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From the book entitled: History of Decatur County, Iowa, and its people, Volume 2
History of Decatur County, Iowa, and Its People, J. M. Howell
Author    Heman Conoman Smith
Editor    J. M. Howell
Publisher    The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1915, p. 184-85

CHARLES T. RHODES.

Among the successful farmers and stock-raisers of Bloomington township is Charles T. Rhodes, who owns and operates two hundred and forty acres on section 28. He was born in Muscatine county, Iowa, near the village of Letts, August 14, 1868, a son of Jacob and Jane E. Rhodes, an account of whose lives appears elsewhere in this work.

Our subject was reared upon the home farm and attended the district schools in the acquirement of an education. His entire life has been devoted to farming and stock-raising and for many years he operated a half section of land in Bloomington township. He 'grows the usual crops and also raises a good grade of live stock, from the sale of which he derives a gratifying addition to his income.

Mr. Rhodes was married December 16, 1890, at Chariton, Iowa, to Miss Lorena Bathe, of Tuskeega, Bloomington township, this county. Her birth occurred on the 21st of November, 1868, and she is a daughter of George R. and Margaret Ann (McDonald) Bathe, the latter born in Madison county, Ohio, February 2, 1844. A sketch of her grandfather, the late Malay McDonald, appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Bathe died in 1890 when forty-six years of age. A sketch of the life of Mr. Bathe is given on another page of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes reside upon the old homestead of her grandfather, Malay McDonald. To their union have been born two children. Faye Lucile was born September 30, 1891. After completing the course in the high school at Lamoni in 1910, she attended Graceland College for four years and Des Moines College for one year. She specialized in music, studying under Miss Wicks of Graceland College and Miss Edith Usry of Des Moines College. For nine years she has taught music and now has a studio at Lamoni and a class of nineteen pupils in that city and its vicinity. She is the director of the choir of the Methodist church at Lamoni and for a number of years was pianist for the Coliseum orchestra. Leighton Lewis, whose birth occurred on the 7th of August, 1893, is a sophomore at the State College at Ames. On May 1, 1915, he won the Shirley Allen cup in his society, the Beardshear Literary Society, of which he is treasurer. He has made several trips with the college Glee Club, of which he is a member, and his monologues add much to the effectiveness of the programs given by that organization. He is a graduate of the Lamoni high school of the class of 1912 and for two and a half years took special work in oratory at Graceland College. He won first place and a medal in oratory in a contest in which nine schools competed and has recently won a medal in oratory at Ames.

Mr. Rhodes is a stanch republican and has been a delegate to various congressional and state conventions of his party. He is now serving his second term as clerk of Bloomington township, his ability and conscientiousness in the discharge of his duties having gained him reelection. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias of Lamoni. His wife and children take an active part in the work of the Methodist Episcopal church and he can be counted upon to further movements for the moral advancement of his community. He holds the sincere respect, the confidence and the goodwill of those who know him, as his life has been guided by honorable principles.