The Dobson Lineage
In the beginning, the first American Dobson in the family was William Carlyle Dobson. In 1771 William purchased some land and established an Inn on a site called Dobson's Crossroads in what is now Kernersville NC. George Washington stopped at the inn on the return leg of his historic Salem trip and he mentions this fact in his memoirs.
William Carlyle Dobson was a Justice of the Peace and served as a Captain in the Revolution. Eventually he came to own 1133 acres of land. He married Jane Knox Polk (the Aunt of US President James Knox Polk) and their son, William Polk Dobson, became a North Carolina State representative was a first cousin to President Polk. At the presidential nominating convention he gave a speech on Polk's behalf. He was 6'7" and 250# and by all accounts was a powerful speaker. President Andrew Jackson also was a friend of both the Polks and the Dobsons and visited Rockford NC where the Dobson's at that time lived.
In the late 1700s, William Henry Dobson, the grandson of William Carlyle Dobson, married an Elizabeth Lowe in North Carolina and afterwards moved to Indiana onto land purchased near Vincennes. There in 1827 James Lowe Dobson was born. Later the William Henry Dobson family moved again to Champaign County Illinois. Here, in about 1846, James married for his first time to Emily Hall. Two children were born to that couple but this marriage ended in the early 1850's. In 1857, James married a second time to Mary Emily Smith. They then lived in Moweaqua, Shelby County, Illinois where James enlisted in the 116th Illinois Infantry of the Union Army during 1862. This regiment later fought at Vicksburg and marched with Sherman to the sea in Georgia. He became a Captain and was honorably discharged at war's end.
Together, James and Mary Smith would have four children. The third was a son named Ira W. Dobson born in 1866 in Illinois . After the war, James had returned to Shelby County Illinois but soon moved with his family to Salisbury, Missouri. He became a carpenter and minister. James died in 1905 but his widow was still alive in Salisbury until October 6 1926.
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| Ira W. Dobson | Ira W. Dobson |
Ira W. Dobson married on January 1, 1888 a Laura E. Linville of Knox County Missouri. Laura and Ira had only one child. Their son was Ernest Edward Dobson, born in Missouri in 1897 but raised in Berkeley, California after Laura had divorced Ira and moved with her own Linville sisters to settle in Berkeley around 1900. The divorce came about after Ira was seen riding in a carriage down the streets of Virginia City, Nevada with a woman of dubious virtue. He died after 1934 in Moberly City, Randolph County, Missouri.
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| Ernest Edward Dobson born 20 June 1897 |
Little is known of the Sander's family connection . Miles Morton Sanders , who was the grandfather of Ernestine, had two daughters, Dovie and Blanche. He was an engineer on the railroad but died when quite young. Dovie was born in Coal City, Alabama, a small town that has now disappeared.
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Miles Morton Sanders |
Dovie Elizabeth Sanders of Charleston, South Carolina became Ernestine's mother after marrying Ernest Edward Dobson in Charleston South Carolina in April 1920.
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| Baby Ernestine with Father, Grandmother and Great Grandmother, 1925 |
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| Ernest Dobson and wife Dovie Sanders 1956 San Diego |
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| Laura Linville Dobson Snyder [grandma] Ernestine Dobson Frank Snyder [second husband]. At the Snyder home in Berkeley California home in about 1929. |