William E. Dodge, Jr.

William Earl Dodge Jr. (February 15, 1832 – August 9, 1903) was an American businessman, activist, and philanthropist. For many years, he was one of two controlling partners in the Phelps Dodge Corporation, one of the largest copper mining corporations in the United States.

Early life Dodge was born in New York City on February 15, 1832, the eldest son of Melissa (née Phelps) Dodge and William E. Dodge Sr. (1805–1883), a U.S. Representative from New York.

Dodge was very active in his support of the Union cause during the Civil War, becoming a member of the Union League Club and an advisor to the Women's Central Association of Relief. Dodge and his cousin, Daniel Willis James, transformed the Phelps Dodge company from a placid and profitable import business into one of the world's largest and wealthiest mining corporations. The Phelps Dodge company had decided to enter the mining industry, and hired professor of chemistry James Douglas to make an inspection of mining claims in the Southwestern United States. Douglas suggested that the two men invest in the Detroit Copper Mining Company of Arizona, which owned a copper mining claim in Warren, Arizona. In 1881, Phelps Dodge not only took a controlling interest in the Detroit Copper Mining Company but also purchased a minority interest in the adjoining Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee, Arizona. After the Copper Queen and Detroit Copper both struck the Atlanta lode in 1884, Phelps Dodge bought out the remaining interest in the Copper Queen. The company merged its various mining interests into the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company in 1885, and installed Douglas as president and part-owner.

Grace Hoadley Dodge (1856–1914), who co-founded Teacher's College and was the first woman to sit on the New York City Board of Education. William Earl Dodge III (1858–1886), who married Emmeline Harriman (1859–1938), daughter of Oliver Harriman, in 1879. After his death, she married Stephen Henry Olin. Cleveland Hoadley Dodge (1860–1926), who followed his father into the family business and founded the Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation in 1917. Mary Melissa Hoadley Dodge (1861–1934), who did not marry. Alice Clinton Hoadley Dodge (1865–1948), who married philanthropist William Church Osborn who served as the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Morris Jesup Dodge (1867–1875), who died young.

William E. Dodge Jr. died of heart failure on August 9, 1903, at his summer home in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Residence In 1863, Dodge built a summer retreat known as Greyston, a gambrel-roofed Gothic Revival mansion of granite designed by James Renwick Jr., in Riverdale, Bronx, New York City. With Lyndhurst, Tarrytown, and Ingleside, Dobbs Ferry, it is one of only three mid-nineteenth century survivors along the intensely redeveloped lower Hudson. His Dodge heirs donated it in 1961 as a conference center for Teachers College, Columbia University, who used it until the 1970s, then sold it to Zen Buddhist Community, who sold it again.

Family tree