John Mortimer Dodd

GEDCOM Note

John Mortimer Dodd was my great grandfather. He wasn’t around when I was growing up but my great grandmother Bertha Jane (Watt) Welk Dodd was. She passed away at age 104. We never talked much about John Mortimer Dodd and when the subject was brought up, it was quickly changed. From the stories I have heard and backing them up with the documentation I have found, we know he was born in Douglasville near Atlanta Georgia and lived in an area of College Park outside of Atlanta. The family home was demolished when they built the new Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport. Not sure where exactly John and Bertha met but I found John in Morgantown West Virginia. On his draft card he is working at the Morgantown Ice Company in 1917 but still listed his home address as College Park Georgia. Not sure if there was a connection or this was just what he knew because his father was an engineer at the ice plant in Georgia in 1910. As I said earlier, I’m not sure where they met but in 1918 Bertha was living in Youngstown, Ohio and they were married in Mahoning County, Ohio on December 26, 1918. Bertha was married once before to a man by the name of Howard Olen Welk from Ohio. Bertha and Mr. Welk had one son, John William Welk. After Bertha and John M Dodd were married Bertha’s son John William Welk started using the name John William Dodd. Soon Afterwards, I suspect they moved back to his hometown of College Park, Georgia because they had a daughter, Dorothy, born there in 1919. From what I understand, he was a much like a vagabond. He would disappear quite often without anybody knowing where he was. After the one time he disappeared, Bertha returned home to Pennsylvania where she was from. I was told he would come and go often. Five years later, I would assume John was back with Bertha because they had another child. This time a son, Robert born in 1924 in Pennsylvania. After that, he disappeared again. We find him living back in Georgia. But his vagabond ways were not behind him. Later he showed up at the Little Sisters of The Poor in Evansville, Indiana. Years ago, I talked to one on the Sisters there and she said that she did remember him. He lived there and he took care of the grounds. He would ride on the mowing tractor with his dog. She also stated that he was once a circus clown and had a patent for a special kind of makeup. I couldn’t find any documentation to collaborate these stories other than on his death certificate, his occupation was listed as Circus Entertainer (Clown). He eventually died July 1, 1979 in Evansville, Indiana and is buried in The Saint joseph Catholic Cemetery in Evansville. A stone was never erected.