What Happened to Sherman E. Dodge after 1903? Part VII

It has been several years since I found the numerous newspaper articles from Portland, Oregon that told the story of Sherman's criminal activity. I didn't think that I would find any other information on Sherman's criminal activity, but it turns out that his story was picked up and published in The Los Angeles Times (Honestly, I'm surprised that this wasn't picked up my more newspapers across the Untied States. I've searched the available websites and there doesn't appear to be any other newspapers that picked up and published this story). There are three newspaper articles that were published; one from July 1909 and two from December 1909. They are as follows (he is reported by his aliases, French E. Dodge and Frank Dodge)

It's always interesting to see the different details that are brought to light from different sources. In addition to telling the story that we now know, this set of newspaper articles shed some more light on his criminal activity and the conspiracy that was worked out to swindle the husband of his lover. 

July 16, 1909: Wife Helps to Ruin Husband - She Conspires With Lover to Extort Money - Latter Gets Coin by Posing as Detective - Neighbors’ Suspicions Lead to Arrest of Pair.

[BY DIRECT WIRE TO THE TIMES.] Portland, July 15. – [Exclusive Dispatch.] Conspiring with her clandestine sweetheart to extort money from her husband, Mrs. Orville Connor, wife of a Linn county farmer and rural mail carrier, stripped Connor of practically all he possessed and then eloped with French E. Dodge, her confederate, and lived with him several months on their ill-gotten gains before being brought to book today. Mrs. Connor has taken a timber claim and she and Dodge told Connor that in doing so she had infracted the Federal laws. Dodge impersonated a land department detective and finally offered to “square” the case if Connor would pay him $600. Connor raised the money by mortgaging his farm. Dodge soon came back and demanded more money and Connor sold his stock to get it, in order to save his wife from prison, as he supposed. Dodge and Mrs. Connor then ran away, leaving Connor with three small children. Neighbors finally informed the Federal authorities of the suspicious circumstances and the succeeding investigation laid the conspiracy bare. Dodge and Mrs. Connor were arrested today. They were found living together thirty miles from the scene of their crime.

December 14, 1909: Husband Loses Wife and Cash - Sharper Takes Advantage of Man’s Affection - Mayor of Oregon Town Mortgages Home and Entrusts Better Half and Money to a Bogus United States Officer to Prevent Her Arrest for Law Violation.

[BY DIRECT WIRE TO THE TIMES.] Portland (Or.) Dec. 13. – [Exclusive Dispatch.] In the case of Frank Dodge, whose trial began in the Federal Court today, there is a remarkable story of one man having used another’s affection for his own wife to fleece him of money, and, that obtained, of having stolen the woman away. Dodge, who was arrested in Gresham, Or., where he and Mrs. Conner, wife of Mayor Orville Connor of Shedd, or., and her two children were living, is on trial for impersonating an officer and obtaining between $500 and $600 from Connor. Deputy United States Dist. Atty. J.D. Wyatt in his declaration to the jury, told of Dodge’s discovery that Mrs. Connor, representing herself as having been divorced from Connor, had taken up a homestead in Umatilla county in violation of the land laws. Later, according to the government attorney, Dodge visited Mr. and Mrs. Connor at Shedd, representing himself to be a special agent of the United States Land Office. He told Connor of his wife’s crime and offered for $500 to take her to Canada, where she could not be convicted, or to “fix up the matter.” Connor, according to the attorney’s statement, mortgaged his home and gave Dodge $500. Dodge, who, meanwhile had formed an attachment for Mrs. Connor, which was returned, instead of taking the woman to Canada, where Connor believed her to be, took her to Gresham, Or., where they lived as man and wife, until Dodge was arrested on a charge of impersonating an officer, while Mrs. Connor was also arrested on a statutory charge.

December 15, 1909: Unfaithful Wife Tells of Shame - Admits Participating in Scheme to Fleece Hubby. Man who Impersonates a Federal Officer and With Woman’s Assistance Gets Money from Mayor Connor of Shedds, Or., Is Found Guilty of Serious Offense.

[BY DIRECT WIRE TO THE TIMES.] Portland (Or.) Dec. 14. – [Exclusive Dispatch.] “It is true I left my husband and went to live with Mr. Dodge. It is true also that I planned with Mr. Dodge to get money from my husband. I loved Mr. Dodge, but I am sorry now.” This was the story in brief as Mrs. Conner, wife of Mayor O.B. Conner of Shedds, told it on the witness stand in the Federal Court today, of her own shame and her husband’s disgrace. Following his completion the jury convicted Dodge of impersonating an officer. Mrs. Conner told her story in evident embarrassment, but made no effort to shield herself or the man who had taken her from home. “I first met Mr. Dodge at Pendleton,” she said, “when I was living apart from my husband. We were parties to a conspiracy, with others, to acquire some land fraudulently.” “After a time my husband came and persuaded me to return with him to our home. We were happy then, but Mr. Dodge came again and wanted me to help him get some money. We pretended Mr. Dodge was a Federal officer and we made my husband think I was in danger of being arrested for land fraud. He mortgaged his farm to get $500 to give Mr. Dodge, who said he could settle the case for that amount. “Then we made my husband think I had to go to Canada and Mr. Dodge and I went to Gresham to live. Then Mr. Dodge was arrested.” Mrs. Conner’s voice broke frequently during her recital, and her husband wept audibly. The jury reached its verdict within a few minutes after retiring.

There is also a brief newspaper article that was published in The Beaver State Herald on December 17, 1909. This newspaper was published in Gresham, Oregon (the town where Sherman was arrested). I'm kind of surprised that this is the only mention of Sherman in this particular newspaper, since this is there he and his lover lived for several months prior to being arrested. Their criminal activity certainly caught the town of Gresham and its people off guard. The article reads as follows:

'Frank Dodge in the toils. The people of Gresham will be interested to learn that Frank Dodge, who impersonated an officer and committed other offences against the law for which he was arrested and held for trial, was placed before the court on Monday, and appearances are that he will suffer punishment before they are through with him. He will likely be tried first for the impersonating, and if he gets free from that he will be indicted for running off with another man's wife and for defrauding that man of money obtained through misrepresentations. As to the wife, she will also be tried for unlawful conduct and so what seemed to be a harmless little family outing in our midst has turned out to be a record-breaking scandal.'

James Robert Dodge in World War One - October 1918: Arrival and Assignment in France

One piece of information I have been looking for in my research is where did my great-grandfather serve when he arrived in France in October of 1918. From what I have found, I know that he arrived at St. Nazaire, France on October 7, 1918 and that he was assigned to Co. F, 9th Infantry Regiment in November of 1918 and participated in the March to the Rhine and the Army of Occupation in Germany in 1918 and 1919. However, where was he assigned when he first arrived in France in October of 1918? I had always assumed that he was completing basic training and then assigned to Co. F, 9th Infantry Regiment following his arrival over there. Today, I now have some more answers.

Family Search is now beginning to publish the indexed monthly roster rolls from the end of 1912 through the end of 1939. These records have taken more than a year to index. I am excited to finally begin to search the indexes for my ancestors, whereas back at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 I had to scour these previously unindexed records for my ancestors. I found most of the roster lists for grandpa Jim, including when he was stateside during basic training. Today, I searched by name the available index (right now there are approximately 20 million names that have been indexed. I can only imagine how many tens, or even hundreds, of millions more names will be published in the upcoming days and weeks) and I was not disappointed. I finally found grandpa Jim in October of 1918 in the roster lists. 

Following his arrival to France, Jim was assigned to Company C, 162nd Infantry Regiment. This regiment was stationed at Contres, France, roughly 125 miles south-southwest of Paris. The 162nd Infantry Regiment was part of the 41st Infantry Division. From what I have found, the 41st Division was used a replacement division and did not see combat. This means that those soldiers assigned to this Division were assigned temporarily before being reassigned to other divisions. Most of the soldiers assigned to this Division ended up being reassigned to other divisions, including the 2nd Infantry Division. 

Below is a copy of the Roster for Company C, 162nd Infantry Regiment from October 1918. Grandpa Jim is listed near the bottom of the page. It doesn't reveal on what date he was assigned to this Company, but to finally know where he was in October of 1918 following his arrival in France is a another piece to the puzzle of his military service. As a side note, the National Archives in St. Louis houses the morning reports for this, and many other, infantry regiments. I don't know when the National Archives will open again (to date, they have been closed since March of 2020), but once they open again, I will have to inquire about morning reports to see if any additional information can be obtained, such as which date he was assigned to this regiment and on what date he would have been transferred to Co. F, 9th Infantry Regiment.

Remnants of the Dodge Homestead

I'd like to thank my dad for finding this one...In March of 1894, Nathaniel T. Dodge applied for a homestead in Buena Vista, Colorado. It was the Northwest quarter of the Southwest quarter (also known as Lot 6) of Section 6, Township 14 South, Range 78 West of the 6th Principal Meridian, containing 42.69 acres. After several years of living on and improving the land, the homestead application was granted in 1901 and the homestead patent issued in 1903. (for the homestead application, I have posted this information previously on http://nbdodge.blogspot.com/2008/11/land-patent-records-for-nathaniel-t.html) Nathaniel lived and worked the land until he sold it in 1922.

Below is a picture of the home that he built and lived in. The picture is from the mid-1900's. We're not sure who is in the picture, but the home is very interesting to see and is a nice detail to add to his homesteading story

Fast forward to 2021...we are now looking to find out what happened to the homestead after Nathaniel sold his land and passed away. The land was sold to a Mr. R.B. Griffith in 1922 for $1,500 as part of a mortgage taken out from the Federal Land Bank of Wichita. After trading hands a few times, the land was foreclosed in 1930 due to non-payment of the mortgage. This was following the crash of 1929 and the onset of the great depression. The land sat vacant, owned by the bank until 1946, when it was purchased by a rancher (along with several thousand additional acres). This rancher owned it until his death in the 1960's and was sold by his estate in the early 1970's. The people who purchased it kept the land together and sold it again in the 1980's. In the 1990's, a five-acre parcel was subdivided from the former homestead. The remaining land was sold again in the 1990's, and in the early 2000's, the Terrapin Ranch subdivision was created. The land records for Chaffee County are available online at iCounty.org.

This last week, dad was looking on google earth and found the former homestead (we visited the land on our trip to Buena Vista last Summer). The boundaries of the former homestead parcel are easy to see. It is a square parcel of land with a road along the southwest corner. There are three homes running from the Northwest to the Southeast with open space along the north and southwest.

google.com

South of the middle house, there was something that caught my dad's eye. Below is a picture from google earth of what he found.

In the middle of this picture, there appears to be an outline of a foundation where a building used to stand as well as other remnants of former habitation. Looking at the picture of the home where Nathaniel and his family lived, it appears to be the exact location of where their house stood. The outline of the foundation appears to match the photo. In addition, the location of the trees appear to be in the same place as well. We are planning to go back to Buena Vista next Summer to visit this place and see where our ancestors lived. We are hoping the remnants of the foundation are still there for us to see in person.

Fogalsang's Pru-Nut Creams

 I've been going back through my posts and I'm surprised that I've not published anything specific on the candy store that my great-great aunt owned and operated in San Francisco. I've mentioned the store in other posts, but it's time to post specifically on the store. That candy store was Fogalsang's Pru-Nut Creams. 

The store was owned and operated by Thomas Edwin Fogalsang (1871-1928) and his wife, Frances Cleveland (Dodge) Fogalsang (1888-1955). From what I've been able to find, operations started in early 1924 and was operated out of their home on 59 Collins Street. Below is an advertisement published in The San Francisco Examiner from February 1924. The business was originally called California Pru-Nut Creams Co.

Eventually, the business was located at 669 Geary Street in San Francisco. Below is an advertisement published in the San Anselmo Herald in November of 1924. 

Below are several advertisements for employment opportunities at Fogalsang's. All were published in The San Francisco Examiner and found on the website newspapers.com. As a side note, I did several different searches using several different terms to find as many advertisements for employment as I could. I'm sure there are other employment advertisements in The San Francisco Examiner, but the search results are only as accurate as the information that is transcribed

May 19, 1925

December 8, 1926

September 30 & October 1, 1930

December 10, 1935

November 4, 1940

August 19-22, 1941

September 26-27, 1942

January 3, 1943

June 10-14, 1943

It is amazing that there are websites, such as newspapers.com (where the above clippings come from) and genealogybank.com (which contain additional newspapers from all over the United States) that are available for online perusal where this information can be found. Another website that I recently searched is the California Digital Newspaper Collection, where the following article was found. This article, published in The Healdsburg Tribune in May of 1939, describes one of the confections that was manufactured.

I'm not sure how this particular candy fared in the market.

For anyone wondering...No. We don't have any of the recipes that would have existed. As far as I know, those are all long gone. The business appears to have operated for nearly 20 years. The last mention in any of the newspapers or San Francisco directories of Fogalsang's is 1943. In 1944, the location became a beauty shop. I used google maps to look up the address of the business. The building is still there. Below is a picture of what is there today.

My grandpa remembered visiting Fogalsang's as a kid during the 1930's. His dad was Frances' brother and they traveled from Wyoming to San Francisco to visit. He remembers staying in an apartment above the store and being told to be quiet and not to make too much noise so as to not disturb the business below. Below is a picture of my great-grandfather in front of the store front.

A couple of years ago, I received an email from the proprietor of Antiques on First, an antique store in Benicia, California. They had received a box (pictured below) of Fogalsang's Pru-Nut Creams (minus the candy, of course 😄). While researching where the box was from and who and what Fogalsang's was, they came across my blog and reached out to me. They were kind enough to send the box to me. I am grateful that they sent this to me so that my family can enjoy this tangible piece of family history.

***UPDATE November 26, 2020 - I found three additional help wanted advertisements from the The San Francisco Examiner that were published in July of 1924. The business was located at 871 Geary Street and was called 'Pru-Nut Cream Co.'

July 15-17, 1924

2020 Colorado Trip

With 2020 going the way that it has, I haven't been able to do too much on my family history research. However, I have been able to travel with my dad to Salida this week to enjoy the scenery of the Arkansas Valley as well as take care of our ancestors' graves in Buena Vista. We had this trip planned since Christmas of last year. We're both very glad that we were able to go as there were several things that could have derailed our trip. On Tuesday morning, we went to the Mount Olivet cemetery in Buena Vista to perform some much overdue upkeep on our ancestors' graves. Below are the pics from our small project.

This is the gravestone our family had put in place when I lived in Colorado back in 2009. The story my grandpa told me was that their daughter, Ann, was supposed to have purchased and placed a gravestone following Nathaniel's death in 1926. Ann lived in Colorado Springs and lived the closest to Buena Vista. However, Ann never had a gravestone in place, and the task then fell to her daughter, Virginia, who also spent her life in Colorado Springs. After Virginia passed away (she never had any children), my Grandpa always had a desire to have a gravestone put in place. When I moved to Colorado in 2008, he told me that he would help pay for a gravestone. I took my grandpa up on the offer, and we placed the gravestone (pictured above) in 2009. 

This is part of the upkeep that me and dad did on their graves. Above is a picture of Fannie's grave. Her grave was outlined with stones that have become covered up over the past 100 years. We took some time to uncover and place the stones above ground as well as add a few additional stones. 

This is the other part of the upkeep that we performed on their gravesite. Above is a picture of Nathaniel's grave, which was unmarked and was a settled depression in the ground where he is buried. We purchased and placed paver stones to outline where Nathaniel is buried.

Above is a picture of the final product.

This morning, we stopped at the Salida Public Library to look up the local newspapers to see if there were any additional death notices for Nathaniel. Back in 2016, I had found a death notice in 'The Salida Mail' published May 4, 1926. I was hoping to see if the other Salida Newspaper, 'The Salida Record' would have published anything regarding his death. The Salida Library was very helpful in helping us locate what we were looking for. They have original newspapers for both 'The Salida Record' and 'The Salida Mail', and we were able to find death notices for Nathaniel in both newspapers. They are pictured below.

'The Salida Mail', May 4, 1926. I had found this article back in 2016, but was happy to find it again. This article details his funeral and lists his children that attended his funeral. Along with Ann, who was living in Colorado Springs, another daughter, Rachel (Ray), was there. She moved to Grand Junction in 1920 and had actually buried a daughter just one month previous to Nathaniel's passing away. Ray and her family moved to Tacoma, Washington in 1931. Also there was one of his sons, Ed Dodge, who was living in Avon. Ed (his full name was John Edward Dodge), was the only son who stayed in Colorado. He lived in an around Buena Vista for most of his life. He lived in Avon for a time during the 1920's, but was back in Buena Vista by 1928. He later lived in Fairplay, where he passed away in 1934.

'The Salida Record', May 4, 1926. This is what I was hoping to find this morning. I cannot tell how excited I am to have another piece of information on Nathaniel. Reading this death notice, I think there is one line that is missing. The middle sentence should probably read: 'He was born at Augusta Maine, [and came to Colorado] in the eighties.' He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1906 & 1924. Each was a two-year term. He resigned from his position in January of 1926. He also ran for Justice of the Peace in 1908, 1910, 1914 & 1920, losing each time. He was also a Judge in Buena Vista during much of the 1880's.

It is interesting how each newspaper published different information on Nathaniel. One focused on his funeral, the other reported on his death and gave a brief obituary on his life. Each article helps paint a picture on his life and add to the information and research I am able to share.

There are several other editions of 'The Salida Record' that I would like to come back and look through. Because of the articles I have found in 'The Salida Mail', I would hope that looking through 'The Salida Record' would someday be possible. Because of the current status of everything that is going on, the librarian was only able to allow me to search through a specific edition of the available newspapers. If conditions were normal, I would be able to take the time to search through 'The Salida Record' and compare them to the articles that I have already found in 'The Salida Mail'. At any rate, the librarians at the Salida Library were very helpful in our search today.