Obituary: CLAYTON, April 2---The funeral for Emmet C. Dodge, 82, one-time customs inspector and retired contractor, will be Monday at 11 a.m. at the Clayton Methodist Church, with Rev. Dean P. Shaw, pastor, officiating. Burial will be in
Grindstone Island Cemetery.Friends may call at the Cummings Funeral Home, Clayton, from 7 to 9 tonight and 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday.
Mr. Dodge, a resident of Grindstone Island for 61 years, died yesterday at the village dock, Riverside Drive. He was preparing to board the boat of Francis E. Garnsey to return to his home on Grindstone Island after having spent the
winter with a son, R. James Dodge, in Clayton.Surviving Mr. Dodge are five daughters, Mrs. Phileas E. (Hazel) LeClair, Mrs. William H. (Avis) Couch and Mrs. Earl K. (Mary) Ingerson, all of Clayton; Mrs. Robert (Florence A.) Purvis, 22 Welthea Ave., Watertown, and Miss Lois Dodge,
Topeka, Kas.; twin sons, R. James, Clayton, and N. John, Topeka; two brothers, Dr. Francis Dodge, Reedville, Va., and Gerald Dodge, Tampa, Fla.; 16 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.A son, William Melvin, drowned in 1926 at the age of 12.
Mr. Dodge was born Nov. 25, 1883, in Manistee, Mich., a son of Melvin and Rhoba Bass Dodge. He came to northern New York as a child, attended school in Rosiere and was graduated in 1902 from Dexter High School. He taught school on Point
Peninsula until moving to Grindstone Island in 1904.On June 5, 1907, he married Miss Nellie Cummings, a native of Gananoque, Ont., and a resident of Grindstone Island. The ceremony was performed by Rev. William Loan at the parsonage of the Grindstone Methodist Church.
Mrs. Dodge was postmaster of Grindstone Island from 1944 to her death, June 2, 1959.
From 1905 to 1914, Mr. Dodge was a customes inspector and then taught school on Grindstone Island until 1926. He worked as a building contractor in the Thousand Islands section for years and also operated a farm on the island until 1938.
Mr. and Mrs. Dodge then moved to Thurso on Grindstone Island.Mr. Dodge was a member of Grindstone Island Methodist Church.
1 CMNT 1900 Census Indicated Nellie Adopted.
1 CMNT Drowned
1 CMNT 1930 Census Says His Name Is John R.
Obituary (from newspaper of 17 May 1940): DEPAUVILLE---Melvin J. Dodge, 84, retired farmer died this morning a 2 (E.S.T.), at the home of his son, Gerald P. Dodge, near Depauville, with whom he had lived for about two years. He had been in
declining health about two years.Mr. Dodge was born in the town of Clayton, March 14, 1856, a son of the late Francis and Lucina Thomas Dodge. Practically all of his life was spent in the towns of Clayton and Cape Vincent and for many years he and the family lived on a
farm near Rosiere. In recent years, he had resided with his children.He married Miss Rhoba A. Bass of St. Lawrence at that place, Jan. 2, 1882. She died Nov. 28, 1935, at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Charles Hoover, Pillar Point.
Mr. Dodge was a member of the St. Lawrence Grange.
Surviving him are eight children, Emmett C. Dodge, Grindstone Island; Mrs. Oren D. (Winnie) Bolton, Sackets Harbor; Erwin M. Dodge and Neil F. Dodge, Clayton; Dr. Francis W. Dodge, Albany physician, Gerald P. Dodge, at whose home he died;
Mrs. Charles (Edna) Hoover, Pillar Point, and Mrs. Merton B. (Ruby) Huck, Three Mile Bay; 33 grandchildren; twelve great-grandchildren; a sister, Mrs. Nettie Sheley, Clayton, and a brother, Byron Dodge, Chicago.Two other children are dead. Mrs. Ralph (Ora) Sherman died 28 years ago. Ford Dodge, a river captain, was drowned together with Mr. and Mrs. W. Charles Lipe, Syracuse, Aug. 16, 1929, when the powerful Lipe motorboat, "Giggle " crashed
into the side of the Thousand Islander excursion boat, near Alexandria Bay. Ford had been married only three weeks at the time of the tragedy.Funeral services for Mr. Dodge will be held at the home of the son, Gerald, Sunday afternoon at 2 (E.S.T.). Rev. W. A. Herzog, pastor of the Baptist Church of Three Mile Bay, and Rev. Albert Walker, pastor of the Methodist Church of
Depauville, will officiate. Burial will be made in the family plot in the St. Lawrence Cemetery.Friends may call at the R. S. Clark Funeral Parlors at Chaumont Saturday evening.
Zebulon Bass (1781-1832) of Scottish ancestry was born in Saratoga, N. Y. His parents being Tories moved to Canada during the Revolution, but returned to New York after the war. During the War of 1812 they went back to Canada where he worked in construction.
About 1810 a company was formed in Gananoque, Ont. to cut, raft and ship timber to England. This timber was purchased of the Indians; located on the north side of Grindstone Island which was thought to be a part of Canada.
Mr. Bass was hired to supervise the work so came to the island and began the work. In 1818 the river was surveyed and the islands were divided and Grindstone became a part of New York State.
Mr. Bass decided to remain on Grindstone and purchased 200 acres of land. I’m living on a portion of this land once owned by my great grandfather and my grandfather was born on Grindstone in 1824.
In 1832, cholera broke out on the island, and my Great Grandfather died. The family remained there a few years and then moved to mainland in New York State, the land being sold to John Garnsey an early settler here in 1855.
Mr. Bass married Sally Smith (1785-1868) of Mayfield, N. Y. Mr. Bass, also one son, are buried on the island by Mr. Thomas Cummings, a great grandfather of my wife. Mr. Cummings settled on Grindstone about 1810, an early settler.
My grandfather had 9 brothers and sister. Olive married a Livingstone and lived on Hickory Island the rest of her life. My grandfather married and made his home in French Creek, now Clayton, and spent his later years camping on Grindstone, and Hickory Island, until he died in 1910, I came to the island in 1905 and still here in 1966
Emmet Dodge, Grindstone, 1966
1 CMNT Died in Army.
1 CMNT of Mayfield, NY
1 CMNT Farm on Grindstone Island
Obituary (from newspaper of 12 Aug. 1936): CLAYTON---William R. Cummings, 80, retired farmer, died Tuesday night at 7:30 E.S. 8.) at his home on Grindstone Island. He had been unconscious since Thursday afternoon when he suffered a stroke.
Mr. Cummings had been in Clayton Thursday morning and was suddenly stricken in the afternoon after return home.He was born on Grindastone Island, Sept. 17, 1855, a son of Walter and Jennie Farr Cummings. In early life he was a sailor on the Great Lakes, being employed on sail boats carrying grain between lake ports.
After sailing the lakes for five years, he purchased a farm on Grindstone Island. With the exception of twelve years--1918 to 1930--when he lived in Clayton during the winters, he had since resided on the island.
On Aug. 7, 1876, he married Addie C. Rouse of Grindstone Island on the island. Rev. Henry Hall of Grindstone Island performed the ceremony. Mrs. Cummings died in 1924.
Always a Democrat in politics, Mr. Cummings had served as Democratic town committeeman for several years.
Surviving him are a daughter, Mrs. Emmett Dodge, who lived with him; two brothers, Charles Cummings, Clayton, and Thomas Cummings, Alexandria Bay; seven grandchildren and several nephews and nieces. He was an uncle of Walter P. Cummings,
undertaker of Clayton and Watertown.
1 CMNT of Grindstone Island
1 CMNT Probably 1860 Cen. Norman, Wilhelmina & Welington G. G/c
1 CMNT 1910 Census Says She Was Born In Rhode Island
1 CMNT Died Young