The Back Rhodes of Our Genealogy
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Through the inheritance of exceptional ability from his father and grandfather, both of whom were attorneys of prominence, and through the diligent cultivation of his talents, Raleigh E. Rhodes has gained a reputation as one of the leading lawyers of Madera County. In the field of criminal law he has met with especial success. His preeminence as a criminal lawyer has been established by his skilled management of numerous important suits, notably the Lawson, Rockwell and Derby murder trials, also the Fornier case, the most bitterly contested of any ever tried in the county. As attorney for the Valley Railroad when projected through Fresno, he successfully fought the condemnation suits in behalf of the railway. The family genealogy is traced to Major Joseph T. Rhodes, an officer in the Revolutionary war under General Washington. The grandfather, Col. F. A. Rhodes, a native of North Carolina, became an influential attorney and served as United States consul to Texas stationed at Galveston. In the family of Colonel Rhodes was a son, William H., who was born in Windsor, N. C., in 1822, and was orphaned by his mother's death when he was a child of six years. After his preliminary education lie was sent to Princeton, N. J., where he was a student in the university. Upon the appointment of his father as consul at Galveston he joined him in that city, where he continued his classical studies. In 1844 he matriculated in the Harvard Law School, and at the expiration of his term returned to Texas, where he was honored with the office of probate judge. After a brief sojourn in New York at the conclusion of his service as jurist, he took up the practice of law in Windsor, N. C., and remained there until he heard of the discovery of gold in California. In 1850 he came to San Francisco, where he was a member of the vigilance committee of 1856 and one of the most prominent lawyers of his day. During those times he was editor and part owner of the True Californian, for which he prepared some very able editorials and literary articles. As a brilliant writer, he won a reputation on the coast. He was a man of classical education and intellectual attainments, and his writings, judged by the standard of both that day and this, possess great literary merit. In literature he had a fondness fur the Jules Verne style of writing. He delighted in scientific fiction and acquired prominence by several imaginative articles of that kind which came from his pen. Socially he was popular and prominent, a genial companion, a prominent Knight Templar Mason, and one of the founders of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco. In that city his death occurred April 14, 1876. His wife, who was Susan M. McDermott, was born in England. But at an early age came to Oroville, Cal., where she had a brother in business; she survived her husband a great many years, dying in 1901 in San Francisco.
