He turned down the appointment of Territorial Governor of Washington from Franklin Pierce in 1857.
In 1948, Iowa County presented a 160 acre estate to the State of Wisconsin which eventually was named Governor Dodge State Park. Over the years, this park has grown to include 5,270 acres in the area Henry Dodge once called his home.
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