Gov Henry Dodge & Where We Came From

Photo - Wisconsin's first Territorial Governor Henry Dodge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Files

Let me introduce to you Governor, Senator, Frontiersman, and Early Midwestern Magnate Henry Dodge. If you’re from Wisconsin you’ve certainly seen his name on streets in our towns and you’ve probably driven to or through Dodgeville or Dodge County. Henry Dodge, first governor of the Wisconsin Territory, is one of our many forefathers and mothers whom we seldom – or never - think about. 

While spending time in Mineral Point a while back, I kept noticing his name on plaques around town which piqued my interest. I decided to explore further; this became a festival of rabbit holes. 

Such as, did we even know that Henry Dodge nearly joined a plot to overthrow the government of the United States?

Or that he owned five enslaved men until 1838 even though slavery was outlawed in the Northwest Territory in 1787? 

Or that he built his fortune on mining for lead and zinc smack dab in the middle of Winnebago land?

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Henry Dodge, first and only child of Israel and Nancy Dodge, was born in 1782 in what is now Vincennes, Indiana. Soon after the young family moved to the Louisville area.

Henry’s dad, Israel Dodge, was born in Connecticut in 1760 as one of nine children. When he was fifteen Israel left home to crew on a slave ship, meaning he witnessed and probably helped maintain the below-decks humans being transported in chains. 

A year later, when he was still only 16, Israel joined the Connecticut Militia to fight in the Revolutionary War. He was wounded in hand-to-hand combat during the eleven-hour Battle of Brandywine, yet six months later Israel was fighting again, this time under the command of George Rogers Clark. Clark’s objective was to fight the British in order to claim territory for the new nation. Clark fought the Indians who were allies of the British; these battles and raids were unjust and violent. Clark is quoted as saying, “I’d like to see the whole race of Indians extirpated." ( J. Ostler. Surviving Genocide (2019), Yale University Press)

In 1781 Israel, who was 22, married Nancy, who was 12. Henry was born in 1782 when Nancy was 13. Nothing I read explained this appalling information. 

When Henry was six, Israel abandoned his family to move 300 miles west to St Genevieve along the Mississippi River. He married a new wife in the early 1790’s. In that same decade Nancy, still in Kentucky, also married someone new. One source said they divorced though most sources didn’t touch this disconcerting conflagration of facts. 

What can we make of these startling facts about Israel Dodge? It struck me that Israel Dodge might represent post-traumatic stress disorder. There’s no way to prove or disprove my theory, but his early life experiences were certainly harsh and violent. He seems to have lived his life with more energy than responsibility. Allowing that PTSD affected Israel’s adult life might offer clues about the way his son Henry will lead his own life.

Henry Dodge was 14 and still living with his mother in Kentucky when he witnessed an Indian bothering or assaulting a woman and responded by killing that man with a rock. Since he was now a “marked man” it wasn’t safe for him to stay in his community so his mom sent him to live with his father in St. Genevieve. Not all sources mention this event where young Henry defended a woman by murdering an Indian. Later in his life an associate will say “Henry Dodge is a man … very fond of talking over his own exploits.” (Henry Dodge Frontiersman by James L. Clark.)

Obviously, what actually occurs affects us. Just as relevant is how we remember and interpret bygone events. We don’t know for sure what happened that required Henry to move hundreds of miles. We can see watch him internalizing the prevailing racism of his time as Henry lives with his father for ten years while learning how to farm, mine, and ‘manage’ enslaved workers. For more than half of his life Henry will own enslaved men.

In 1800 at age 19, Henry marries 15-year old Christiana. They will have nine children and stay married until they pass away in their eighties.

In 1806, when he’s 25, Henry rides hundreds of miles from his Missouri home to join Aaron Burr’s treasonous plot to seize American territory. Burr wants to create a new nation of which he, Burr, will be king. Then Henry discovers President Jefferson has declared Burr a traitor. At that point Henry turns his horse around to gallop back to St. Genevieve where he discovers a grand jury is charging him with treason. Henry pays his bond and then physically attacks the men of that jury. No part of this incident is mentioned again. Curiously, Henry Dodge serves as a deputy sheriff and then sheriff of Ste. Genevieve County from 1805 until 1821 so he was already an official in his community when this event occurred. 

The root cause of the War of 1812 was Britain trying to preserve and build economic power in North America. During this war Henry serves with the Missouri militia to patrol and fight local Indian tribes who ally with the British. To his credit, in 1814 Henry, who has risen to Major General, will negotiate to save 150 Miami Indians from being massacred after their raid on a Missouri settlement. When a different military commander is ready to kill them, Dodge risks his own reputation and safety to stop that man because he, Dodge, had promised those Indians safety if they surrendered. 

In 1827 Henry leads his family and enslaved workers to the lead mining rush happening in the Galena area. Within months Henry pushes even further north into Winnebago land of what is now southwestern Wisconsin. He gives gifts to the local chief in return for ‘permission’ to mine on that land which, by an 1816 treaty, belongs to them. His enslaved workers: Toby (given to Henry by his father when Toby was a boy), Tom, Lear, Jim, and Joe will do the actual work of mining and won’t be freed until 1838, twelve years after Henry owed them manumission. 

Henry Dodge orders a stockade to be built which the growing community around him will use when Indians protest the theft of their land. In 1832, when Henry is fifty years old, he becomes a militia leader in the Black Hawk War. This war, as was true for most Indian wars, was a fight by indigenous people to regain access to lands they’d lost through deceit and trickery. The Black Hawk war was the last Indian battle fought east of the Mississippi. The Indians lost when Dodge and others massacred them, many were women, children, and elderly people trying to get across the Mississippi River. 

For his part in this war Henry Dodge was given even bigger military commands. In the coming years he captained soldiers to patrol and fight Indians to protect the burgeoning growth of settlers into the west. His name will make its way to the national leadership of the Democratic party; the party that did not support abolishing slavery.

In 1836 President Andrew Jackson appointed Henry Dodge to be the first governor of the new Wisconsin Territory. Two years later Dodge finally manumitted his enslaved workers, fifty years after slavery was outlawed in the area he’d lived in twelve years. 

Much of the political agenda of Governor Dodge’s years in office is about where the new state capitol should be built, from whom will the government buy property and materials. James Doty “wins” this political boon, he will become fabulously wealthy and will also rise in Wisconsin politics. Dodge and Doty despise each other. 

In 1848, when Wisconsin becomes a state, Dodge is elected U.S. Senator, and in 1851 he is re-elected. His senatorial career will not be impressive. In 1857 Dodge retired from public life to move to Burlington, Iowa where he passed away in 1867.

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Henry Dodge was intelligent and energetic. He was known to be an affable man, a good friend, a person willing and able to get up and move on to the next big project. He was born into obscurity in a dangerous time and place; he was a child in an insecure family. He would have admired his dad who was brave and energetic and who would eventually build a local dynasty. Henry followed the footsteps of his macho father by also skirting laws when doing so built his wealth and position in society. Henry was ready to join a plot to undermine his new nation. He lived and acted comfortably within the racism of his era. There are episodes in his long life where he pushed into situations and onto lands he knew weren’t legal. When questioned, he easily ‘rearranged facts’ to cover what he had done. 

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We are a nation built on stolen land. Much of the work of our early centuries was done by kidnapped, threatened, and enslaved people. We are also a nation built with the chutzpah, intelligence and energy of folks who lived through terrible experiences in their homes and home nations that would affect their sense of stability all their lives. Most of our foremothers and fathers emigrated from hopelessness, worked incredibly hard, then bore and raised children who had to figure out how to negotiate the maze of their parents’ complicated energy. 

Henry Dodge was strong, opinionated, questioning, avaricious, loyal to those he chose to love, dismissive of folks he didn’t think he needed. His power flowed from his connections. His wealth and endurance flowed from how fast he could think and plan and move - and then, if a situation wasn’t working for him, move on. 

We know Henry Dodge. Most of us can see his legacy when we look in our own mirrors.

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Some of my sources: Wikipedia. 

Henry Dodge Frontiersman by James L. Clark. Illustrated by Joel Salter. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin with cooperation of Edward A. Uhrig Foundation, Milwaukee, Wi 1957

The Handy Wisconsin Answer Book by Terri Schlichenmeyer and Mark Meier. Visible Ink Press. 2019

When the Mississippi Ran Backwards – Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes by Jay Feldman Free press, a division of Simon and Schuster, 2005