Rhoads/Rhodes Biographies in the book "A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans"

Thanks to Phillip Wayne Rhodes of the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia for bringing us this data.  Check out their website at www.jmlibrary.org.

From: William Elsey Connelley, A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans (Chicago: Lewis, 1918)

William H. Rhodes. As proprietor of the Sunrise Stock farm, comprising 230 acres, situated near Manhattan, in Riley County, Kansas, William H. Rhodes occupies a prominent place among agriculturists in this part of the state, the products of his farm because of their standard merits having a wide distribution. Mr. Rhodes was born in Atchison County, Kansas, March 31, 1869, but was reared in Marion County, Kansas. His parents were John M. and Martha (Kuhn) Rhodes.

John M. Rhodes was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and died in Marion County, Kansas, in 1914, when aged seventy-nine years. His father, Christian Rhodes, was born in Germany and after coming to the United States lived always in Pennsylvania. John M. and Martha (Kuhn) Rhodes were married in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and came to Kansas in 1866. They located first in Atchison County but four years later removed to Marion County, and there Mrs. Rhodes yet lives, being now aged eighty years. Mr. Rhodes for forty-four years successfully carried on farming and stockraising, a quiet, industrious man, a good neighbor and a valued citizen. In politics he was affiliated with the Republican Party. Both he and wife were members of the Presbyterian Church. They had four children: Christian E., who is a banker at Elmo, Kansas; William H.; Mary E., who is the wife of H. H. Banker, who is a merchant at Brownsville, Texas; and J. Frank, who is a farmer and stockraiser on the old homestead in Marion County.

William H. Rhodes was reared to be a farmer and very early, on his father's homestead, began to learn the practical details that are necessary equipment for success in this vocation. He obtained a common school education but on the farm he has learned more than the books of his boyhood could teach him, for it is a fine training school. Mr. Rhodes has shown its worth by developing into one of the most accurate, careful and enterprising farmers and stockraisers, in Riley County. For fifteen years he successfully operated a fine stock farm in Marion County, near Tampa, which he sold in 1908, coming then to Riley County and purchasing his present farm situated near the Kansas State Agricultural College and now known as the Sunrise Stock Farm. He raises exceptionally fine stock consisting of Percheron horses, Hereford cattle and Berkshire hogs.

In 1908 Mr. Rhodes was married to Miss Viola Cromer, who was born in Illinois, and they have two children: Aileen and Harlan. They are members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Rhodes is not active in politics but votes the republican ticket and is a dependable citizen in lending his influence, when occasion arises, toward forwarding enterprises promising to advance the general welfare.

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 had lived here upwards of half a century. It had 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 Tunkhannock 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, had 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. In 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 owned 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 had been a progressive administration. One of its principal achievements had been the perfection of the city water plant. The water supply for Humboldt is taken from the Neosho River. Mayor Rhodes had 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.

Ross Homer Rhoads is agent for the Santa Fe Railroad Company at Arkansas City. He had been a railroad man for a number of years, and it was his efficiency and his ability that led to his promotion to one of the most important posts along the Santa Fe system in Kansas.

Mr. Rhoads had spent most of his life in Kansas but was born at Somerset, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1883. His grandfather, Samuel A. Rhoads, was a native of Germany and came from there to Pennsylvania. He had ten children: Sarah, deceased; Adaline, single; Etta, deceased; Philip, deceased; Susan, deceased; Hiram, the father of Ross H.; Emma, Jane and Clara, all unmarried; and Frank, a farmer of Somerset County, Pennsylvania. All the unmarried daughters are living on the home place in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Hiram K. Rhoads, the father, was born in Somerset, Pennsylvania, in 1858, grew up and married there, and during his active career followed the vocation of farming. In 1887 he came to Kansas, spending one year as a farmer in Morris County and then removing to McPherson County, where he continued actively as a farmer until 1902. For a number of years he lived retired in the City of McPherson, but since 1914 had had his home at Prairie City, Oregon. He is a republican and a member of the German Brethren Church. Hiram K. Rhoads married Nancy A. Yoder, who was born in Somerset, Pennsylvania, in 1860. They are the parents of seven children: Harvey E., a contractor living at Prairie City, Oregon; Ira D., cashier for the Union Pacific Railroad Company at Hays City, Kansas; Arthur G., foreman in a logging camp at Hoquiam, Washington; Ross H., who is the fourth in order of birth; Sadie, wife of W. W. Fisher, a cattleman at Canyon City, Oregon; Elsie, wife of W. W. Curtis, a farmer at Canyon City, Oregon; and Bertha, wife of R. G. Stalker, a druggist at Prairie City, Oregon.

Ross H. Rhoads, who is almost the only member of his family left in Kansas, received most of his education in the public schools of McPherson County. He attended McPherson College, where he was graduated in the normal course in 1903. His first regular employment was in a wholesale seed house at McPherson, but in September, 1904, he entered the service of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company as clerk at McPherson. He quickly adapted himself to the exacting routine of railroad work, and in June, 1908, was promoted to relief agent, a work which took him to various points along the Santa Fe line. In February, 1910, he was given his first permanent position as local agent for the road at Lyons, Kansas. In September, 1915, Mr. Rhoads came to his present place as agent at Arkansas City.

Arkansas City is one of the most important division points along the Santa Fe system. It is a terminal as well as division point, is headquarters for the district superintendent’s office, and one of the largest material yards along the Santa Fe is located at Arkansas City. Mr. Rhoads had his offices at the corner of E Street and Fifth Avenue.

Mr. Rhoads resided at 202 North Second Street. While a recent comer, he had made himself a factor in the public spirited movements of Arkansas City and through his official position or as a private is always ready to work for anything that concerns the real benefit of this community. While at Lyons, Kansas, he served on the city council. Mr. Rhoads is a trustee in two oil companies. He is a republican, a member of the German Brethren Church, and is affiliated with Crescent Lodge No. 133, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Bennett Chapter No. 41, Royal Arch Masons; Arkansas City Commandery No. 30, Knights Templar; Midian Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wichita, and Arkansas City Lodge No. 956, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

In January, 1910, at McPherson, he married Miss Ida E. Hall. Mrs. Hannah Hall, her mother, resided with Mr. and Mrs. Rhoads. One child had been born to their union, Howard, born April 21, 1912.

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