My Genealogy Hound

John Dodson, retired merchant and land agent of Fort Smith, Ark., hails from Belfast, Ireland, in which city, and in England and Scotland, he learned flax-spinning, by machinery and became what he calls manager, and we call superintendent of a factory, a part of the business being the making of tailors’ and other threads. Whilst in Ayrshire he went to the Burns’ Festival, heard Prof. Wilson deliver his famous address, saw several noted writers, saw Burns’ sons and some of his old neighbors, also a representation of “Tam o’ Shanter,” his mare, “Meg,” and the “Witches,” and saw “Cuttie Sart” pull Meg’s tail off crossing the “Keystane o’ the Brig.” At a time of bad trade he left Ireland for New York, tramped over much of that State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; got disgusted and dropped his trade, for if there were any factories worth of the name he failed to find them. He spent two years at common labor in a New Jersey woolen mill, and his wages were $8 per month. Three or four months before Zach. Taylor’s election he was discharged, and between Philadelphia and Baltimore got into a crowd of 3,000 men that had been discharged from the Eastern mills to show that an increased “protective tariff” was necessary- seems this game is played every four years, whether the trade be really good or bad. The crowd took everything eatable on the road, and sometimes took drinkables, so he left and headed for Ohio. It was a long walk to Beaver, or Fallston, over 300 miles of a rough country road, but he got work there at 50 cents a day, one-half cash and one-half in woolen cloth. Ere reaching Beaver, and at the foot Laurel Hill, he was offered work, mining or digging iron ore at $18 per month. Here he worked five weeks, and received in full pay $2-some other of the workers got less. The two owners of the furnace refused to pay all tramps and strangers, and were habitually cheating. Some workmen were paid on head and ribs with the furnacemen’s iron pokers. His work led him past the cottage of “Grace Greenwood” daily. She was young then and making a name as a writer. She seemed fond of birds and flowers. Greenwood, of course, is not her real name. He tried next the blue-grass region of Kentucky, and would willingly have settled there, for the country and people suited him, but times were dull and work scarce, and in hunting for the latter he found himself at Little Rock, Ark. The capital of Arkansas is a fine city now, but when he first saw it, it was a small town- land too plenty, people too few, money and work too little. Chopping wood and burning coal seemed all that was needed, and not much of that same. Here he lived two years, mostly as guard and inside keeper of the penitentiary. The next year he was a store clerk in Van Buren, and the following year in Fort Smith. After that he had a small interest in the store, and made much money for his partner and some himself. The “Know-nothing” movement came up before the Civil War, and, being the Irish leader here, he found it harder than the war; his caution and the good understanding he maintained with the Germans helped much, and hardly any injury occurred to person or property. He never owned a slave, but he thought justice was on the South’s side, and spent about $15,000 in supporting her. He lost two young sons and a brother, and his home and other things, and for two years after the war closed did not get enough to eat. But he wasted no time in grumbling, and luck turned with him as soon as he became a land agent. In 1886 he was worth $20,000 or $30,000, and in 1887 came a boom, and he made about as much more, and he has it and is not likely to waste it. He married three times. The first wife was a Miss O’Keeffe, of Wicklow, Ireland; the second, a Miss Murray, of his old town of Belfast; his third is a Chicago lady named Miss Brady. He has three children; one is a partner in a planing mill, another is studying law in Baltimore, and the third is a girl of seven years. He took Father Matthew’s pledge, and keeps it. He never gambled; his leisure hours are spent in reading. He has many books on many subjects, and by the best authors- for some of them he sent to Ireland. He thinks he has the best Catholic library in Arkansas, if he lives long he will, for he is occasionally adding to it. He thinks Fort Smith will gradually enlarge; that as she has several railroads she will have others, and that, distances being far to Little Rock, Kansas City and St. Louis, this town has a superior location.