Hodge, Richard

Born: 1819-05-19 Smithfield, Virginia

Died: 1852-05-30 Nebraska Territory

Flourished: Sangamon County, Illinois

In 1838, Hodge married Catharine Divelbiss in Pennsylvania. They moved to Springfield, Illinois, the following year, where they raised five children. In March 1849, Hodge joined a company of Sangamon County men who travelled to California to take part in the Gold Rush; he returned to Springfield in October 1850. In 1850, Hodge was employed as a harness maker in Springfield. On a second trip to California, he died from illness west of Ft. Kearney in the Nebraska Territory.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 381-82; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 72; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 27 March 1849, 2:2; 28 June 1852, 3:1.