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Few Iowans had a greater impact on the United States, Iowa, and particularly Council Bluffs, than Grenville Dodge, a Massachusetts native who fell in love with railroading at an early age and is best remembered as the architect of the transcontinental railroad.

Dodge was born in Pennsylvania on April 12, 1831, but spent much of his adult life in Council Bluffs and played a key role in cementing the western Iowa city's role as the eastern terminus of the railroad that connected the Atlantic and Pacific railroads.

In 1859, Dodge pigeonholed an aspiring presidential candidate named Abraham Lincoln and led him to a hill overlooking the city to show him his vision for Council Bluffs as a railroad hub. Lincoln, then an attorney for the Rock Island Railroad, came to Council Bluffs in August of that year to deliver a campaign speech and examine a tract of land he held as security for a loan.

Dodge talked with Lincoln for more than two hours at a local hotel and then Lincoln was taken to a bluff now memorialized with the Lincoln Monument.
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Lincoln was said to be overwhelmed by the banter of the enthusiastic Dodge, managing to dislodge himself from the conversation after an extended period of time. But five years later, in 1864, it was Dodge that Lincoln tapped to advise him on the best way to reach the west by rail. But before he would become the man who built the greatest railroad in the world, Dodge would distinguish himself for his work repairing disabled Southern railroads that had been destroyed by Rebel troops.

His work earned him a promotion to brigadier general under Ulysses S. Grant and earned him the friendship of William Tecumseh Sherman. Dodge was first drafted into service by Iowa Gov. Samuel Kirkwood, being sent to Washington, D.C. to secure arms for Iowa volunteers; he secured 6,000 muskets for the men. In July, 1861, he was appointed Colonel of the 4th Iowa Volunteer regimented and commanded the troops during the Battle at Pea Ridge outside of Springfield, Mo., where he was wounded. For his service, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers.

In June, 1864, Dodge was appointed major general and placed in charge of the XVI Corps during the Battle of Atlanta. The XVI Corp had been held in reserve, but had been placed in a
position to intercept Southern General John B. Hood when he mounted a flank attack.During the ensuing siege of Atlanta, while looking through an eyehole of a Union fortification, he was spotted by a Rebel sharpshooter
He recovered but was unable to return to duty as a field commander in the Civil War.

It was during the war that he worked with Union Pacific president Thomas Clark Durant, for whom the eastern Iowa city of Durant is named, providing him with information that allowed him to smuggle contraband cotton from the Confederate States, for which Durant made a small fortune. During that time, Durant began inviting Dodge to join him as chief engineer of the Union Pacific, an offer the Council Bluffs man declined.

After the Civil War, Dodge was put in charge of the Army’s successful campaign against the Plains Indians. Dodge used a network of Native Americans to spy on the tribes, driving may from the prairie. The campaign ultimately failed, but where many Army personnel saw sweeping vistas, Dodge saw land ripe for the railroad. In fact, it was while fleeing a war party in the Black Hills of Wyoming that Dodge escaped down an uninterrupted ridge to the plains below. He told his guide, "If we can save our scalps, I believe we've found a pass through which the Union Pacific can go."

Dodge's job was to plan the route and devise solutions to any obstacles encountered. Durant was also defrauding the company and manipulated the route to suit his land-holdings. This brought him into vicious conflict with Dodge. Eventually Durant imposed a consulting engineer named Silas Seymour to spy and interfere with Dodge's decisions.

Although Durant had once promised Dodge stock in his secret scam, the Crédit Mobilier, it had never materialized. Dodge, however, purchased 100 shares in his wife's name and it turned a profit of 341 percent in just 18 months. When the New York Sun exposed the scandal in 1872, Dodge claimed that his wife bought the shares from "her own resources," presumably housekeeping money.

A congressional committee wanted to know more, but Dodge had no interest in going anywhere near Washington. Federal agents were sent out, but they could
not manage to find him. Peter Dey, whom Dodge had once replaced as engineer, told Congress that Dodge was "a man of wonderful resources, and can live in Texas all winter, out of doors, if he wants to, where none of your marshals can go, and if he don't want to come he will not come." Dey proved correct.

At about the time the rail line was completed, Dodge was also finishing work on a grand Victorian home at 605 Third Street in Council Bluffs, a 14-room mansion overlooking the Missouri River. The home featured parquet floors, cherry, walnut, and butternut woodwork and the most modern conveniences of the day. The home is now a National Historic Landmark and open to the public. He spent three years in the house. See our attractions page for more information.

He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1868 and again at the 1876 convention in Cincinnati. After his term in office expired, he returned to railroad engineering. During the 1880s and 1890s, he served as president or chief engineer of dozens of railroad companies. Dodge went to New York City to manage his growing number of businesses he had developed.

With his name associated with the successful completion of the transcontinental railroad Dodge was asked to serve as chief engineer, director or president for over a dozen U.S. railroad construction projects during the 19th and early 20th century. In addition, he consulted on the building of the trans-Siberian railway in Russia during the late 1870s and frequently lobbied for railroad interests in Washington D.C.

By the 1880s Dodge was a well-known national figure and was selected to lead the funeral procession for General Grant in 1885. He was asked by President McKinley to chair the “Dodge Commission” charged with investigating accusations of Army misconduct following the Spanish-American War. In 1909 General Dodge was honored by the state of Iowa as the namesake for “Camp Dodge” the permanent National Guard training site near Des Moines. He died in 1916 at age 84.

Gen. Grenville Dodge


Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad: Official website of the B&SVR.

Amtrak in Iowa: Our guide to Amtrak routes through Iowa including information on boarding times and costs.

The Kate Shelley Story: Read our account of the night a central Iowa girl risked her life to stop a passenger train from certain disaster.

The Mystery of Dubuque's Temperence Fountain: When a California man offered to build a monument to Kate Shelley in Dubuque, locals embraced the idea. But when it turned into a monument to prohibition, the fountain met its end.

The Court Case that Linked Iowa Rail Lines to the World: A steamboat rammed the only railroad bridge crossing the Mississippi. The accident led to a court case that defined where bridges can be built.

The Race to Build the Railroad in Iowa: In 1881, Iowa's network of railroads was finally completed after an interuption due to the Civil War and a court battle over the ownership of right-of-ways.

Grenville Dodge: Dodge was the father of the transcontintal railroad, a skilled engineer who made Council Bluffs an important terminus on the rail line that stretched across the country.

Roundhouse Rosies: Photos of the Clinton women who ran the railroad during World War II.
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