From the book entitled: A standard history of Kansas and Kansans,
Volume 5 Author: William Elsey Connelley Publisher: Lewis,
1918
Fred H. Rhodes is one of the prominent lumber dealers of
Southeastern Kansas, and is now mayor of Humboldt. Three generations of the
Rhodes family have been represented in Kansas, and the family has lived here
upwards of half a century. It has furnished capable business men, farmers, and
public officials to several counties in the state.
The family was
established in America by one of those self-denying and fearless missionaries of
the Moravian faith, who came out of Germany during the eighteenth century. This
ancestor, the great-great-grandfather of Fred H. Rhodes, spelled his name John
Rothe. He was a missionary among the Indians in Pennsylvania.
The first
of the family to come to Kansas was Mr. Rhodes's grandfather, Jacob Rhodes, who
was born in New Jersey in 1811. He moved from New Jersey to Massachusetts,
afterwards to Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, and in 1869 came as a pioneer to
Mound City, Kansas. He followed farming and took an active part in local
affairs, serving as a member of the county board of commissioners of Linn
County, and was a member of the State Board of Charity. He died at Mound City,
Kansas, in 1891. He married Pauline Blinn, a native of Massachusetts, who also
died in Mound City.
Fred H. Rhodes, who was born at Tuukhannock in
Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, May 25, 1868, is a son of J. b: Rhodes. His father
was born at Weststock Bridge, Massachusetts, in 1839, but when a boy was taken
to Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, where he grew up and married. While living in
Pennsylvania, he served as county superintendent of schools. He was also
admitted to the bar, and practiced law in Pennsylvania. Coming to Southeastern
Kansas in 1870 he located on a farm near Colony at old Elizabethtown. There he
bought a soldier's right, consisting of 160 acres. He spent a number of years in
improving and cultivating this land, but in 1879 removed to Colony and became a
general merchant. In 1892 he and his son Fred entered the lumber business under
the name J. b: Rhodes & Son. Their first yard was in Colony and Fred H.
Rhodes is now proprietor of that establishment. The father also owned a half
interest in a yard at Council Grove, Kansas, conducted under the name J. b:
Rhodes Lumber *Company. J. J. Rhodes, a son, now handles that business. J. b:
Rhodes became a prominent man in his section of the state, served as county
treasurer of Anderson County, and in 1909 was a member of the Legislature from
the same .-.county. He was a republican and belonged to the Masonic fraternity.
His death occurred at Colony, Kansas, September 4, 1914. He married Miss Melinda
Reeve, who was born in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, in 1841, and still occupies
the old home at Colony. Of their four children Fred H. is the oldest. His
brother, J. J. Rhodes, now living at Council Grove, Kansas, and the manager of
the Council Grove and White City Lumber yards, has served as chairman of the
Morris County Republican Central Committee, and was a republican elector for
Hughes in 1916. The third child, Earl R., died in infancy in 1879. Harry R. is a
successful farmer and stock raiser, living on the old homestead in Anderson
County.
Fred H. Rhodes was two years of age when brought to Kansas. He
grew up largely on the farm in Anderson County, attended the public schools, and
in 1884-85 was a student in the preparatory department of the University of
Kansas. .On leaving college he became deputy to his father, who for four years
held the office of county treasurer. From this official experience he entered
the lumber business as manager of the S. A. Brown Lumber Company at Colony and
continued with that until 1891. For nine years he was in the People's Bank at
Colony and at the same time was associated with his father in the lumber
business.
In 1904 Mr. Rhodes was elected register of deeds of Anderson
County, and filled that office with characteristic capability for four years,
two terms. Io 1910 he bought the lumber yard at Humboldt, and soon afterwards
moved his residence to that town. He is manager of that yard and also the one at
Colony, and is president of the J. J. Rhodes Lumber Company of Council Grove. He
is secretary of the Southeast Kansas Retail Lumbermen's Association, and among
other interests owns a farm containing three-quarters of a section in the State
of Oklahoma. His home is at the corner of Ninth and New York streets in
Humboldt.
Mr. Rhodes was elected mayor of Humboldt in April, 1915. His
has been a progressive administration. One of its principal achievements has
been the perfection of the city water plant. The water supply for Humboldt is
taken from the Neosho River. Mayor Rhodes has secured the construction of a
settling basin and a gravity filter by which the water supply is thoroughly
purified, and in purity it is now second to that used in no other city in the
state.
Mr. Rhodes is a republican, is affiliated with Pacific Lodge No.
29, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Humboldt, and is past master of the
lodge at Colony, serving five years in that office. In 1896 at Greeley, Kansas,
he married Miss Nellie Gear, daughter of Major W. A. F. and Diana (Walker) Gear,
both now deceased. Her father served with the rank of major in the One Hundred
and Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil war and for many years
was a farmer near Greeley, Kansas, finally retiring into that town. Mr. and Mrs.
Rhodes have one child, Fred H., Jr., who was born September 12, 1901, and is now
a member of the sophomore class of the Humboldt High School.
