Journals, 1842-1899

Series 1 consists of nine volumes of diaries kept by Leonidas Dodson during the years 1842 to 1885. The bulk of the entries cover the years 1849 to 1872. Dodson made entries sporadically, sometimes writing every few days, sometimes letting months (and, in later life, years) pass without comment. Topics addressed include church activities and religion; the Civil War, its antecedents, and results; trials and the law; elections; slavery; education; and temperance. Though Dodson was inconsistent in writing about his wives - his first wedding is not mentioned at all, and his second wife does not appear until the day before the wedding - he noted the births and other important events in the lives of his children, sometimes returning to the journal after years of silence to do so. In his religious reflections, his dead children appeared frequently, with hopes for their eternal happiness and regret for their loss. Dodson was especially affected by the tragic deaths of two of his children. Dodson enslaved a woman named Emily to care for his second daughter, Ethelinda (1852-1854), who died from complications of measles that Dodson felt sure could have been prevented if the doctor had been more attentive. Joseph, his youngest son from his first marriage, died in 1871 at age eleven in a firearms accident.

Dodson was proud to record his son Leonidas, Jr (Lonny) being apprenticed to a druggist and William being apprenticed to a carriage maker. William's departure for missionary work in Africa caused Dodson both pain and pride, as he recorded in his last entry in 1885. Especially in the first years of keeping his journal, Dodson recorded detailed accounts of church services and religious classes he attended. His religious concerns were primarily centered on his own feelings and behavior, but organizational issues in the church and wider moral issues such as temperance also appeared in his writing. During the Civil War, Dodson kept careful account of the national news and the local response to it. Dodson’s papers record his very contradictory opinions on slavery, ranging from his declaration in his journal on the common humanity of all people to his uneasiness about the possible results of the Fifteenth Amendment. Dodson was apparently a Democrat, as he always made careful note of the time and place of the Democratic National Convention. In addition to the predominant diary material, the journals include extensive quotations and transcriptions of literature, newspaper articles, correspondence, lectures and sermons, student essays and school attendance correspondence, notes, and certificates. Finally, the last volume includes pasted-in newspaper clippings concerning Dodson's death, as well as Virginia Dodson's handwritten memorial to her husband and dried flowers from his casket.

Arrangement of the volumes is chronological.