Harvey Peebles Dodd
1903-1969
Brother Dodd—Out Of My Memory
The things we recall from our childhood are sharp in a dull sort of way. They are sharp in the sense that the people, along with short interactive events involving them are as real as the person who is recalling them. However, the years have a way of dulling the senses concerning the events that surround the few particulars that are so clear. It is like looking through a telescope at some distant star, the focus at the center is so perfect, but fades as you look toward the edge of the looking glass. Such is the case with this writer’s memory of Harvey Dodd.
Home for my family has always been Haleyville, Alabama. Two congregations of the church of Christ meet there, the uptown church on Ninth Avenue and the other, which meets in South Haleyville. The South Haleyville church was the center of our lives. The congregation was planted in the 1930s by Dossie Stone, Dr. R.H. Miller, and others in the community. One of the earliest converts was a young girl, Bernice Oden, who later married my grandfather, Paul Ralph Harp. Both he and his step-father, S.W. Turner, served as elders in the church there. In the early days of its existence, preachers such as G.L. Mann and Edsel Burleson would preach in a circuit for various congregations including South Haleyville. When H.P. Dodd came in 1951, it afforded the small group of believers the ability to have someone in the community who assisted in a more full-time capacity.
Harvey Peebles Dodd was born June 19, 1903 in Rutherford County, Tennessee. He was the fifth of eight children born to John Benjamin and Minnie Smith Sanders Dodd of Smyrna, Tennessee. He attended David Lipscomb College and Middle Tennessee State University, where he received a teaching certificate. He taught several years in Mt. Pleasant, Maury County, Tennessee before moving to Florence, Alabama to assist in the planting of Mars Hill Christian School.
Singing was a large part of his life. As a young man he led singing in the congregations where he attended. He would travel around in middle Tennessee leading singing for various preachers during Gospel Meetings. Some making reports to the Gospel Advocate and the Apostolic Times of their successes in meeting work would mention that Harvey Dodd led the singing during their meetings.
While in Florence, Alabama he preached and occasionally filled in for churches in the area. In the mid to late 1940s he began preaching for the Shiloh church of Christ in the rural part of Lauderdale County. He was their first full-time preacher, and he assisted them in the establishment of regular Wednesday evening meetings as well as the regular Sunday meetings. Living in town, he had to catch a bus out to the country church. So, one of the members, Dunk Killen, purchased a car and gave it to brother Dodd in order to keep him from needing to ride the bus.
Upon his arrival in Haleyville, Winston County, in 1951, he already had several years under his belt as an educator and preacher. The building the church met in was about ten years old, and he lived next to the building in the old home place where the Mid Turner family lived for so many years.
He was such a strong influence in the area around South Haleyville. He filled various appointments in meeting work and other more regular appointments in smaller congregations in the outlying area. He labored and loved the church there, and he was loved in return. He helped to bury their dead, and he baptized their young. Some of those he baptized were most precious to this writer, for he baptized my father, Richard Harp, and his two sisters, Martha and Judy. He also married young couples there as a preacher occasionally does. One couple in particular that stands out are my parents, Richard and Dixie Harp, March 1, 1957. I came along in late May the following year.
Some of the young men in the congregation were encouraged to lead in singing and preaching. He conducted classes to teach men how to lead, and even to preach. Richard Harp was a teenager when H.P. Dodd asked him to preach for him while he was away on one occasion. Later, he asked him to fill appointments in the area. Other young men he influenced similarly were A.E. Swimms, Robert Martin, Hubert “Stubby” George, Bryan and David Howell, and others. All of these made preachers. Perhaps his influence on me at least planted seeds, about which I knew nothing during those days.
My earliest recollections of H.P. Dodd was that he was a confirmed bachelor. He did not marry until about three or four years before his death. He married Louise McAbee Combs, a widow, in 1965. She had been a young adult sweetheart that reunited with him a couple years after the passing of her first husband. The story is a unique one that most would find both romantic, and perhaps a little ridiculous. But, love is often that way. The story was told that they were engaged to be married when they were young. A sharp disagreement arose over a haircut she was proposing to get that strongly displeased him. They broke off their engagement and relationship. She went her way and he went his. She married, but he always held her in his heart. Finally, the two were re-united many years later.
A couple of things stand out in the memory of this writer that should be preserved. One thing of note is that when brother Dodd was at South Haleyville, he had two crows and a three-legged dog—oddities for certain. But it gets more intriguing because brother Dodd trained the crows to speak. They could say his last name as plainly as anyone could say it. As a small boy I recall going over to his house and into the back yard where the bird cage was hanging in a tree. There I would try to get the crows to speak while playing with his three-legged dog.
One summer Sunday morning when I was about four years old, the little church in South Haleyville was worshiping together as usual, but something happened that morning that was anything but usual. These were the days before central air conditioning in the southern United States. Thus, all the windows were opened to their fullest, and the funeral fans were waving at top speed. It was during one of those wonderful long-winded prayers by a well-meaning brother that those crows flew through a window, and up into the open rafters. Once perched up high, the crows proceeded to call out to their pious master, “DODD! DODD!” They would repeat it, “DODD! DODD!” The old brother who was praying never missed a beat, but kept his thoughts and his words directed toward the Almighty! There was at least one young man, and perhaps a few others whose thoughts went upward, but no higher than the rafters of that old church building. It has always been one of the most humorous church memories of my early life. After the prayer brother Dodd shewed the birds out and quickly returned to his duties for the morning.
In 1963, Harvey Dodd left the little church in South Haleyville and moved to Florence, South Carolina where he worked with a small struggling congregation on Gregg Avenue. Over the next five years he also helped to plant another work in Dillon, South Carolina. At the time, we were living in Lancaster, S.C. where my father preached, and I recall visiting brother Dodd occasionally.
In about June, 1968 he moved back to Alabama, where he preached for the Jones Chapel church of Christ in Cullman County. He was only there for several months when he began suffering with heart problems. He had three heart attacks over five weeks. Finally he breathed his last on Thursday, January 30, 1969. A funeral was conducted in Haleyville by W.C. Quillen, a long-time friend and fellow preacher. Then his body was taken to his home town of Smyrna, Tennessee where another service was conducted by Ira North. He was laid to rest in the Dodd family plot in Mapleview Cemetery.
After brother Dodd’s passing, Louise moved back to Nashville, where she attended the Madison church of Christ. She lived until 1989 when she passed from this life, and was buried next to her first husband in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Madison, Tennessee.
Thus, the life of Harvey Peebles Dodd! For years it has been my effort to find the grave of H.P. Dodd. Involvement from several people has been requested to find his burial location. Long distance phone calls have been made, and cemeteries have been walked through in hopes of finding him, to no avail. However, during the summer of 2012, it was the pleasure of your web editor to preach a one-day meeting for the Decatur Highway church of Christ north of Birmingham, Alabama. My good friend John McMath preaches there. Another couple, long known by the Harps is Bill and Joyce Prentice. Bill grew up in South Haleyville, living just next door to the Harps, and was one of my father’s best friends. They attended school and church together. Thus, many memories of days past came to be recalled with much joy including my efforts to find the grave of brother Dodd. Joyce said she would try her luck at finding brother Dodd’s burial information in some of her research. Within a few days I received a call from Bill and Joyce when she let me know she had found out that he was buried in Smyrna, Rutherford County, Tennessee. From that moment a trip to Rutherford County became essential. Finally, on December 21, 2012 my family was traveling to visit family in Arkansas when we had to make a stop in Mapleview Cemetery. What a joy it was to find the grave of this man who meant so much to my family over the years.
Harvey Dodd was not a nationally acclaimed preacher of the gospel. However, those that knew him appreciated his life and his commitment to the cause of Christ. My family will always be in his debt, and will recall with fondness his contributions to the kingdom of Christ. To this day a photo of H.P. Dodd sits upon a shelf in my father's office as a constant memory blessing.
-Scott Harp, 12.28.2012
-Sources: Gospel Advocate, March 6, 1969, page 163; Apostolic Times, July, 1937, p.35; personal memories
Marriage of Harvey P. Dodd to Louise McAbee Combs in 1965
Wedding Photo of H.P. & Louise Dodd
Ira North presiding
Gospel Advocate Obituary For Brother Dodd
Dodd—After suffering three severe heart attacks within a period of five weeks, Harvey Peebles Dodd passed away at an early morning hour on January 30, 1969. In Haleyville, Ala. He was sixty-three years old. A native of Smyrna, Tenn., Brother Dodd graduated from David Lipscomb College, and attended Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tenn.
After teaching for some years in the public school system in Tennessee, he moved to Florence, Ala. where he helped establish Mars Hill Bible School, and for five years taught there and served as guidance counselor. He also preached for churches in and near Florence, and did an excellent job in building Interest and attendance in Bible classes.
In 1951, he moved to Haleyville. Ala., where he preached for twelve years for the South Haleyville church, and assisted in establishing other churches in near-by communities. In 1963 he moved to Florence, S.C. where he worked with the Gregg Avenue church in a mission effort. While there he was instrumental in the establishment of a congregation in Dillon, S.C., the first church of Christ in Dillon County. In June of 1968, Brother Dodd began work with the Jones Chapel church, Cullman, Ala., and was doing a good job with the church there at the time of his death.
Funeral services were conducted by Gilbert Kretzer and this writer at Haleyville on January 31. On February 1 another service was conducted by lra North in Smyrna, Tenn, where Brother Dodd was laid to rest. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Louise McAbee Combs Dodd, who was a great comfort and aid to him the last three and one half years of his life in all his undertakings. Other survivors are three brothers, Horace, J. W. and Lowry, and several nieces and nephews.
For twenty-five years, Brother Dodd and this writer were very close, and for twelve of these years we worked together in the Lord's vineyard. He was a fine Bible teacher and a good personal worker. Wherever he worked he was loved. Since his passing, the most frequent statement I have heard concerning him, is: "He was a good man." And so he was.
-W.C. Quillen, Gospel Advocate, March 6, 1969, page 163
Directions To The Grave of H.P. Dodd
Harvey Dodd is buried in the old Mapleview Cemetery in Smyrna, Rutherford County, Tennessee. Between Murfreesboro and Nashville, take I-24 to Exit 66/Sam Ridley Parkway/Hwy.266 and head east toward Smyrna township. Turn right on Hwy. 41/N. Lowry Street. Just past the town center you will be on S. Lowry. Turn left on Sam Davis Rd. and then right on Maple St. The road will dead end to the cemetery. In the cemetery take the first left and wind around the front of the cemetery to the end and bear around to the right to head toward the rear. The DODD family plot will be on the right. Harvey was buried with his family. Within a few yards from the grave of H.P. Dodd that of two other gospel preachers, Gilbert E. Shaffer. and Lacy H. Elrod.
GPS Location
35.983539,-86.509479
View Larger Map
Mapleview Cemetery
The Dodd Plot is to the left of the entrance.
DODD
Cyrus Clifton - June 5, 1906 - October 15, 1956
Married February 28, 1926
Emmalene Waldron - February 24, 1906 - April 22, 2003
brother and sister-in-law of H.P. Dodd
DODD
Horace Edward 1896-1992
Agnes Lawrence 1894-1975
The brother and sister-in-law of H.P. Dodd
FATHER
John Benjamin Dodd
Born April 10, 1874
Died September 17, 1937
father of H.P. Dodd
Minnie Smith Sanders
Wife Of
J.B. Dodd
Born December 12, 1870
Married November 16, 1893
Died February 20, 1930
mother of H.P. Dodd
Mattie Mai Dau Of
J.B. & Minnie Dodd
November 4, 1894
April 7, 1918
sister of H.P. Dodd
Alice Odell, Dau. of
J.B. & Minnie Dodd
June 17, 1901
April 20,1965
Sister of H.P. Dodd
Harvey P. Dodd
June 19, 1903
January 30, 1969
H.P. Dodd's burial plot is in the foreground
Photos Taken 12.21.2012
Site produced 12.28.2012
Courtesy of Scott Harp
www.TheRestorationMovement.com
