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Eunice Bishop Dodge

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Eunice Bishop Dodge
(Mrs. Leonard Dodge)

A copy of the following unidentified newspaper article was found in a scrapbook owned by Town Historian Richard Schmal:

    Met With Sudden Death

    Mrs. Leonard Dodge Killed By An Express Train
    While Visiting at Her Old Home Near Hamilton, Ont. -- Her Sister Also Killed

    The news was quickly spread Saturday morning that Mrs. Leonard Dodge had been instantly killed Friday by an express train wile visiting at her old home near Hamilton, Ont.

    Mrs. Dodge has been in very poor health for some time but feeling somewhat better went with her daughter, Elsie, to visit her many friends and relatives at Jerseyville. With her sister, Mrs. Thos. Knox, she had been visiting the latter's daughter at Lynden, Ont. They were driving in a covered buggy and did not hear the train as it approached. The outfit was struck by the engine and its occupants thrown about one hundred feet away being instantly killed and badly bruised. The remains were brought home Monday by the daughter who accompanied her, and two nieces, and also by Mr. Dodge who went there Saturday on hearing the news.

Excerpts of an e-mail from Bob Coleman, who is related to this branch of the Dodge family through the Coleman line, clarifies family relationships further:
    Mary Coleman Dodge was the sister of Daniel Coleman, my ancestor, and they were the children of William Coleman and Catherine Jones. As an aside, the Mary Jones who married Rufus Dodge, who also appears in your biographies, was the first cousin of Mary Coleman. . . .

    You will note in the biography for Leonard P. Dodge, he and Mary spent some time in Illinois after their marriage. My best information is that their son, Leonard Jr., was born in Illinois. They returned to Canada and resided near Troy, Ontario for a number of years before going to Michigan and finishing their years at Chesaning, where they are buried.

    I don't know whether Leonard Dodge Jr. had the middle initial "P" or not. However, he married Eunice Bishop in Ancaster Township, Ontario, on December 27, 1864.

    Mary Coleman Dodge, the wife of Leonard P. Dodge Sr., died in 1897 according to a transcription from the Chesaning Cemetery.

    Eunice Bishop Dodge, the wife of Leonard Dodge Jr., died on August 19, 1904, in the level crossing accident. . . . Eunice does appear with Leonard Jr. on page 46 of the Wildwood Cemetery transcription book. He died in 1909; her death year must have had a transcription problem for it appears as two dashes.

The following article, in the collection of Bob Coleman, comes from the front page of the Aug. 20, 1904, Toranto Globe:

    TWO WOMEN KILLED

    ACCIDENT AT A CROSSING NEAR JERSEYVILLE

    Buggy Occupied by Mrs. Thos. Knox of Lynden and Mrs. Leonard Dodge of Saginaw, Mich., Demolished by Express Engine

    (Special Dispatch to The Globe)
    Hamilton, Aug. 19 -- A double fatality occurred on the Toronto & Hamilton Railway near Jerseyville this afternoon, when Mrs. Thomas Knox of Lynden, Ontario, and Mrs. Leonard Dodge of Saginaw, Mich., were killed instantly by the express train due in this city at 4:45. Conductor McNair and Engineer Fitzgerald were in charge of the train. The unfortunate ladies were driving in a covered buggy and were trying to cross the track in front of the fast train, when the engine struck the outfit and tossed the buggy and its occupants and the horse up in the air. The two women were thrown about 100 feet away. The horse was also killed, and the buggy was broken into small pieces.
Last updated on May 22, 2006.

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