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From the book entitled: History of Chicago, Volume 3
Author: Alfred Theodore Andreas
Publisher: A. T. Andreas, 1886

George L. Rhodes was appointed city passenger agent of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway, on October I, 1880. He was born in Madison County, N. Y., on September 24, 1844, the son of George M. and Chloe A. (Dibble) Rhodes. He was reared on his father's farm and received his education in the common schools and at Madison University, remaining at home until he was twenty-three years old. He then determined on trying his fortune in the Western country, and came to Chicago in 1867, and immediately perceived that there was money in the cattle business. He went to Indiana and remained there about two years, buying stock and shipping it to this city. But he desired to see some of the farther Western country, and estimating that if he had been fairly successful in Indiana, he could be more fortunate in Missouri, and, accordingly, he w'ent to Kansas City and entered the real-estate business in partnership with Dr. M. M. .Munford, remaining in that business association for two years. On the dissolution of the partnership, Mr. Rhodes returned to Chicago, reaching here just after the great fire ; and Dr. Munford entered the journalistic field, wherein he has since become celebrated. After his return here, Mr. Rhodes occupied various positions, among others that of excursion agent for the Rock Island road ; in the furtherance of his duties therein he made many trips to Denver with emigrants, settlers, and excursionists. He occupied this position until 1878, when he went to Cleveland as joint agent for the Land and Passenger Department of the Union Pacific Railroad, which position he resigned to accept the one he at present occupies, and which he certainly is eminently qualified to fill. Keen, genial, decisive and courteous, Mr. Rhodes not alone daily demonstrates his efficiency as a passenger agent but also makes personal friends of those with whom he comes into official relations. He is a man of good presence and fine appearance, and in his personal life a noble, wholesouled gentleman. He is a member of Waubansia Lodge, No. 160, A.F. & A.M. He was married, on August 23, 1866, to Miss Annie Sampsel, of Hartford, Conn., who, with her husband, dispenses informal and homelike hospitality at their elegant home, No. 220 Dearborn Avenue. There is the center of Mr. Rhodes' life; his home is the " central point from which he measures every distance
Through the gateways of the world around him."