Dodge Genealogy of Blue Hill, Maine

Passing on past the “Granger Mine” and “Lover’s Leap”, one arrives at the Dodge house and farm, the house upon it having been built by Reuben Dodge, son of Jonah Dodge, born at Beverly, Mass., Nov. 18, 1711, who came to Blue Hill in June, 1784, and died in the town in 1788. His first wife was Mary Edwards, born March 7, 1719; married Feb. 22, 1737; died July 30, 1761. Children by her born at Beverly were as follows:

1. Jonah Dodge, born Nov. 19, 1738.
2. Abraham Dodge, born Feb. 4, 1741; died July 28, 1741.
3. Benoni Dodge, born Feb. 4, 1741; died July 23, 1741.
4. Abner Dodge, born March 6, 1743; resided in Sedgwick; died Dec. 29, 1831.
5. Mary Dodge, born July 5, 1745; died July 21, 1767.
6. Abigail Dodge, born Sept. 16, 1750; married Simeon Dodge, of Waltham, Mass.
7. Benjamin Dodge, born March 19, 1753; died Nov., 1784.
8. Sarah Dodge, born Sept. 29, 1756; died Oct. 12, 1764.
9. Abraham Dodge, born April 5, 1760.

Mr. Dodge married, second, Sarah Thorndike, May 29, 1770; she was born Dec. 21, 1731; died April 12, 1809. Children by the latter marriage were:

1. John Prince Dodge, born Aug. 21, 1771; died July 21, 1827.
2. Reuben Dodge, born Feb. 19, 1773. See further.

Reuben Dodge Family Genealogy

Reuben Dodge, born Feb. 19, 1773; married Sally Peters, daughter of John Peters, Esq., Jan. 16, 1797; she was born Feb. 2, 1780; died Sept. 19, 1850, aged seventy years. He died Dec. 16, 1830, aged fifty- seven years and ten months. He was town clerk for twenty-four years; a selectman thirty-one years; treasurer fifteen years, and one of the foremost citizens of the town. He is supposed to have built the house now standing at the beginning of 1800, in which he and his wife resided until their death, and in which the following named children were born to them:

1. Addison Dodge, born Feb. 25, 1799;;died Sept. 4, 1808.
2. Charlotte Dodge, born Feb. 25, 1800; married Isaac Somes, of Mt. Desert.
3. Lucretia Dodge, born Feb. 6, 1802; married Salvin P. Jordan.
4. Elvira Dodge, born April 17, 1804; married Jeremiah Nichols.
5. Sally Prince Dodge, born Dec. 12, 1806; married first, Capt Moses Clough; second, Weston Merritt.
6. Addison Dodge, born Jan. 16, 1809; married Mary Newell; drowned in Union River June 27, 1864.
7. Julia Dodge, born Nov. 22, 1810; married William P. Abbott; moved to Illinois.
8. Mary Peters Dodge, born March 23, 1813; died Oct. 25, 1815.
9. Reuben George Washington Dodge, born March 15, 1815; married first, Betsey J. Cheever; second, Laguira Morgan; third, Caroline A Allen. He died May 29, 1886.
10. Mary Peters Dodge, born April 24, 1817, married Dr. Lyman Hall.
11. Almira Ellis Dodge, born Sept. 4, 1819; married 1st Mr. Lord; 2nd George Somes.
12. Emily Walker Dodge, born August 25, 1821; married John Langdon and died Dec. 1, 1870.
13. Harriet Maria Dodge, born Feb. 23, 1824.

Reuben George Washington Dodge

Reuben George Washington Dodge succeeded his father in occupancy and ownership of the house and place. He was an influential citizen of the town, interested in shipbuilding, in historical and genealogical research, etc., etc. He built the bark “Antioch” upon the shore near his residence owned at Castine, Boston, and went to California, where she was sold and ran in the lumber trade for some years and afterwards wrecked. The bark “R. G. W. Dodge” was named for him, in which he was part owner, and he was also interested in other vessels.

By his first wife, Betsey Jackson, he had four children, as follows:

1. Agnes Ilanette Dodge, born Dec. 1, 1849; died March 22, 1859.
2. Anna Gardner Dodge, born Jan. 17, 1852; married a Mr. Sawtelle; resides at Haverhill, Mass.
3. Sarah E. S. Dodge, born Nov. 13, 1853.
4. George A. Dodge, born June 16, 1856. Child of Laguira Morgan, second wife:
5. Agnes L. Dodge, born May 30, 1859.

Children of Caroline A. Allen, third wife:

1. Amy Maud Dodge, born March 1, 1866.
2. Cora Dodge, born Nov. 10, 1867.
3. Ernest Fitz Allen Dodge, born Jan. 29, 1870.
4. Carrie McNair Dodge, born April 1, 187-.

Mrs. Betsey Jackson Dodge died April 7, 1857; Mrs. Laguira Dodge Sept. 4, 1859, and Mrs. Carrie Allen Dodge a few years ago. E. G. W. Dodge died, as before stated, May 30, 1886. The house and place are still owned by the Dodge heirs, who use the house a few months each year as a summer place. This completes the description of the old places along the shore road from the Falls district to the village, the other houses to the corner of Main street being of modern design and build.

Phineas Dodge Family Genealogy

After the death of Azor and Chloe Candage the old Candage house was occupied by Phineas Dodge his wife and family during his life, and by his widow until a short time before her death. The barn was sold and moved away and the old house finally succumbed to the ravages of time and was torn down. At this writing there are no buildings standing, and the land that once composed the farm has passed into other hands.

The children of Phineas and Harriet Newell (Candage) Dodge were:

1. Justin Evander Dodge, born Nov. 24, 1840.
2. Rosina Harriet Dodge, born Oct. 26, 1842.
3. Adelbert Delasco Dodge, born April 6, 1845.
4. Clara Havilah Whitney Dodge, born Sept. 26, 1847.
5. Mina Herbert Dodge, born April 3, 1850.
6. Frank W. Dodge, born Oct. 31, 1852.
7. Annah Elizabeth Dodge, born Sept. 7, 1855.
8. George A. Dodge, born Sept. 24, 1859.

Phineas Dodge, head of this family, died at about 80 years of age. He was the son of Elisha and Lydia (Day) Dodge, born Sept. 6, 1813. In his youth he was a sailor, afterwards became a ship carpenter and ended his days as a farmer.

Merrill Dodge Family Genealogy

Capt. Merrill Dodge was the son of Jonah Dodge, of Sedgwick, who married Abigail, daughter of David Carter, of Long Island, Nov. 6, 1828; she was born Jan. 1, 1805; died Dec. 3, 1878; he died Jan. 27, 1884, upwards of eighty years of age.

Capt. Dodge commanded vessels in the coasting trade, was a smart coasting “skipper'”, fond of a joke, a good story-teller, a good mimic, fond of company and a companionable man. One of the writer’s first trips coasting was with him in a schooner he commanded named “Passamaquoddy”. He had seven children, as follows:

1. Ezra N. Dodge, born July 30, 1832; died Sept. 20, 1837.
2. Nancy L. Dodge, born April 6, 1834.
3. Caroline J. C. Dodge, born Feb. 24, 1837.
4. Sarah Ann Dodge, born Oct. 13, 1840.
5. Ezra N. Dodge, born Dec. 29, 1843; died July 14, 1844.
6. Susan M. Dodge, born Oct. 15, 1845; died Oct. 18, 1859.
7. Edwin B. Dodge, born June 25, 1850.

He also had an adopted son, Otis Gay, illegitimate son of Otis Gay, of Castine; a fine fellow, a schoolmate of the writer, also his shipmate in schooner “Passamaquoddy”, in ship “Java” from New York to Charleston, S. C, and from that port to Liverpool, and back to New Orleans in ship “Iowa” and at the latter port died of cholera in the spring of 1849, after an illness of less than two days. The writer communicated the intelligence of his death to Capt. Dodge, and mourned his death as that of a brother.

Jonah Dodge Family Genealogy

The next owner and occupant of the Colburn place was Jonah Dodge, who, with his family, resided there for some years. He was a brother of Capts. Merrill and Ezra Dodge, son of Jonah Dodge, of Sedgwick, who married Susan, daughter of Moses Carleton, May 3, 1826. She was born July 4, 1805; died Feb. 28, 1878, in her seventy-third year. He died Feb. 20, 1878, aged seventy-six years. Their children were as follows:

1. Mary Ann Webster Dodge, born March 18, 1827.
2. Edward Ellis Dodge, born Feb. 24, 1829.
3. Sarah Elizabeth Dodge, born May 8, 1831.
4. Hannah Maria Dodge, born Oct. 8, 1834.
5. Susan Ellen Dodge, born June 13, 1836.
6. Augusta Dodge, born Sept. 30, 1838.
7. Francis Judson Dodge, born July 15, 1840.
8. Adelaide Dodge, born May 17, 1843.
9. Charles Michael Dodge, born May 16, 1846.
10. Henry Austin Dodge, born Nov. 26, 1849; died March 30, 1867.

Mr. Dodge and family removed from this to the Nathan Ellis house in the village, where now stands the new town hall, and where he and his wife both died. He was an influential member and deacon of the Blue Hill Baptist church.

The Colburn house had no permanent occupant after the Dodge family left it, and it fell into decay and was pulled down. The land is now owned by summer residents, upon which is being built a fine house on a part of it, the balance being in use for golf and other games. The view of the mountain, village and across the inner bay from that locality is one of the finest in the town.

Next to the Colburn-Dodge place is the old wharf falling into decay, where fishing vessels once landed their catches and dried them upon flakes near by, and where later was the first steamboat landing in the town.

Ezra Dodge Family Genealogy

The Capt. Ezra Dodge Place opposite the The Newton Stover House, now claims attention. Capt. Dodge was the son of Jonah Dodge, of Sedgwick, and brother of Merrill and Jonah already spoken of. He was a sailor and sea captain, and in early manhood made a voyage in a ship as a foremast hand from Boston to Canton, China, and return, in the days when men who had made China voyages were few as compared with later years.

Hearing him recite what he saw, caused the writer when a boy to resolve to make a voyage to that country when he became a man. The writer was cook with him for a trip or two in the old sloop “Fame”, with wood cargoes for the lime kilns at Rockland, and knew Capt. Dodge as a kindly and honorable man.

Capt. Dodge married Deborah Curtis, of Newbury Neck, and came to Blue Hill to reside in the ’30s, at about which time he built the house in question. Old houses, like persons, have an individuality of their own, and were they empowered with speech, what interesting stories they could tell of the lives and characters of their occupants! The children of Ezra and Deborah (Curtis) Dodge were:

1. Roscoe Dodge, born July 26, 1837; died July 24, 1838.
2. Jane Medora Dodge, born March 27, 1839.
3. Roscoe Green Dodge, born July 10, 1841; died in the army July, 1862.
4. Flora Ann Dodge, born Sept. 7, 1843; died Jan. 16, 1871, at Surry.
5. Ezra Curtis Dodge, born March 8, 1846.
6. Azor Colon Dodge, born July 6, 1848.
7. David Solon Dodge, born Aug. 29, 1850; died Sept. 11, 1889.
8. Eugene Howard Dodge, born Sept. 18, 1854; died Aug. 1, 1858.

Capt. Ezra Dodge died Oct. 17, 1875, and his widow July 20, 1876. So far as the writer is aware, the house and place are owned and occupied by their children at this writing, 1905.