HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY. 
 
Joseph, a younger son of (Richard), born 1651; 1839 he entered Newberry Seminary,
where he 
Joseph, Jr., born 1676; Elijah, born April 18, was prepared for Dartmouth
College, which he 
1709. Thusfarthe family hadcontinued t6reside  entered in 1841, but not enjoying
the atmos- 
in Beverly, Mass., originally a part of Salem. phere of the institution,
he was honorably dis- 
Elijah married Dorcas Brown and removed to missed by letter at the end of
one year, and ad- 
Winchester, N. H., where he died at a ripe old  mitted to Vermont University,
from which he 
age, and where his wife also died, October 1809, graduated with honors in
1845, ranking the first 
aged 100 years and six months. He had three  in his class ii! mathematics.
During the latter 
sons-Elijah, Joseph and Nathaniel Brown. part of his college experience he
determined to 
The last named married Lydia Barber, in 1761, devote his life to the profession
of civil engi- 
and removed to Barre, Vt., where he raised a neering, the various lines of
railroad then in 
large family, and died in 1823. One of his sons, course of construction and
in contemplation 
Asa, born in 1770, married Abigail Blodgett, seeming to offer an inviting
field in this depart- 
and became the father of Joseph, who was born  ment.  The Vermont Central
Railroad Coin- 
in 1795, and who married Azubah Thompson, in  pany, then being organized,
afforded the desired 
1818, and became the father of our subject, who  opening, and he served an
apprenticeship of 
perpetuates his name (which seems to have been  three years as assistant
engineer of this road, 
a favorite patronymic with the family)affixing  and uintil the completion
of the work.  The 
to it, however, the maiden name of his mother. building of a railroad through
this part of Ver- 
Thus far the successive generations had been mont was, perhaps, the best
school of discipline 
tillers of the soil and had by the sweat of their that an incipient in the
art of enginery could 
brows wrung a frugal subsistence from the rocky  have enjoyed, and proved
to be an excellent 
hill sides of their native New England. Their recommendation to him in after
life. In 1849 
habits were simple, their lives blameless and  he was employed to make the
preliminary sur- 
contented; they were a hardy and lon1g-lived  vey for a projected railroad
from Montpelier to 
race, blessed with physical vigor and vital force, Bradford, Vt., by the
way of his native town of 
and were not disobedient to the divine injunc- Barre. Having completed this,
he, in the fol- 
tion regarding the perpetuation of their kind. lowing autumn, removed to
the west, and after 
On the maternal side our subject is descended  visiting the principal cities
of Illinois and Mis- 
from James Thompson, a native of the north of souri, accepted a subordinate
position on the 
Ireland, of Scotch Covenanter stock, born 1671, macadaaized roads of St.
Louis county, in the 
who emigrated to America in 1-712, in company  last named State, his principal
being J. B. Moul- 
with his son Samuel, born 1698, and settled in ton, Esq., who has since played
a conspicuous 
Holden, Mass. The latter was the father of part in developing that city and
the State of 
Capt. Samuel Thompson, born 1735, who        Missouri, and for nine months
had charge of 
served in the Revolutionary War, four of whose the work on the St. Charles
road.  In 1850 he 
sons and two of whose daughters afterward set- engineered the Illinois Coal
Company's railroad, 
tled in Barre, Vt. The Thompsons also belong  from East St. Louis to Caseyville,
Ill. Soon af- 
to the agricultural classes, and were mainly ter the completion of the track,
however, all 
long-lived. The mother of our subject, how- the bridges and embankments were
swept away 
ever, was an exception to the rule; she died at by the high floods of the
Mississippi which oc- 
the age of thirty-three, and bequeathed to her curred in 1851. The disaster
proved to be a 
son a slender frame but an active nervous organ- serious loss to the company,
and for a time laid 
ization. Joseph Thompson Dodge attended the[ an embar'go on the work. In
1852 he obtained 
common d istrict school till the age of sixteen. I na contract on the :Missouri
Pacific Railroad and 
 
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