Dodge Family papers

The Dodge family of Kansas is a branch of the distinguished and widely-extended American Dodge family, which descends from two branches of the English Dodge family, one from Richard Dodge (1602-1671) and his brother William Dodge (c. 1604-1685), and the other from Tristram Dodge (c.1628-1683), relation unknown. The Kansan Dodge family can be traced back with reasonable certainty to Richard Dodge, who settled in Massachusetts. Major General Grenville M. Dodge, the eponym of Fort Dodge and Dodge City, Kansas, is descended of John Dodge (c. 1631-1711), son of Richard Dodge and the elder brother of Joseph Dodge (1651-1716), from whom the Kansan Dodges are descended.
The Dodge family arrived in Kansas when Orlando A. Dodge (1824-1897), originally from Ohio, left Illinois for a Blue River farm in Manhattan Township (Riley County), north of Manhattan, Kansas, which he settled with his first wife, Phebe, who died in 1872. He subsequently married Olive Pickett and sired six children in addition to his first five with Phebe. After losing the Blue River farm in a horse race bet, Orlando Dodge settled the 440-acre Springdale farm on Tuttle Creek in the Sedalia neighborhood, where he became one of the early members of the Sedalia Presbyterian Church (renamed the Sedalia Community Church in 1964). Olivia Pickett Dodge was a charter member of the Sedalia Church, and served as Sunday School Superintendent and teacher.
William Pickett Dodge (1877-1966), the eldest son of the union of Orlando & Olivia Dodge, and the sixth-born offspring of Orlando Dodge, was born and raised in Sedalia. He wed Faith Adella Cooper, daughter of Hugh McFadden and Anna Cooper of Sedalia, who were also charter members of the Sedalia Presbyterian Church. Like his father, Orlando, William Pickett was farmer in Riley County, Kansas. He was named one of the Master Farmers of Kansas in 1933.
Robert “Bob” Hugh Dodge (1906-1997), the eldest son of William Pickett Dodge, was a soil conservationist, and graduated from Kansas State University (formerly Kansas State Agricultural College) in 1930 with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture.