A Cheyenne man decided to embark on a seemingly impossible quest last week: find the gravestone of his great, great, great-uncle — who died in 1880 — in an ivy-filled English cemetery with over 60,000 headstones.
Nick Dodgson, who was overseas visiting his sick mother, found out from his dad that his long lost ancestor was buried 40 minutes away so they decided to see if they could find it.
Trans-Atlantic Lineage
Dodgson was born in the United States and has lived in Cheyenne for 34 years. However, he spent his formative years in the U.K., where his parents are from and still live.
“My dad worked for the American government on loan from the British army back in the 60s, so I was born an American citizen,” he said. “I came back to seek my fame and fortune, opened up a book of all the airplane maintenance schools in the country, closed my eyes, and landed on Cheyenne.”
Dodgson is the owner of Nick's Fast Track Auto Service & Tires. His children are all-American, but Dodgson takes pride in teaching them about their British heritage.
“My mother, father, and sister still live there, so I come back every couple of years,” he said. “I might be called slightly eccentric, and my mother and father were always sharing a lot of history with them, and they're very interested in that. It’s a lovely connection.”
After his mother became seriously ill, Dodgson returned to the U.K. to support his family.
Momentary Respite
He knew his father was struggling, so they decided to find a fun activity for a momentary respite.
What better way to alleviate the struggles of mortality than to search a cemetery for a deceased family member?
“Dad said that George Haydock was buried in Hampstead Cemetery, which was only about a 40-minute drive from us,” he said. “He asked if I wanted to go and see if we could find the grave site, and I thought that sounded rather fun.”
Finding Dodgson
That distance might not seem like much for a Wyomingite, but that’s a very different drive in the U.K.
“A 40-minute drive in London traffic is only about nine miles,” he said.
In the U.K., there are cemeteries that date back to prehistoric times. Hampstead Cemetery was established yesterday, by comparison, as it was consecrated by the Bishop of London in 1876.
Ironically, that made the Dodgson Family’s search for George Haydock Dodgson more difficult.
“George died in 1880, so he was a fairly early resident, shall we say,” Nick said. “The only map of Hampstead Cemetery doesn't show anything other than horizontally lettered sections. There’s no numbering because this cemetery has been around for 150 years.
“With 60,000 people buried on a little over a quarter of an acre, with some magnificent gravestones, we really didn't know where to start.”
They Had A Clue
Fortunately, Nick and his father had a clue. Someone has snapped a photograph of Dodgson’s gravestone, so they had an idea of what they were looking for in the densely populated cemetery.
Under a curtain of cold rain, the father-son duo tromped across the ivy-covered cemetery looking for clues that would lead them to Dodgson.
After an hour and a half, Nick was fortunate enough to walk into someone who worked at Hampstead Cemetery.
“He said he tries to keep the ivy and everything under control,” he said. “I asked how on earth I could find a grave in here. He said, ‘Oh, it's quite hard, but if you can find one of the more modern gravestones, even if you look on the back of them, it'll actually say the section and the grave site number.’ So, I started to wander again.”
A Stylized "S"
Nick and his father were looking for the more distinct gravestones, one with “a stylized ‘S’,” surrounding Dodgson. After more searching, Nick found “a big kind of patch of ivy” that looked promising.
“I thought it looked like a cross, so I walked across and found two crosses covered in ivy,” he said. “Could make them out, but I couldn't see the stylized ‘S’ if it was there, so I shouted for my dad to come across and reach the cross.”
As they pulled off the ivy, they discovered it was the gravestone with the stylized “S.”
Then, Nick stumbled slightly and steadied himself by grasping onto an adjacent gravestone.
“I looked behind me, and that was George Haydock’s headstone, covered in ivy,” he said. “It was very ‘English sleuth-ish’ and tremendously fun.
Family Matters
The victorious Dodgsons took a photo with George Haydock Dodgson's gravestone.
A few days later, they returned to Hampstead Cemetery to remove the ivy and reveal the entire grave.
It’s the best George Haydock Dodgson has looked in over a century, and Nick said it gave his family some levity during a very difficult time.
“My mom and dad have been married almost 60 years, so (her illness) has been hard on him,” he said. “Finding the grave made my Dad’s day, as he always cared about that history.”
Next Update
Now that George Haydock Dodgson has gotten “a bit of a bath, trim, and scrub up,” Nick said the next step will be updating his ancestor’s Wikipedia page.
“It just says that he died in that area, St John's Wood, but it doesn't say where he's buried,” he said. “Now, we can update it, and my dad intends to.”
Nick expects Dodgson to get more visitors now. When he texted his son about finding George Haydock Dodgson, he immediately said he wanted to visit Hampstead Cemetery to see the gravesite.
It also gave Nick a chance to reflect on recent history and how his journey is so different from that of his ancestor.
“I'm heavily involved with the Cheyenne Depot Museum and have done a lot with that over the last 25 years,” he said. “I believe that cornerstone was laid in 1885, so George Haydock Dodgson’s gravestone has been around longer than Cheyenne has been around.”
Most importantly, finding George Haydock Dodgson’s grave gave his living descendants a moment of pride and celebration during a difficult time. Nick said he knows his mother appreciated their discovery just as much as they did.
“These moments can be difficult,” he said. “The important thing is that we’re all together. It’s a lovely connection.”
Who Was He, Anyway?
George Haydock Dodgson was one of 15 children in his family. Born in 1811, he started his career as a railroad engineer before transitioning to watercolor painting and engraving.
“My father has been putting together an enormous collection of many of George Dodgson’s paintings,” Dodgson said. “One of the pieces he produced in his early days was the plans for the Whitby and Pickering railroads, which my dad helped write a book about around 10 years ago.”
Because of a neurological condition that caused tremors in his hands, George Haydock Dodgson developed a method of dropping paint onto wet paper that became his signature technique.
He became a sought-after artist of buildings for architects and provided illustrations to The Illustrated London News, the world’s first illustrated weekly news magazine.
Unlike many artists, Dodgson received widespread acclaim during his lifetime.
He was a member of the original Society Watercolour Society and the New Society of Painters in Water Colours in the 1840s, and even had an exhibition of his work at the prestigious Royal Academy in 1838.
Dodgson married and had three children before dying of “congestion of the lungs,” which was most likely tuberculosis, in 1880. He was 69 years old.
Over a century later, Dodgson’s history is revered by his descendants. Nick, who is Dodgson’s great, great-great nephew, said his family has made a point to keep his legacy alive by collecting his art as heirlooms.
“My daughter, Gabby, got married in August, and my father managed to find a George Haydock Dodgson watercolor, of all things, for sale in Connecticut,” he said. “We were able to buy that, and he gave it to my daughter and her new husband as a wedding present. It carries on in the family.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
