---

Dr. John Edwin Rhodes, from: Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County and Selected Biography  By Arba Nelson Waterman, pub. 1901

Dr. John Edwin Rhodes, A. M., M. D., is a native of Bath, Summit county, Ohio, born on the 12th of February, 1851, and is a son of John and Rebecca Clark (Smith) Rhodes. His father was a well-to-do merchant, who, while Dr. Rhodes was still a child, removed to Akron, Ohio, and subsequently to South Bend, Indiana. The family still later removed to Webster City, Iowa, and there resided for eleven years, during which period young Rhodes made good progress in his education. At the age of sixteen' he returned with the family to South Bend, Indiana, and at a later date to Belvidere, Illinois.

After a preliminary course of instruction Dr. Rhodes entered the University of Chicago, from which he graduated with the degree of A. b: in 1876. During this period he proved himself a thorough university man, being actively identified with the college societies and Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, editor of the college paper, president of the literary society and especially prominent in oratorical contests. Three years after leaving the university his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of A. M. The summer succeeding his graduation Dr. Rhodes spent in the east, visiting the Centennial Exposition, and subsequently locating in Sacramento, California, where he entered the employ of Huntington, Hopkins & Company, wholesale hardware merchants

After a successful career of seven years in connection with the house named, Dr. Rhodes commenced the realization of a slowly maturing determination to assume for his life work the medical profession. Locating in Chicago again, he was matriculated at Rush Medical College in 1883, and three years thereafter graduated as valedictorian of his class. Several months of European travel and study followed, after which he returned to Chicago and became associated with Dr. E. Fletcher Ingals and engaged in general practice. After a few years, however, he confined himself to the specialties in which his professional associate and friend had already acquired such eminence. Early in this special practice Dr. Rhodes was elected by the faculty of Rush Medical College as lecturer on laryngology and diseases of the chest, and he was later advanced to the associate professorship of the same chair, which he still occupies. At one time he was also professor of physical diagnosis and clinical medicine of the Woman's Medical School. For ten years he was secretary and treasurer of the Rush Medical College Alumni Association, was historian of the college, president of its Instructors' Association, a leading member of the Nu Sigma Nu, and in every detail as earnestly interested in the welfare of his medical alma mater as of his literary sponsor, the University of Chicago.

At the present time Dr. Rhodes is laryngologist to St. Mary's of Nazareth Hospital and the Home for Destitute Crippled Children, consulting physician to Chicago Relief and Aid Society, and attending physician to Marion Sims Sanitarium and Charleston (1ll.) Sanitarium. He is a member of the American Laryngological Association, Chicago Laryngological and Otological Society, American Medical Association, Illinois State Medical Society, Chicago Medical Society, and Physicians' Club. He is also identified with the Chicago Athletic Association and the Forty Club.

Dr. Rhodes was married in Sacramento, California, July 12, 1877, to Miss Anna Louise White, and their children are John Edwin, Jr., and Margaret. In politics, the Doctor is a Republican, and in religion a Baptist.