The Back Rhodes of Our Genealogy
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Page 575
David E. Rhodes. As an active and successful attorney Mr. Rhodes during the past eighteen years has occupied a prominent place in his profession in Miami county, and has had a varied and broad experience as a lawyer in all departments of practice. The present firm of Lawrence & Rhodes, of which he is the junior member is recognized as one of the strongest law partnerships in active practice at Peru, and has enjoyed a large and influential clientage.
David E. Rhodes is a native of this state, born on a farm in Fulton county. August 17. 1869, a son of Joseph P. and Alma (Hoover) Rhodes. Both sides of the family have long been identified with Indiana, and the mother's people in particular were among the pioneers of this state. Joseph P. Rhodes, the father, was a farmer by occupation and during the war enlisted in Company A of the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Indiana Infantry, giving loyal service as a soldier for the preservation of the Union. Both parents are now deceased. Mr. Rhodes spent his boyhood on a farm where he acquired the physical vigor necessary to success in any department of life, and obtained his education in the district school near the old home. "When he was seventeen years of age he took one course in the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso. With that preparation he took up work as teacher and spent the winter terms in teaching, and engaged in farming during the summer until he was twenty years of age. At that time he had acquired sufficient capital to continue his education, and another year was spent in the Valparaiso institution. After that he continued alternately in farming and teaching until he was twenty-three. Then he again entered the Northern Indiana Normal School and at the end of two years and a half had completed the scientific and teachers' courses, and in June, 1895, was graduated from the law department. In August of the same year he began his practice at Peru, at first as a member of the law firm of Larimer & Rhodes. This partnership was dissolved in 1897, and Mr. Rhodes then remained by himself until 1901, at which time the present firm of Lawrence & Rhodes was organized.
Mr. Rhodes is one of the broad-minded men of his profession and has for many years been a keen student of local and national politics. Up until 1912 he was actively identified with the Republican party in both principles and policies. The belief was then forced upon him as a positive conviction that the party was dominated by a group of eastern leaders whose general tendencies were essentially retrogressive, and after the memorable proceedings in the Republican Convention at Chicago, he transferred his political allegiance to the new Progressive faction and was one of the organizers of the Progressive party in Indiana. He was chairman of the Progressive Organization for Miami county.On Christmas Day of 1895, Mr. Rhodes married Miss Edith Rooney of Athens in Fulton county, Indiana, and they are the parents of two sons, Russell R. and Teddy D.