THE DODGE NARRATIVE, 1780
FACSIMILE REPRINT
Sixty-three copies printed
sixty being for sale
NARRATIVE
OF
MR. JOHN DODGE
DURING HIS CAPTIVITY
AT DETROIT
REPRODUCED IN FACSIMILE FROM THE
SECOND EDITION OF 1780
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE
BY
CLARENCE MONROE BURTON
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
THE TORCH PRESS
NINETEEN HUNDRED NINE
THE DODGE NARRATIVE
he narrative of John Dodge is one of the records of frontier lifeduring the period of the American Revolution that displays the intensefeeling of hatred and unfairness evinced by the British soldiers to theAmerican rebels. It was written and published during the time of thegreatest excitement in the West—the scene of the Narrative—and ishistorically valuable because of being contemporary with the events inquestion.
It was considered of great importance at the time of its firstappearance, having been at once reprinted in England[1] and passedthrough at least three editions in America.[2]
In other writings published in England in 1779, appear the first publicnotice of the cruelties and gross irregularities in the administrationof justice in Detroit under the rule of Lieutenant Governor HenryHamilton, and the presentment of Hamilton by the grand jury of Montrealfor murder in the execution of a Frenchman convicted of stealing. Fromthe Narrative were taken the charges made against Hamilton, when he was[Pg 6]a prisoner in Williamsburg, in consequence of which he was confined inirons and barely escaped a more serious, and perhaps even a capitalpunishment.[3] But little at the present time can be ascertained ofDodge. He was born in Connecticut, July 12, 1751, and was the son ofJohn Dodge and his wife, Lydia Rogers.[4] John Dodge, the father, was aBaptist minister by profession and a blacksmith by trade. His son Johnwas one of a numerous family of children. His brother Israel, who waswith him in the West, was nine years his junior, having been bornSeptember 3, 1760. Before John had reached his nineteenth year he hadwandered into the northern part of the Ohio district and had enteredinto business as a trader in Sandusky. He was familiar with the Indianlanguage used in his neighborhood and frequently acted as interpreter.
Many of the events of his life from this time, are contained in hisNarrative and it is needless to repeat them here, but mention might bemade of other acts of his and records pertaining to him, of which hemakes no mention. On the fourth day of April, 1776, Dodge, with WilliamTucker, purchased a house and lot in Detroit, from Joseph PoupardLafleur, for 3,000 livres, and a few days later Tucker agreed to repayDodge whatever sums he had paid for this house if Dodge "went down thecountry," as