Elmer Ellsworth Dodge was born near Shellbyville, Minnesota on October 29, 1864. He had nine brothers and sisters. During his early years, the Dodge family moved frequently. First to Iowa and then to Texas. Elmer and his brother developed a business of transporting buffalo hides to Fort Worth and returning with supplies for the hunters. Elmer became ill with malaria at the age of 17. He returned to Colesburg, Iowa to live with his sister.
He recovered and at the age of 21 headed west to Oakdale, Nebraska. He worked at various jobs for a few years and in 1892 he returned to Iowa to become a buttermaker. After about a year, he went back to Nebraska and married Matilda Saxton in the summer of 1893. They farmed for a year or so and then went back to Knoke, Iowa where Elmer accepted a job in a creamery. Their only child, Milly Moree, was born May 29, 1898. In 1899, Elmer opened a hardware store in Moneta, Iowa. The family moved to Meadow Grove, Nebraska in 1903 where Elmer bought a farm one mile south of town and began a cream station. Eight years later, Elmer sold the farm and moved the family to Tilden, Nebraska where he operated an egg and butter making business. About 1920, Elmer and Matilda retired.
Elmer died at the family home on November 28, 1933. Matilda died on March 12, 1957. Milly had married Edison T Pelton on June 9, 1927. She died March 15, 1981. Both are buried with Elmer in the Oakdale Cemetery.
Source Unknown: Originally submitted for this website in June 2007