Dodge, Phineas

first name (variants): Phinehas
Birth: June 17, 1734 in Windham, CT
Death: July 11, 1773 in Windham, CT
Affiliation

Moor's Indian Charity School

Education

Moor's Indian Charity School (dates of attendance unknown)

Faith

New Light

Nationality

Anglo-American

Occupation

Teacher

Residence(s)
  • Windham, CT
Biography

Phineas Dodge was an Anglo-American charity scholar at Moor’s Indian Charity School who served Samuel Kirkland as a schoolmaster at Kanawalohale twice, in 1767/8 and again in 1771. Phineas was the youngest son of Amos Dodge, a carpenter in Windham, CT. As was the case for other charity scholars, Moor’s afforded Dodge with an education he likely could not have accessed otherwise. While many of Dodge’s classmates attended Yale, Dodge himself did not, though it is unclear why. Dodge was sent to Oneida in 1767 to replace David Fowler as schoolmaster at Kanawalohale, but returned that spring as both he and Samuel Kirkland, the missionary in charge, were ill. He did not work for Wheelock again. However, he stayed in close contact with Kirkland, and served as his schoolmaster in 1771. Again, his health cut his mission short, and he retired from missionary service to keep school in Windham, CT, until his death in 1773. Dodge seems to have been exceptionally religious: his letters to Kirkland are predominantly abstract and religious in nature, with local news thrown in and little personal information.

Sources

Chase, Frederick. A history of Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire. 1891. Dartmouth College Library. A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Papers of Eleazar Wheelock. Hanover: Dartmouth College Library, 1971. Hamilton College Archives. "Samuel Kirkland Collection." Accessed 4/9/14, http://elib.hamilton.edu/node/164. Love, Deloss. Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England. Pilgrim Press 1899. White, Almira Larkin. Genealogy of the Ancestors and Descendants of John White, Volume 1. Haverhill: Chase Brothers, 1900. Accessed via GoogleBooks.