On the north side of the park is an 1885 bronze statue of William Earle Dodge (1805- 1883), businessman (a founder of Phelps, Dodge & Company) and philanthropist. John Quincy Adams Ward created the statue, which was dedicated and originally placed in Herald Square. The plaque on it states that it was 'Erected by voluntary subscription under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York in 1885.' In 1941, when Herald Square was renovated, the Dodge statue was moved to its present location. William Earl Dodge was the archetypal opinionated New Yorker. He spoke up for what he believed.
John Quincy Adams Ward
(b. 1830 near Urbana, OH – d. NY 1910)
was one of America's prominent 19th-century sculptors. His name came from his Whig father, who hated Andrew Jackson. Ward's ancestors landed at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. His first experience with sculpture came at the age of 15 in Cincinnati, where he saw the work of Hiram Powers. Ward trained with Henry Kirke Brown in New York for seven years, and assisted Brown with the bronze equestrian statue of George Washington at Union Square Park. Ward learned to work in all the classic sculptural media. In 1861, he opened his own studio and had Jules Desbois and Daniel Chester French as his pupils. His first major commission was for a statue of a Dakota 'Indian Hunter' (1864-66, New York, Central Park). Ward modeled the Indian Hunter after a figure from classical antiquity. Afterwards, August Belmont appeared in his studio and gave him an order for a statue of Commodore Perry (in Newport, RI). His career was made. Ward used the history and themes of America as his focus. He sculpted 'William Shakespeare' (1872), 'The Pilgrim' (1885) and the 'Seventh Regiment Memorial' (1874) in Central Park. His heroic statue of 'George Washington (1881) was installed on the steps of Federal Hall on Wall Street. His statue of 'Horace Greeley' (1890) is in City Hall Park, and 'Henry Ward Beecher' (1891) is on Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn. In 1903, Ward made the pediment sculptures for the New York Stock Exchange building with P.W. Bartlett. He is well known for his equestrian statue of 'Major-General George H. Thomas' (1878; Washington, DC, Thomas Circle) and the monument 'James Abram Garfield' (1887; Washington, DC, The Mall). Ward was a founder and president of the National Sculpture Society (1893–1904) and president of the National Academy of Design (1874). He was vice-president of the Century Club and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ward retired in 1908 to his home in Kingston, NY. Before his death, a critic said of him: 'When the history of American sculpture is written, the picture of John Quincy Adams Ward ought to form the front-piece.' A version of his Indian Hunter Statue in Central Park marks his grave in Oak Dale Cemetery in Urbana, Ohio where he is burried.
William Earle Dodge
(b. 1805 Hartford, CT – d. New York City 1883)
moved in 1818 to New York, where he became a clerk. In 1826, established the house of Phelps, Dodge & Company, with Anson Phelps his father-in-law. He served as head of the company for 40 years. Dodge served as a delegate to the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, DC, a failed effort to prevent the Civil War. He campaigned for abolition of slavery.Later, he ran as a Republican and was elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress and served from April 7, 1866, to March 3, 1867. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1866 and returned to business. As a civic leader, he was one of the founders of the YMCA and the National Temperance Society. Dodge was known as the 'Christian Merchant' because of his concern for his moral responsibilities. He is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.
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1) New York Public Library Map [38]
