DODDS, MRS. MARGARET
, the mother of Joseph and Rev. Gilbert Dodds, was married three times. Her maiden name was Craig. She was born in South Carolina, and first married a Mr. Watson, who died, and she married a Mr. Kirkpatrick. He was a patriot soldier, who, while serving in the Revolutionary army, was captured, and died in the British prison on Sullivan Island, near Charleston. She lost two brothers in the Revolutionary army, also. The soldiers of the English army took all her provisions, and when she begged the officer in command to leave her sufficient corn and oats for seed, he replied with a volley of profanity, and told her she would have no use for it, as some loyal subject of the king would occupy her plantation. She remembered having seen Washington and his army, and Cornwallis with his army. After the death of Mr. Kirkpatrick, she married James Dodds. They had five sons and a daughter in Carolina, and in 1795 started to move their family to Kentucky. Before they passed out of Carolina the father and daughter sickened and died. Mrs. Dodds, with her five sons, moved on; but, on arriving at Red river, Tennessee, decided to stop, and there remained two years, when they again moved on, and arrived in Caldwell county, Ky., in 1797 or '8. After her son Joseph came to Sangamon county, she came and spent two years with him, then returned to Kentucky. Twelve or fifteen years later she again came to Sangamon county, and spent her remaining days in the families of her sons Joseph and Rev. Gilbert Dodds. She died in Sangamon county, Jan. 17, 1846, in the ninety-seventh year of her age.