This week in Block Island history ?April 24, 1828?
By Robert M. Downie

Capt. James M. Dodge, a one-eyed, one-armed captain from Old Town Road.
This week in history, April 24, 1828, Captain James M. Dodge was born complete and whole. During the next few decades, before his death at age 71, parts of him were lost.

Being the third of six sons, he faced the age-old decision of most Block Island boys whose family land would not support them all: either take to the sea around the island for a living, or take a one-way trip to the Midwest or beyond.

Jimmie Dodge chose to stay here. At the age of 19 he purchased a small plot of land from his father Caleb, and from his two older brothers Solomon and Caleb Jr.

There, a few feet from the edge of Old Town Road ? near the corner of Chapel Street ? Jimmie built his home, which still exists. That was the only land he ever purchased. His brother Solomon also constructed a house, a few dozen yards behind Jimmie?s, owned in recent decades by Howie and Pam Glen.

The Dodge family was descended from Tristram Dodge, who came with the early settlers in 1661. Many generations later, in the late-1800s, the Dodge clan was in a golden era.

Capt. Jimmie Dodge?s daughter Emeline, born a year after her father built the house, grew up and married Uriah B. Dodge. Their son Lester began the Dodge Day Celebrations of the 1930s, ?40s and ?50s, culminating with Lester?s bequeathal of his own house on nearby Dodge Street to the town for use as a library ? hence the current library building is named for Uriah B. Dodge, constructed in the early 1970s with Lester Dodge?s funds.

In the Providence newspaper of Aug. 13, 1887, Jimmie Dodge?s exploits at sea were first mentioned. The age of tourism had been in its heyday for 15 years, and many island fishermen earned summer incomes taking visitors on excursions in newly built, single-mast catboats:

?A party of three were out with Captain James Dodge in the Birdie Thursday morning, when suddenly each had a bite, and they pulled in three bluefish weighing a total of twenty-six pounds.?

The local newspaper, the Mid-Ocean , in July 1895 filled out his condition much more. Jimmie?s family had grown in number, but apparently life at sea had taken a toll of body, although not the spirit:

?Among those who will be remembered by the guests of previous years are Capt. Jimmie Dodge, the venerable one-armed pilot and boatman and his boat the ? Birdie .? Capt. Jimmie is not exactly in the ?sere and yellow leaf,? but he realizes that he cannot get around as he could in the days of long ago, so this season the Birdie will be run by Capt. Laertus Steadman, who has for two or three years past had the ? Bessie Fisk,? a boat owned by Uriah Dodge.

?Everybody knows him and the Bessie Fisk . They are both features of the Island ? not simply incidents.

?Two of the largest boats in the fleet, the Marion and the Alice E ., are owned and sailed respectively by Capts. Lem and Frank E., both sons of Capt. Jimmie Dodge.

?The latter is a new boat, launched about a month ago from Crowley?s shipyard in Newport, and is one of the finest boats ever sent to Block Island. Her name is the Alice E . and she is named for Miss Alice Eisman of St. Louis.?

In September 1898, just seven months before his death, the newspapers made a final note of his life. He was still ever-active, daring to venture quickly off his beloved island for a trip to Narragansett Bay and the port of Providence ? though soon to return, and soon to join his large family on the cemetery hill:

?A week ago last Thursday, the barque Francisco from Batrom, Turkey, a port on the Black Sea, passed the south part of Block Island, and was quietly boarded when off Clay Head by Captain James M. Dodge, alias ?Captain Jimmie,? the oldest pilot on the Island.

?Captain Jimmie is well along toward the four score mark as regards years, but his eyes ? albeit he has but one, are as bright as his arms, though he has but one; as strong as his legs, though one, owing to an accident half a century ago, is shorter than the other; as sturdy as those of most men of half his age.?

A one-eyed, one-armed, popular sailing captain