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Frederick "Fred" James Dodge
(1854-1938) - Wells Fargo Detective, constable of
Tombstone,
Arizona, and
Texas cattleman, Dodge was born at Spring Valley,
California on August 29, 1854 and raised in Sacramento. When he grew
up, he went to work as an undercover agent for
Wells Fargo, working in
California,
Nevada and
Arizona. In December, 1879, he was working in
Tombstone,
Arizona and
recommended that
Wyatt Earp be hired as a guard
and messenger for the stage line. The two quickly became good friends
and Dodge supported
Wyatt and his brothers in their troubles in
Tombstone after the
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and during the
Earp
Vendetta Ride. He and
Wyatt remained friends the rest of their lives.
Dodge was an integral part in the
investigation into the "Bisbee Massacre,” on December 8, 1883, where
six desperados left four people dead inside the Goldwater and Castenada Store in Bisbee.
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Wells
Fargo Express Stagecoach, 1890, photo
by John C. H. Grabill
This image available for photographic
prints
and downloads
HERE!
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In the end,
five of the killers would be legally hanged, and when the
sixth man, John Heath, was sentenced to life in prison, a
vigilante group descended upon the
Tombstone jail, where Heath
was being held, and lynched him.
Later, Dodge
was elected constable of Tombstone, while still working under
cover for Wells Fargo, where he solved a number of train and
stage robberies. In December, 1890, Dodge went to work
"openly” for Wells Fargo in
Texas, where he worked on a number
of cases, not only in the Lone Star State, but also in
Oklahoma. He was known to have teamed up with
U.S. Deputy Marshal,
Heck Thomas, in the pursuit of the Doolin-Dalton
Gang.
While he and
his wife, Patsy, and daughter, Ada, were vacationing in Leon
Springs,
Texas, they fell in love with the hill country and in
1906, Dodge purchased 2,000 acres, which he called the Dodge
Ranch near Boerne,
Texas. He retired from
Wells Fargo in 1917
and settled down on his ranch. After his first wife died, he
remarried a woman named Jessie in 1917 and the couple had a
son named Fred James Dodge, Jr. the following year. Dodge
continued to live on his ranch until his death at the age of
84 on December 17, 1938. He was buried at the
Boerne Cemetery in Kendall County,
Texas.
During his long career as a
detective, Dodge was described as an intelligent and
determined investigator. He was also an extremely meticulous
man, who kept a daily diary of his activities and travels,
collecting some 27 journals over the years. These would later
be used as research for two books -- The Life and Times of
Wyatt Earp and Undercover for Wells Fargo.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated January, 2010
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