Harrison Howell Dodge
LL.D.
3rd Superintendent of Mount Vernon
In office
1885 – 1937
Preceded byJohn McHenry Hollingsworth
Succeeded byCharles Cecil Wall
Personal details
BornMarch 31, 1852
Washington, D.C.
DiedMay 20, 1937(1937-05-20) (aged 85)
Washington, D.C.
Alma materColumbian College
Burial placePohick Church, Lorton, Virginia

Harrison Howell Dodge (March 31, 1852 – May 20, 1937) was the third resident superintendent of George Washington's estate at Mount Vernon. During his 52 years overseeing the estate, he doubled the facility's acreage, improved the grounds and added many historic artifacts to the collections there.[1][2]

Early and family life

Dodge was born on March 31, 1852, in Washington, D.C. Being underage during the American Civil War, he assisted on his uncle's farm in Maryland during the conflict.[3] Dodge graduated from Columbian College, which was later renamed George Washington University.[4]

Banking and clerical careers

After graduating from college, Dodge worked in the Wall Street banking house of Jay Cooke & Company, until that firmed collapsed during the Panic of 1873. He returned to Washington, D.C., where he spent 1874 indexing the Congressional Record. He worked from 1874 to 1877 with commissioners of a sinking fund before accepting a position at Riggs & Co. (1877-1885).[4] There, the longtime clerk gained a reputation for meticulous accounts, which helped him gain the position which Dodge held for the next five decades.[5]

Superintendent

In 1885, the regents of The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association (MVLA) appointed Dodge as the successor of John McHenry Hollingsworth, who had succeeded MVLA founder Ann Pamela Cunningham in 1872. The nationwide depression in 1882-1883 caused tourism to drop. The non-resident Hollingsworth's means of addressing the revenue drop alienated first the staff (which also had to deal with vandalism and natural deterioration of the wet historic site), then the MVLA regents. However, his departure proved messier than Cunningham's exit.[6] Dodge also succeeded Hollingsworth as postmaster for the Mount Vernon post office. United States President Grover Cleveland appointed Dodge to the latter position and successive Presidents reappointed him until his death.[4][7]

While managing Mt. Vernon, in addition to his primary duties of handling visitors to the historic site and managing the farm, Dodge reviewed George Washington's writings about the estate. Dodge also visited other Colonial-era gardens, and traveled to England to see gardens there dating from the Georgian period. Using this knowledge, Dodge oversaw the restoration of the site and put in place a number of improvements that Washington had planned but never implemented.[7] This restoration work was completed from 1932 to 1935 by Charles Wilson Killam. Dodge and then-assistant superintendent Charles Wall, who had been hired in 1929, rotated turns sleeping as guard in the manor house.[8] Dodge's 1932 book Mount Vernon: Its Owner and Its Story, with an introduction by Owen Wister, told many stories about Washington and his home, including details of a mechanical roasting spit that Washington had designed and of finding a pocket-knife that had belonged to Washington in his youth. The knife was said to have played a role at Valley Forge in convincing the General to continue as leader of the Continental Army in one of its darkest days.[9] George Washington University recognized Harrison Howell Dodge in 1931 with an honorary LL.D. degree.[7]

Death and legacy

Graves of Dodge and his wife, in the cemetery of Pohick Church.

Dodge died at age 85 on May 20, 1937, at Garfield Hospital in Washington, D.C. He was survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth Knowlton, as well as by two of his four daughters.[4][7] He was succeeded as resident superintendent in 1937 by Wall, who continued many of the improvements to the grounds and buildings that Dodge had initiated.[10][11] He is buried in the cemetery of Pohick Church, at which he served for many years as vestryman.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "Harrison Howell Dodge". George Washington's Mount Vernon. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  2. ↑ Scott E. Casper, Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine (New York: Hill and Wang division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2008) p. 158 et seq.
  3. ↑ Casper pp. 158-159
  4. 1 2 3 4 Dodge, Joseph Thompson (1894). Genealogy of the Dodge Family of Essex County, Mass. 1629-1894. Democrat printing Company, printer.
  5. ↑ Casper p. 159
  6. ↑ Casper pp. 129, 132-142, 148-157
  7. 1 2 3 4 Staff. "COL. HARRISON DODGE, MT. VERNON CUSTODIAN; Superintendent of Washington's Home Since 1885--Made Many Improvements", The New York Times, May 21, 1937. Accessed July 24, 2010.
  8. ↑ Barnes, Bart. "Former Master of Mt. Vernon Charles Cecil Wall Dies at 91", The Washington Post, May 4, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2010.
  9. ↑ Staff. "FINDS RICH QUALITY IN OUR LITERATURE; Ludwig Lewisohn Declares It Stands With Strongest of Day in Creative Values. LOOKS FOR MASTERPIECES In Book Tracing Culture Through Artists He Says Successive Moral Revolutions Are Not Ended.", The New York Times, March 9, 1932. Accessed July 24, 2010.
  10. ↑ Thomas, Robert McG., Jr. "Charles Wall, 91, Long Director Of George Washington's Home", The New York Times, May 5, 1995. Accessed July 23, 2010.
  11. ↑ Staff. "New Head of Mount Vernon Well Prepared for New Job" Archived 2012-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, The Christian Science Monitor, September 25, 1937. Accessed July 24, 2010.
  12. ↑ "Pohick Church". Archived from the original on 17 November 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
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