Weston Dodson

Heller, William J., ed., History of Northampton County (Pennsylvania) and the Grand Valley of the Lehigh, American Historical Society, 1920.

Weston Dodson -- Founder of the coal mining and distributing organization, Weston Dodson & Company in, Weston Dodson was born on Luzerne County homestead, April 7, 1824, and died in Bethlehem, December 8^th, 1889. He was educated in the schools of Luzerne county, and in young manhood came to Freemansburg, where he engaged in business. He made Bethlehem thie seat of his operations in 1859, entering the anthracite coal business and conducting his dealings as Weston Weston Dodson. When in 1863 he was joined by his brother, Charles M. the firm title became Weston Dodson and Brother. A few years afterward the collieries at Audenreid and Morea , Pennsylvania, were opened, and the future operations of the concern were as Weston Dodson & Company. In the properties of the Dodson interests the new era of coal mining first found welcome, with the installation of the latest development in mine machinery, and the adoption of many safety appliances. Comfortable homes for the employees were also built and every possible effort made to provide for the safety and comfort of the mine workers. The following is quoted from a printed tribute of one who knew Mr. Dodson intimately:

Mr. Dodson was a man of strong and quick intelligence. He made little show of it, however, he was a good deal interested in public affairs and especially in the recent issues of political economy, but he was no politician and no talker. If he impressed himself on the world about him, it was not in any of those ways which ordinarily commanded man’s regard and admiration. He was simply a quiet, but unobtrusive gentlemen of refined tastes and habits, a businessman of unblemished integrity and reputation, a humble, but devout follower of One Whose name was very seldom on his lips, but whose precepts were written upon his heart and life. That is absolutely all…. His life said all there was to say, his daily walk was a single utterance of his belief and hope. If there was not something divine in that existence he ever tried so anxiously to square with duty, in that sweet abiding charity which years of experience could not narrow or make cold, in that gentle courtesy of breeding which was begotten so utterly of his consideration for others, in that keen and happy wit which can always raise the laugh and never left a wound. If there is nothing of God in this then their matters little indeed that he helped to found a church and gave her liberally to it of his means. For us, what he was among the sanctities of the House of God is a precious memory, not because it is a thing by itself, but because it is at one with all his life besides.

Weston Dodson married, April 12, 1859, Jane Elizabeth Craig, and they were parents of: Mary, married to George Reginald Bradford; Charles Miner, married Hello Louisa Lake, and has Weston Dodson 2nd, James Lake and Margaret; Jane, married William Radford Coyle, of the United States Navy, and they have a son, William Radford , Jr., and daughter, Jane Weston Coyle.