Bible & Family Records George Rhodes of Callawashe Island SC
Thanks to Wayne Rhodes of the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia for bringing us this data. Check out their website at www.jmlibrary.org.
The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 54 (April 1953), pp. 101-103.
Family Records from Bible of George Rhodes - Contributed by Robert E. H. Peeples. Also see: http://rhodesfamily.org/thomas_rhodes_1775_1809.htm
George Rhodes, son of Thomas Rhodes and his second wife, Mary (b. June 25, 1776, daughter of Thomas Miles Cater and his wife Rachel Miles), was born January 11, 1802, on Callawashe Island, near Beaufort. His father died before 1805, and his mother then married the Rev. Winborn Asa Lawton. George was sent to his aunt, Mrs. James Pringle, in Charleston, who in turn sent him to the Willington Academy of Dr. Moses Waddell. At the age of nineteen, George began tutoring at Lawtonville, St. Peter's Parish, now in Hampton County. The same year, he married on November 15, 1821, Thursa Evelina Robert (b. Sept. 4, 1803). She was the daughter of the Rev. James Jehu Robert (Nov. 3, 1781-Jan. 19, 1852), pastor of Robertville Baptist Church for fifty years, and great-great-grandson of Rev. Pierre Robert, French Huguenot of St. James, Santee, and his wife Charlotte Anne, daughter of Joseph Lawton (1753-1815), a justice of the peace, of Mulberry Grove plantation, Black Swamp, St. Peter's Parish.. In 1828, after the birth of Mary Charlotte, their third child, Thursa Evelina Rhodes died and George Rhodes the same year married her sister, Eliza Jane Robert, who became the mother of his fourteen children born between 1829 and 1856.
To George Rhodes as a deacon, W. H. Dowling in his "history of Lawtonville Baptist Church" paid this tribute: "He was a good scholar, a large planter and the father of seventeen children. He was not only a special friend of foreign missions, but a strong supporter of all the enterprises of this Association, being for many years chairman of its Executive Committee. He was a member of the Convention of South Carolina which passed the Ordinance of Secession, and the gold pen which he made his signature to that famous Ordinance is still preserved as a family relic and is in the possession of one of his daughters. He died at the age of 76, honored and venerated by everybody." George Rhodes died October 2, 1881, and was buried in Lawtonville cemetery. The site of his plantation home is now the Municipal Airport of Estill. A marble memorial in Lawtonville Baptist Church, Estill, reads: "Hon. George Rhodes, B. 1802 D. 1881, Deacon of This Church 50 years."Although his family Bible has since been destroyed by fire, on September 20, 1924, it was in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Paul D. Peeples of Estill, who on that day had her cousin, Miss Elvira Porter, make a copy of record therein. This copy is now in possession of the contributor.
