General Notes

From Knox County, Ohio

1850 census-Whiteside Co, IL. 1860 census-Carroll Co, IL.


Date of death also given as 22 Sep 1868 at Milledgeville, Carroll Co., Illinois.


Stephen Dodd was born April 28, 1784, at Mendham, New Jersey, to Parmenas and Patience Wright Dodd. He married Phebe Babbitt on November 1, 1809. He moved from the family home  area in New Jersey to Knox County, Ohio. A farmer, regional physician and minister, he preached at the Presbyterian Church, road horseback with his medicine, and was Justice of the Peace in 1823. In  1824, when Jesse was born, Stephen and Phebe had eleven children, including five-year-old triplets.
  In 1836, Sarah, one of the triplets, was the first death in the family. By 1837, there were 14 living children and the 15th was on its way. In this year, Stephen moved his family to Carroll County, Illinois, settling at Milledgeville. Ten years later, in 1847, tragedy truly struck, taking the lives of Phebe  (died Oct. 3, 1847 at age 56) and daughter Jemima, then 18. Stephen remarried on Dec. 14, 1847;  his second wife was Philenia Munson Noble. Philenia had two sons by her marriage to the deceased  Dr. Noble and added two daughters to Stephen's family. He lived the rest of his life in Milledgeville,
    Carroll County, Illinois, where he died August 28, 1868, at age 81; he is buried just south of  Milledgeville in Bethel cemetery on South Otter Creek Drive (Lot 8) with Phebe, Jemima and other members of his family. One stone marks the resting places of Stephen, Meima, Phebe, and son Stephen. An identical stone nearby marks the graves of daughter Phebe and her husband David Smith and their daughter Angeline Smith.

  Milledgeville. Stephen and Phebe must have been among the earliest residents of this small town, if they ever lived in the town itself. Settlers began arriving in the area in the early 1830s to claim government land grants. An enterprising millwright by the name of Peters saw the possibilities in 1834, but became ill and gave up his claim to Jesse Kester, who built a saw mill by 1839. It was from this mill - and the settlement which grew at the edge of it - that Mill-edge-ville soon derived its name. The first meeting of the Methodist Church was held in James McCreedy's barn; it wasn't until 1855 that the first church was built. The post office was established in 1844, and in 1847, the year Phebe died, that the first school was held in a private house and taught by Miss Miriam Whitney. The town was actually platted in 1850 with an addition platted in 1854. Stephen died in 1868. (see history of
Milledgeville, Illinois at http://www.milledgeville.com and The History of Carroll County). By 1877, the village had 300 residents and was ready to build a permanent school.

  Milledgeville was actually started before Mount Carroll, which just to the west would become the county seat of Carroll County. The county itself was formally created by an Act of Legislature in 1839 and named after Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence. The first settlements in the area were still a little further west along the Mississippi River at Savanna. 1836 marks the date of the first land claims at Mount Carroll, where the first log cabin was built in 1841.    
  Mount Carroll, too, grew up around a mill.

Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1999 23:40:48
From: Pat Schultz <trish@willowtree.com>

Dodd genealogy (Avlyn Conley Dodd):
Apparently Stephen Dodd and his wife Phebe Babbitt Dodd moved to Knox County in 1814 and left in about 1837.  Several children, including my great great
grandfather Jesse were born there and daughter Sarah died there.  They were in Bloomfield Township where he was farmer, regional physician and minister - exhorting at the Presbyterian Church, and was JP in 1823.