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 8th, 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 manŐs
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 allÉ. 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.