HODGE, ORLANDO JOHN (25 Nov. 1828-16 Apr. 1912), politician and businessman, was born in Hamburg, N.Y., son of Alfred and Sophia (English) Hodge. He came to Cleveland in 1842 as a "roller boy" in a printing office. A volunteer in the MEXICAN AMER. WAR (1847-48), wounded twice, he attended Geauga Seminary from 1849-51 with classmates Lucretia Rudolph and JAS. GARFIELD. Hodge was elected Cleveland's first police-court clerk in 1853, and in 1856 became city editor for the PLAIN DEALER. In 1860, Hodge moved to Connecticut, returning to Cleveland in 1867 and being elected to the first of 4 terms on CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL in 1873. He was elected to 4 terms in the Ohio house. Ohio governor Foraker made Hodge a member of his staff and a colonel in the Ohio militia in 1889. In 1891, the general assembly authorized Hodge's proposal that Cleveland implement the Federal Plan of government. After Hodge was defeated for Congress in 1892, he retired from active politics. Hodge owned and edited the SUN & VOICE from 1878-89, was president of Economy Bldg. & Loan Co. and Lion Oil Co., and was a real-estate dealer with extensive holdings. In 1873 Hodge organized the CLEVELAND HUMANE SOCIETY. He published genealogies of many Cleveland families, and in 1892 Hodge published Reminiscences, his memoirs, which he reissued in 1910. Hodge's first wife, Lydia Doan, whom he married in 1855, died in 1879; their son, Clark R., was born in 1867 and died in 1880. In 1882, Hodge married Virginia Shedd Clark. Hodge died in Cleveland and was buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.
