A. J. Dodgion, a prosperous and enterprising ranchman and stock-grower of western Colorado, and a resident of the state since 1869 or 1870, and living now about twelve miles south of Grand Junction, near Whitewater post-office, Mesa county, is a native of North Carolina, where he was born in 1835, the place of his nativity being Haywood county, in the western part of the state, and amid its mountains and mineral regions. His parents were William and Mary (Henderson) Dodgion, the former born and reared in South Carolina and the latter in North Carolina. His father was a planter in the old North state until 1874, when he moved to Kansas where he died at the age of seventy-four. The mother is also dead. Their son remained at home until he was about twenty-three years old, then began the business of life for himself by engaging in farming until the beginning of the Civil war, when he espoused the cause of his section and state and joined the Confederate army as a member of Company G, Twenty-fifth North Carolina Infantry. He served to the end of the war, and when its embattled hosts melted away from the field of carnage and mingled once more with the pursuits of peaceful industry, he returned to his home and for four years followed his former occupation. At the end of that period he determined to seek better opportunities in the new regions of the West than the wasted conditions of the South then seemed to offer, and came to Colorado, settling in Huerfano county where he was actively and profitably occupied in raising stock for eight years. In 1880 he purchased the ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, on which he now resides, and to its development and improvement he has since devoted his energies to such good purpose that it has become one of the most valuable and attractive in his portion of the county. His stock industry has grown to good proportions, and everything about him proclaims his enterprise and prosperity. He married Miss Sarah Patterson, of his native state, and they have four children, Olive, Samuel, Mary and Ruby. Mr. Dodgion is an ardent Republican in politics, but seeks no political honors for himself.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.