Our history goes back to 1869, representing a rich track record of service to the Louisville area including Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
William O. Dodd
Member 1869-1886
William Otho Dodd was born in Kosciousko, Mississippi, December 25, 1843 and died in Louisville, December 13, 1886. He was the son of Allen and Charlotte (McKee) Dodd whose ancestors had settled in Virginia more than two hundred years earlier. His grandfather, George A. Dodd came from Virginia to Kentucky in 1790. His father was born in Mercer County, Kentucky in 1808 and moved to Mississippi in his young manhood. The father, William O. Dodd was a prosperous Mississippi planter prior to the Civil War and the son was well trained and well educated prior to the war.
Enlisting in the Confederate Military Service in 1861, he was mustered into the 40 thMississippi Infantry Regiment and soon became a participant in the stirring events of the war. In September, 1862 at the bloody battle of Iuka, Mississippi, he received a serious wound which later led to his being transferred to another branch of the service. Rejoining his regiment before he was fully recovered from his wound, he was in Vicksburg during the siege and was, with the Confederate forces, when they surrendered to General Grant. After being held for a time as a prisoner of war, he was returned to the Confederate service through an exchange of prisoners and then found himself suffering his old wound to such an extent that he sought and obtained a transfer to the Calvary service. He was assigned to General N. B. Forest, where he served faithfully and bravely under his command until the close of the war.
His father’s fortune had been swept away by the war. He adopted the motto “brains spurred by necessity make the man” and worked his way through the University of Mississippi supporting himself by teaching, graduating in 1868 at the head of his class. He was a close personal friend with L. Q. C. LaMar then professor of law at the university, later United States Senator and Supreme Court Justice. In 1869, he located in Louisville declining a flattering proposition to associate himself with Judge LaMar in the practice at Oxford, Mississippi. As a lawyer in Louisville, he gave special attention to commercial and corporate law and became a distinguished practitioner in these departments of professional work.
William O. Dodd was married to Lottie Lee Pierce, daughter of Charles B. Pierce of Maysville, Kentucky and a great-granddaughter of Richard Henry Lee of Revolutionary fame.
John L. Dodd
Member 1875-1910
John L. Dodd was a native from Mississippi born on a cotton plantation at Kosciousko, Mississippi on the 17 th day of April, 1850. John L. Dodd graduated from the University of Mississippi with the class of 1871. He then entered the Lebanon, Tennessee Law School (now Cumberland Law School) where he graduated with the class of 1873. John L. Dodd was known for his loyalty, energy, combativeness and courage and was said to have a wide knowledge of the law.
Joseph C. Dodd
Member 1889-1919
Joseph Conway Dodd graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1883 and from the law department from the same institution with the class of 1884 taking the full two year course in one year. In 1884, he located at Dallas, Texas and practiced there until 1888 when he came to Louisville and became a member of the firm of Dodd & Dodd. He married the daughter of Samuel Castleman a well known citizen and businessman of Louisville, Kentucky. His eldest son, Joseph Conway, Jr. was killed at Lilers, France in April, 1918. The loss of his son destroyed his spirit and will to live.
Joseph Conway Dodd is described by my grandfather, Allen P. Dodd, Sr., as being a typical Dodd. His mother, my grandmother, was a red headed Irish girl with plenty of acid in her soul. She transmitted to her boys, my father included, a super abundance of temper and a natural taste for bourbon whiskey. Each and all of them possessed great mental ability and physical courage. Uncle Conway, like all of them, when he was good, he was very, very good. When he was mean, the devil ruled his soul. Sober, he was a prince, and as a hard driving lawyer with his teeth in a case, he had few equals. He was scrupulously honest and adhered strictly to the highest standards of legal ethics. He was loved by his friends and hated by his enemies. My grandfather learned to love him devotedly and in his passing lost a devoted companion and able partner. My grandfather, Allen Dodd said Joe Conway left him a heritage of honest dealings in a profession that tries men’s souls of which I am justly proud and which yields me returns as life takes its toll of years.
Allen P. Dodd Sr.
Member 1913-1959
My grandfather, Allen P. Dodd Sr., was born on September 15, 1881 on the banks of the big Cunnahoma about five miles from Kosciousko, Mississippi. His father was George Allen Dodd who was himself the son of Allen Dodd and Charlotte McKee. They were both Kentuckians. My grandfather’s grandfather was born near Shakertown on the Kentucky River in 1807. He was the son of George Dodd who came over the mountains from Virginia in the early history of Kentucky. Allen P. Dodd, Sr. entered high school on September 1, 1901. He finished high school in June 1902 with an average of 93, second in his class. He then returned to being a lumberjack. In 1902 he entered the University of Mississippi at Oxford. At the University of Mississippi he played football for four years and was captain of the football team, baseball manager and in 1906 was voted most popular student on campus.
In September 1906 my grandfather entered Lebanon School of Law in Lebanon, Tennessee. Lebanon Law School is now known as Cumberland Law School and is located on the campus of Sanford University in Birmingham, Alabama. By July 1, 1907, my grandfather was a practicing lawyer of the Kosciousko, Mississippi Bar. With virtually no experience practicing law, in 1907 my grandfather commenced the practice of law by nearly starving from the lack of clients and work. However, in September of 1907 he was appointed by the circuit court to defend a young black man. He made history in proving that the defendant did not commit murder. However, as it was Mississippi in 1907, the defendant “victoriously” received a life sentence and not death by hanging. My grandfather was saved from the mob when his father and brother showed up with shotguns to escort my grandfather out of the courtroom. The defendant escaped the mob only barely by being escorted out the back door by the sheriff and hustled onto a train leaving town with the mob at his heals ready to finish the job the jury did not do. Allen P. Dodd, Sr. developed a successful law practice with Dodd & Dodd and was involved in several cases before the United States Supreme Court. For a number of years, he taught Constitutional Law at the Jefferson School of Law which was the predecessor to the University of Louisville School of Law.
Edward A. Dodd
Member 1927-1965
Edward A. Dodd graduated from Washington and Lee University and the Jefferson School of Law. Edward Dodd was in practice in Louisville from 1927 through 1965. Edward served as a distinguished President of the Louisville and Kentucky Bar Associations. He was a member of the Faculty of the Jefferson Law School from 1939-1944; a member of the Board of Bar Commissioners from 1939-1944. Edward Dodd served as a Delegate from the Kentucky State Bar Association to the House of Delegates, American Bar Association, from 1947-1950 and 1953-1956.
Allen P Dodd Jr.
Member 1936-1988
Allen P. Dodd, Sr.’s son, my father, Allen P. Dodd, Jr. was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi on January 3, 1913. He was admitted to the Kentucky Bar in 1936. Allen P. Dodd, Jr. received his BA from Centre College in 1934 and his L.L.B. (J.D.) from the Jefferson School of Law (now the University of Louisville) in 1936. He was President of the Louisville Bar Association in 1943 and a member of the Kentucky State Bar Association. His practice emphasized estate and corporate law. Allen P. Dodd, Jr. was the recipient of numerous academic awards in both college and law school.
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