British School (20th Century) Portrait of a clergyman, head and shoulders, oil on canvas, 70cm by 54cm By repute; Rev. Dr. Joseph Henry Dodshon was born on 19 April 1868 in Spennymoor Co Durham. He studied music in Durham and London, gaining a Mus D degree in 1890. He was a teacher for a while - the 1891 Census lists him as teaching at Ann Crook's School in Hartlepool. He emigrated to the USA in 1895 and became a naturalised American citizen in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1900. He worked as a church organist before being ordained in the Episcopal Church as a Deacon in 1898 and as a priest in 1900. He started his clerical career as a missionary in Wyoming, where he built churches in Douglas and Lusk. In 1905 he was named Archdeacon of Western Michigan After spending a year in charge of the English Cathedral in Gibraltar he returned to the USA as Archdeacon of Southern Ohio. (1916) It was while preaching in Zanesville, Ohio, that he met his future wife, Carsonette K Porter. The pulpit from which he was speaking collapsed and he was taken to the Porter house to be cared for. They married in Manhattan in 1913. He became Rector of St James's Church in Zanesville, where he remained until 1926, when he and his wife moved to New York to live with Mrs Dodshon's widowed sister, Ann Augusta Thomas. Dr Dodshon was appointed to the board of the Morning Telegraph, the newspaper owned by the late Mr Thomas. In 1931 he was appointed Rector of St Simeon's Church in the Bronx, which position he held until 1943. They lived at 927 Fifth Avenue, having the whole of the top floor, with magnificent views of the Hudson River and Central Park. They also owned property in Larchmont, NY. He was a renowned orator, philanthropist and proponent of Christian unity. Among his many memberships are the Elks in Zanesville; Munkingham Motor Club; Ohio State Automobile Association; Rotary; Larchmont Yacht Club. He was a great advocate of temperance, although he was opposed to the Volkstead Act. He was the author of a number of books, including a guide to family prayer. The first Mrs Dodshon died in 1939. Dr Dodshon married again in 1945, to Mrs Else Lamb, whom he had met many years previously when Carsonette Dodshon had been taken ill on the way to Liverpool and was nursed at the home at which Mrs Lamb was matron. They settled in Zanesville in 1947, and Dr Dodshon died in July 1948 whilst visiting relatives of Mrs Dodshon in Cheshire.