George Dodds was born February 10, 1837 in Roxburgshire, Scotland.  On July 28, 1854 at age 17, George sailed for New York City aboard the steamship "Glasgow."  Upon his arrival he traveled by rail to Cincinnati and then by steamboat to Madison, Indiana where he became an apprentice in a marble shop where his brother, Andrew, was a foreman.  In 1859 the two brothers moved to the booming town of Yellow Springs, Ohio where they formed a partnership and started their own marble and granite company.  In the early 1860's, the two brothers decided to move their young company. George talked to an attorney friend about whether they should move to Dayton or Xenia.  The attorney noted that while Dayton had the canal, it was Xenia which would have the railroad and would soon be the center of  commerce in the region.

So, George and Andrew picked a location in downtown Xenia and moved the firm of A. & G. Dodds in 1864.  In 1867, Andrew moved to St. Louis and established a branch office.  George ran the Xenia office and renamed it George Dodds and Son in 1897 when his son John Charles join the firm.  George had six sons and two daughters.  Eventually, all his sons were involved in the business in one capacity or another.

In 1903, George visited his brother Andrew in St. Louis and attended the World's Fair.  It was there that he first saw and later purchased one of the "temporary" pavilions located at the fair. As the building was razed, each block, pillar, and window was marked and catalogued and sent by rail to Xenia where it was reconstructed. One of the marble cornerstones still shows that the building was "Rebuilt 1905-1906".  This building soon became a landmark in downtown Xenia.  During the next twenty five years, the company grew to become the largest granite wholesale-retailer in the United States.  The family purchased granite quarries in Stony Creek, Ct. - Keene New Hampshire, and Milford, Mass., a purchase which at that time was the largest land acquisition the industry had ever seen.  The company opened offices in New York and Chicago in addition to  the St. Louis office, and furnished granite for many important building projects all along the east coast and became the company of choice to build some of the largest public and private memorials of the era.

George died in 1914 at the age of 77, and for the next 20 years, the business was continued by his sons.  In the early 1930's, the depression took it's toll on many businesses, including the quarries that the Dodds family owned.  While the memorial side of the business remained viable, the success of the quarries were tied to building work and came to an abrupt stop.  The quarry side of the business had been incorporated separately and met financial ruin.  The plant and home office in Xenia were acquired by Charles A. Bone, who had been office manager there since the death of George Dodds.  The name of the business was then changed to The Dodds Monument Company.   Charles E. Bone joined his father in the business after he returned from active duty during WWII, and was soon joined by another son, Philip, after graduating from Miami University in the early 1950's.  The Bone family continued Dodds Monuments and the company continued to be one of the prominent memorial companies in the area.  Charles A. Bone died in 1976.  He had been active in the business into his mid 80's.

In 1984, the Bone brothers sold the company to Eric and Becky Fogarty.  Eric's father, James Fogarty had been a branch manager for Dodds in Troy, Ohio from 1953 - 1956, then later started the North Dayton branch office.  As a young boy at 12 years of age, Eric would trim the grass around the monuments at the outdoor display in Dayton, for which C.A. Bone would pay him 50¢ an hour.

Eric's father left the employment of Dodds Monuments in 1965 and went to work with a competitor where he ran their Dayton office until his death in 1971.  Eric, at 20 years of age, took over as manager until he left the business in 1981 to become sales manager for a solar and geothermal company before starting his own Energy Management company.  In 1983, Eric decided to get back into the monument business and approached Phil and Charlie Bone for a position at Dodds Monument Co.

Eric managed the Middletown office for six months then the Dayton area sales, while negotiating with the Bones to purchase Dodds Monuments.  In November of 1984, the purchase was complete.  Charles Bone retired immediately and Philip Bone continued employment with Dodds Monuments until his retirement in 1987.

Dodds has continued to grow and is now in the top 3% in size of memorial companies in the United States.  Dodds Monuments is the only monument company which continues to operate an engraving plant in the Dayton area and still at the same location in downtown Xenia.  Dodds has always been a family run company and under the direction of the Fogarty's, family is still important.  After graduating from college, Eric and Becky's son, Neil, joined the firm as Executive Vice President, and in 2008 was named President. Brother-in-law, Larry Morrison, is Vice President in charge of sales in the Xenia office. Larry's son, Michael, is in charge of all granite ordering and receiving.  Eric's sister, Maureen, is the Administrative Assistant to Sales and Marketing and helps oversee corporate office operations. 

The future of Dodds Monuments looks as bright as it's storied past.  Eric, Becky and Neil Fogarty along with the rest of the family look for many more years of serving the memorial needs of the Greater Miami Valley.