History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/William W. Dodge
WILLIAM W. DODGE, son of Senator Augustus C. Dodge, was born in Burlington, Iowa, April 25, 1854. He pursued his education in Notre Dame University, taking a scientific course and graduating in 1874, then entering the State University he graduated from the Law Department in 1870, and began practice in his native city. Mr. Dodge is an earnest Democrat, inheriting a taste for politics. He has been a delegate to many State Conventions and was a delegate at large to the National Democratic Convention at St. Louis at which Grover Cleveland was nominated a second time. Mr. Dodge was elected to the State Senate in 1885, serving by reëlection in the Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth General Assemblies. Among the important acts of tho Legislatures of which he was the author during his term of service may be mentioned—one to prohibit the employment of children under fifteen in factories, workshops and mines; one making the first Monday in September a holiday known as Labor Day; and one to protect working people in the use of their labels and trade marks. Senator Dodge was one of the two members selected by the Senate to investigate charges made against the State University. In 1890 he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel on the staff of Governor Boies.