The life and times of Fred Dodge — friend to legend Wyatt Earp, Well Fargo undercover detective, Boerne retiree — were scrutinized Saturday when members of the Wild West History Association assembled in town.
Members of the committee cut a ribbon March 23 for an exhibit in the Patrick Heath Public Library that chronicles Dodge’s life: his birth in 1854, his two marriages; a friendship with the Earp brothers prior to the famed shootout at the O.K. Corral; his known gambling habits; and eventual retirement to his 1,704-acre ranch near Boerne.
Ron Woggon, a Wild West History Association former treasurer and lifetime member, presented the story of Dodge along with Wild West History treasurer Jean Smith.
Woggon recounted his initial trip to Boerne in July 2023, trying to find more information about Dodge.
His first stop was the Heath Library, where he ran into Robin Stauber, adult services librarian, who turned over Dodge files she had access to. She directed Woggon to Paul Barwick, Boerne special projects director, who showed him a collection of Dodge material he had in his truck.
The Stauber and Barwick files allowed him to gaze upon Dodge photos Woggon not only had never seen before, but didn’t even know existed.
“(Paul) just blew me away with the collection he was holding in his truck,” Woggon told the Wild West History regional roundup crowd. “We stood out in the parking lot looking at letters and photos, and he told me, ‘This is Duke Key’s collection.’” At the roundup, Woggon then read Dodge’s memoir, titled, “Undercover For Wells Fargo,” by Carolyn Lake, published in 1969. The writer claims to have been granted access to “the original of the only known photograph that I could find of Fred Dodge.”
Only photo? Not anymore.
Key’s collection, Woggon said, contained “a good dozen photos of (Dodge) that no one had ever seen in the last 120 years of Fred Dodge, his family and his children.”
“And I just about collapsed,” Woggon said. “I had never felt I would be part of anything like that.”
Key came into possession of the Dodge photos and papers in 1978 at a bank sale of items following the death of Dodge’s son, Fred Dodge Jr., who Key had personally known.
In Key’s two boxes were the dozens of photos, letters and information available to build a more succinct timeline of Dodge’s life.
Woggon described what he called “an outline of his (Dodge’s) life” that had never been told — including a story about a shotgun owned by Dodge that Wild West legend Wyatt Earp used to kill Curly Bill Brocius, a cattle rustler and outlaw, in revenge for the murder of Earp’s brother, Morgan Earp, a week earlier.
Key attended the Wild West History regional roundup, and said he was glad “to be a part of ... setting the history straight.”
Woggon said he was thrilled to come across Key’s collection.
“I never thought I’d experience anything like that. Finding it in the first place was incredible, but to see it like that (on display in the Heath Library), it’s just incredible,” Woggon said.
Following Saturday’s session — which included a Fred Graves talk about guns used in the Wild West — history buffs went to Boerne Cemetery to see the Fred Dodge gravesite.
Woggon said he appreciated the enthusiasm “shown by people in Boerne of learning who this guy is, Fred Dodge.”
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