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 M
