Ann Dodd
By Mark G. Hodge
Ann Dodd was the daughter of John Dodd and Catherine
Evans and was born January 18, 1824, in Hanmer, Flintshire, Wales. John was a laborer. Ann married William Butler on January 19,
1843, in the parish church in
Ellesmere, Salop County (Shropshire), England. They were living in Birch & Lyth at the time of their marriage. William was born February 11, 1822, in Hanmer, Flintshire, Wales to
Richard Butler and Ann Moyle. Richard
was a shoemaker.
William and Ann had two children. Kaziah Butler was
born March 13, 1844, at the White Mere in the parish of Ellesmere, Salop County
(Shropshire), England. Edwin was born February 12, 1846, at Colemere in the parish of Ellesmere, England.
Sadly, William died of peritoneal inflammation on July
22, 1847, in the Parish of Welsh Hampton, Ellesmere,
England. The family was living in Bettisfield at the time.
Ann joined the Mormon Church at some time and immigrated
to America
with her two children in 1849. They left
Liverpool, England on March 5, aboard the ship Hartley
which carried 220 passengers. William Hulme was the church leader on board. They arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana
on April 28. On May 1, they boarded a steamship and traveled up the Mississippi
River to St. Louis.
From there they boarded another steamship and traveled up the Missouri River, making their way to
join the Saints in Kanesville, Pottawattamie County, Iowa.
In the summer of 1850, Ann married Abraham Close Hodge in
Kanesville.
She became the second wife of Abraham through the church practice of
plural marriage. However, because this
polygamous marriage took place without proper church approval, both Abraham and
Ann were disfellowshipped from the church for a
time. Abraham
Close Hodge was born in Pompey, Onondaga
County, New York on
July 10, 1806, to Jacob Hodge and Sarah Williams. He married his first wife, Rebecca Rhodes, on
August 11, 1831, in Selinsgrove, Union
County, Pennsylvania.
Abraham and Rebecca had five children who lived to
adulthood. Kaziah
and Edwin now had three step-brothers and two-step sisters. They were Franklin (born 1832), Sarah
Catherine (born 1834), Helen (born 1837), Lyman (born 1840), and Jacob (born 1844). Kaziah and her
step-brother Jacob were born only 12 days apart.
Two children were born to Abraham and Ann. James Hodge was born in September 1850, in Kanesville, Iowa,
and Rebecca Ann Hodge was born later on January 11, 1853, in Salt
Lake City, Salt Lake
County, Utah.
In July 1852, the Hodge family crossed the plains to the Great Salt Lake Valley.
They left Harris Grove, Iowa with the Allen Weeks’ ox train, consisting
of 110 people. They arrived in Salt Lake City on the
cool, clear Tuesday of October 12. The
Hodge family settled in the
Sugarhouse Ward in Salt Lake City
for a short time and then moved to Stone
City (now called Cedar Fort) in Utah County in 1853.
Abraham Hodge became the town’s first Justice of the Peace. Settlement of Cedar Fort began in the spring
of 1853. Many of the settlers were from
the Harris Grove Branch in Iowa,
including the families of Abraham Hodge, Allen Weeks, Eli Bennett, John Nay and
James H. Glines.
Allen Weeks became the first bishop of Cedar Fort.
Sadly, Ann died on Monday, March 20, 1854, in Cedar Fort
at the age of 30. She was buried in what
is now the Old Pioneer Cemetery. Kaziah, Edwin,
James and Rebecca Ann were then raised by their step-mother, Rebecca, who loved
them and treated them like her own children.
