fairs. He has represented his county as a Senator in the Legislature
of the State. He is a gentleman of high character and has the
confidence and respect of the community.

My opponent for the office of Alcalde was Mr. C.B. Dodson, from
Illinois. I afterwards met him only once or twice in California, and
knew little of his history. But when I was a member of the Electoral
Commission, in February of this year (1877), a copy of a paper
published in Geneva, Illinois--the _Republican_, of the 10th of that
month--was sent to me, containing the following account of him,
from which it appears that he, too, has lived a life of strange
vicissitudes and stirring adventure:

REMINISCENCES.

An account of the various positions of the selected arbitrators
says that in 1850 Judge Field was elected Alcalde and Recorder of
Marysville, California. Judge Field's competitor for the position was
our townsman, Capt. C.B. Dodson, who was defeated by nine votes. As
there is no doubt that had the Captain gained the position of Alcalde
he would have risen as his competitor did, to various judicial
positions, and finally to the arbitrator's seat, these nine votes must
be considered as the only reasons why Geneva does not number one of
her citizens among the arbitrators for the highest of the world's
official positions. Among the votes polled for our friend Dodson on
that occasion was that of Macaulay, one of the family of the famous
historian of England's greatest days and proudest times.

The Captain has been a natural and inveterate pioneer, and few
citizens of the State have figured more prominently or proudly in
its early annals. In 1834, forty-three years ago, Mr. Dodson came to
dispute with the aboriginal Pottawatomies the possession of the Fox
River valley. White faces were rare in those days, and scarcely a
squatter's cabin rose among the Indian lodges. The Captain built
the first saw-mill on the river, and he and Col. Lyon were the hardy
spirits about whom the early settlers clustered for encouragement and
advice.

In 1837 he was employed by the government to superintend the removal
of the Indians to Council Bluffs and Kansas, and their successful
emigration, as well as their uniform good will toward the whites prior
to their removal, were largely due to his sagacity and influence among
them.

When Capt. Sutter first found the yellow gold gleaming in the dirt of
his mill-race, and all the world joined in a mad rush to the mines,