|
a.
|
Note: John Rhode and the Revolutionary War Years According to family tradition and the writings of Ellis G. Rhode, John Rhode immigrated to America from Germany as a young man. No record exists of his life in Germany; the names of his parents or other family members, his birthplace and his occupation before coming to the American Colonies are all unknown. Also, little is known of his first years in his new homeland. One fact is certain: John Rhode was a Quaker. Therefore, it is quite likely that John Rhode was one of the thousands of Palatine immigrants who arrived in the Colonies between 1724 and 1770. These Palatines, from Alsace-Loraine and other parts of southern Germany, were escaping the aftermath of the Thirty Years War. William Penn sent emmisaries to area to encourage the people, weary of war, famine and uncertainty, to come to Pennsylvania. He painted glowing pictures of the fertility of the land and the unlimited opportunites that awaited in his colony. Boat after boat of dauntless Palatines landed in Philadephia. As they disembarked, passengers were required to become Quakers, and to swear an oaths of allegiance to the King of England and William Penn. One of these boats just may have carried John Rhode to his new life. There are official War of Independence service records that confirms John Rhode'service in the Revolutionary War. For instance, Mr. A. S. Sally of South Carolina's State Historical Commission, notes there is a stub entry in Revolutionary War payment book P, entry #479, against an S. C. Figg, stating, "Issued this 9th of May 1785 to Mr. John Rhodes for three pounds 4S9 Sterling--for provisions for the State Troops & Militia in 1780-81 as part of the account audited. Principal S 4, 9--Annual interest S 4.6." One of John's great-granddaughters, Harriet Rhode McCormick (Joseph, Jonathan, John) insisted that she heard from older members of the family that John Rhode took part in the Revolutionary War as a baggageman or teamster."Another, Fern Williams (Sarah Cobb Williams, Allice Rhode Cobb, Jonathan Rhode, John) claims that older members of the family said thatin the final years of the war John Rhode was involved in commissary transports for the "Swamp Fox," General Francis Marion, and his famed guerilla fighters in Charleston, South Carolina area. According to family bible records, in 1784 John Rhode married Mary Lewis, b. 1764, in a little stone church on a small island in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor. Their first child, William was born the next year. Available marriage records, which are not nearly complete, do not list the marriage. Ellis Rhode says in his book that nothing was known of Mary's parents; however, more recent research supports that she is the daughter of William and Mary (Hughes?) Lewis. Mary's sister, Hester or Esther Lewis, married Seymour Cobb. These are the first recorded marriage between the Lewis' and the Cobbs; many would follow. The 1790 Census The U.S. Census, conducted in 1790, raises a few questions. John Rhode's name is listed as "John Road." The surname misspelling is not uncommon; many surnames were misspelled in census records, especially from 1790-1900. There a several John Roads, Rhoads, etc. listed in the South Carolina in that census, but this one is the only one in Charleston District (the part of which is now Dorchester Co). The census lists seven members in his household, one male over 16 (John), one white female (Mary), three males under 16 years old, (sons William, b. 1785, Jonathan, b. 1788, and Caleb, b. 1790, and two slaves. So it is reasonable to assume this listing is for "Jno. Rhode" (1790 Census, Charleston District, St. Georges Parish/Township, pg. 33/620 or 5 of 6 on Ancestry.com). Interestingly, Ellis Rhode notes that there are three other "Road" listings in the neighborhood: Henry, William and Christian. In this era, it was very common for relatives to settle in groups. Were these brothers or other relatives of John Rhode? Although Ellis Rhode and Annie Dash Moore of Waltersboro, South Carolina, a descendant of Mary Lewis Murray, the daughter of John Rhode, believed this was quite possible, there is nothing written in the family records or spoken in oral traditions which mentions that John Rhode had brothers or other relatives. There is a land grant Vol. 66, page 388: John Road 800A in District of Charlestown, St. George's Parish, waters of Poak Swamp, NE side of Edisto River: The Rhode Plantation However, Annie Dash Moore supplied Ellis Rhode an actual land grant for the John Rhode plantation, which confirms the family legend that he did own a plantation in Dorchester Co., South Carolina. This handwritten grant, dated 1796, is made out to "John Rode" and signed "Witness his Excellence Arnoldus Vanderhorst Esquire, Governor and Commander in Chief in and over said State, at Charleston this Fourth Day of January Anno Domini One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety Six and in the Twentieth Year of the Independence of the United States of America." The 500-acre plantation is in St. John's Parish near the town of St. George, about 50 miles from Charleston. On one side of the yellowed document is a plat showing property boundaries as being the Edisto River and various trees. No price is mentioned; however, a piece of the land grant is missing. Although the Quaker religion opposes slavery, plantation owners had little choice but to own slaves. What John Rhode grew on his plantation is not really known, but the common crops for the area are rice and cotton, both labor intensive, The only way a plantation owner could successfully raise such crops was to use slave labor. As Ellis Rhode surmises, when John Rhode bought his 500-acre plantation he may have bought more slaves. Also, by the time he left South Carolina eighteen years later, he probably owned many slaves. John Rhode's Family John and Mary Rhode had three sons by the 1790 census. A daughter, Esther, was born in 1794. After the plantation was purchased, three more children were born, Mary in 1796, Thomas in 1797 and Seymour Cobb Rhode in 1802. Seymour was named for his uncle, Semer Cobb, the husband of his mother's sister, Esther Lewis Cobb. Some of the Rhode children married in South Carolina. In 1806, William married Sarah Murray, the daughter of William Murray. In 1813, Mary Rhode wed her sister-in-law Sarah's brother, William Murray Jr. Esther Rhode married Daniel Summers, whose given name was unknown to Ellis Rhode and Anna Dash Moorer) in 1813. John Rhode's Family Leaves South Carolina According to Ellis Rhode: In 1811, John Rhode's oldest son, William Rhode, left South Carolina for Ohio, an area in northern Ohio near Lake Erie. The family legend says that William, by then 25 years old husband and father, left with a group of Quakers who opposed slavery. Indeed, legions of Southern Quakers did migrate to Ohio after 1800, leaving the South because they had concluded in their meetings that slavery was wrong. Jonathan, John Rhode's second-oldest child, probably left with or soon after his brother; his marriage is recorded in Ohio in 1812. In 1814, John and Mary Lewis Rhode and their other sons, Caleb, Thomas and Seymour, also left for Ohio. They left the South presumably for the same reason, although Ellis Rhode claims that by then, slavery was becoming unprofitable for small plantation owners. Ellis implies that the two daughters, Esther Rhode Summers and Mary Rhode Murray, did not migrate with their parents. Mary married to William Murray IV in 1813. Ellis Rhode says that Annie Dash Moore found legal documents in South Carolina that bear John Rhode's signature as late as 1814, but there seems to be no record of the plantation's sale. The Rhode family legends say that John gave his slaves three choices: to stay on the plantation as free men, to select the man they wish to be sold to, or to go with John and his family to Ohio, where they would also be given their freedom. It is said that a number of slaves left with the Rhodes, evidence that John Rhode treated his slaves fairly and kindly. Another Rhode family story claims that Joseph Rhode, son of Jonathan Rhode, possessed the large black trunk, allegedly once filled to the brim with silver coins, which his grandfather John Rhode took to Ohio. According to Ellis Rhode, from 1814 to 1820 the Rhode clan moved moved four times. As mentioned, the first move to "the fire lands" meaning to Ohio, Ohio, an area formerly owned by Connecticut before Ohio became a state in 1803. Then the family went to Seymour, Jackson Co., in southern Indiana. Warren Co., Ohio, in the southern part of that state, was their next residence. The 1820 census lists them as living near Richmond, Wayne Co., Indiana, which is in eastern Indiana near the Ohio border. Recent Research However, evidence now indicates that the Rhodes never went to northern Ohio, and may have been in Warren Co., Ohio as early as 1807. There were two "fire lands" in Ohio, the one now nationally known as the Western Reserve, and parcels of land in Warren Co., Ohio owned by a man named Symmes. Symmes' entry book was burned by a disgruntled land owner, and the area became known locally as "Symmes' fire lands." When the older Rhode family members told Ellis that the family settled in "the fire lands" Ellis naturally thought they meant the Western Reserve, and wrote such in his book. But this is incorrect; the older family members meant "Symmes' fire lands" in Warren Co., Ohio. An early court record indicates that Mary Lewis Rhode gave consent for her niece and ward, Mary Easterling Townsend, to marry her husband John Townsend in Clinton Co., Ohio in July 1807. Deed records support this year as the year of migration to Wayne Twp., Warren Co., Ohio very near the Caesar's Creek MM house. John Rhode purchases his first tract of land in Wayne Twp., Warren Co., Ohio on May 14, 1807. So John Rhode came directly to Warren Co., Ohio. More research is needed to ascertain if John Rhode did move to Jackson Co., Indiana for a while. In 1828, the Rhode family sold their lands in Warren and Clinton Co., Ohio and moved to the area which is still largest settlement of Rhode descendants to this day, Warren Co., Indiana. The land is in the northwestern part of the state, near the Illinois border, and situated near the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers. Crops and goods made in the region were shipped by flatboat on these rivers to nearby Lafayette, or floated down to the Mississippi River as far as New Orleans. The New Homeplace John Rhode and his five sons obtained their farms through federal land grants, the first was awarded to John in 1826. He obtained several others from 1826-1828 before the family actually moved. The region the Rhode clan chose as its new homeplace is considered by many experts as having the finest stand of hardwood timber the world has ever produced. Clearing the Rhode land, heavily covered by white oak, was no easy task. According to Ellis Rhode, some of the timber was used for buildings and for fencing, but most of it was "log-rolled" and burned. The stumps had to be "grubbed out" before the land was ready for plowing. In 1934, 82-year-old Seymour T. Rhode (Joseph, Jonathan, John) wrote a letter to Ellis Rhode describing the arduous tasks tackled by the early Indiana settlers: "No one could guess from the aspect of Indiana today that when the first settlers entered it the greater portion waas covered with dense growths of magnificent hardwood trees--oak, waalnut, beech, ash, maple and the king of the Wabash Valley, the giant sycamore--in all more than 40 kinds of trees, which not infrequently reached a height of 100 to 190 feet and a circumference of 25 to 35 feet. It makes one shudder to realize that most of these huge and splendid forest monarchs did not even furnish timber of fuel, or serve any useful purpose. They were simply cut, piled in heaps, and burned with immense labor to clear the land for planting. It could not be helped. The forest was a barrier to progress, a foe to agriculture, and a refuge for Indians, bears, panthers, wildcats and lynxes, as well as for deer and other gentler wild creatures. "The stout Hoosier pioneers, snatching at every opportunity to sweeten toil and hardship with fun and frolic, made the 'log rolling' a community festival. The 20 to 50 men of a neighborhood would gather early in the day with axes and handspikes at the home of one of their number, and, divided into opposing squads, would make a game of seeing which sidecould outdo the other in heaping the logs for burning. In the log cabin, their women folk were busy quilting and preparing the feast of venison, roast turkey, fried chicken, hog, hominy, potatoes, hot cornbreak, biscuits, and gingerbread, pies, preserves, milk and cider. In the evening, the young people would still have energy left for dancing and games, while a hundred flaring log bonfires lit the sky. Each settler received the same help from his neighbors, so the festivity was repeated many times during the season, usually April or May. "The log-rolling was a splendid opportunity for political candidates to ingraatiate themselves with the voters; an opportunity, too, for the cnany farmer, who, it is said, would sometimes postpone his log-rolling until campaign time in order to profit by the enthusiastic labor of rival candidates. "In 1870, when I visited Indiana, there were a few odd treacts of thsi very magnificent timber left standing. Uncle Seym (Note: Seymour T. Rhode, son of Jonathan and brother of the letter-writer's father, Joseph Rhode. The letter-writer was his namesake.) had about 20 acres that there neer had been axe in, mammoth oaks, many of them 60 feet or more to the nearest limb, and with a superb spread of tops. As a young man, from the prairie country of Iowa, it surely was impressive, and had a very lasting effect. Forty years later, in 1910, while visiting with the Gray familly at Odessa, Indiana, my cousin Harvey Garton drove me to an 80-acre tract that had been preserved. In fact, this 80 acres stood like a mountain in a valley. The timber was mostly oak and yellow poplar. The effect is lastin gto this day. But alas, time was called on the preserver and the heirs were calling for their share. Harvey Garton said the tract had been sold for $1000 per acre, or $80,000, for the timber alone. I thought of the back-breaking work, those oldtimers had done in getting rid of their timber, and to think of the stumps to wrestle with after the logs and limbs were off." After the land was cleared the Rhode family faced another monumental job. Because of the rivers in the area, the Wabash, Tippecanoe and White, western Indiana farmland had to be drained. Because of the wetness of the land, sickness, particularly chills and fever, was common. Ellis Rhode writes that "there were many ponds and sloughs, which caused much malaria, so nearly every family had the "ager" from time to time." In addition to causing sickness, the land's wetness made raising crops vitually impossible without ditching and tiling. The first tiling was three-inch, then retiled with four-inch tiling. Later, the four-inch tiling was removed and replaced with six- to 18-inch tiling, which gave the most adequate draining. But the Rhodes toiled on, and finally they were rewarded for their efforts. The Rhode farms, located primarily in Adams, Pine and Warren townships, were some of the most prosperous in the area for years. As they succeeded, more land was added. Rhode sons would grow up and buy yet other farms in the area. Many of the original Rhode farm tracts were passed down from generation to generation, some are still held in the family today. The Rhode Familly Spreads Out John Rhode and all five of his sons, William, Jonathan, Caleb, Thomas and Seymour, all owned farms in Warren Co., Indiana from 1826 until the 1840s. As generations past, some of the Rhode clan left Warren Co., Indiana for new lands to the west. Caleb Rhode left for Kansas, possibly in the 1840s. Jonathan Rhode and his family left in 1839 for Lead Hill, Arkansas in the northwestern corner of that state. Whatever hardships they were trying to escape in Indiana, they met far more in the rock-filled land of Arkansas. The move was so unsuccessful that in 1843, Jonathan's wife, Mary Harriet Anderson Rhode, pleaded on her deathbed for her family to return to Indiana. Several months later, all did except for one son, Daniel. (Note: Jonathan's nephew and Daniel's cousin, Isaac Rhode, son of William and Sarah Murray Rhode, accompanied them to Arkansas and remained there for the rest of his life.) In 1847, Daniel finally did leave Arkansas and went to the very southwestern corner of Iowa, in Fremont Co. near Tabor. He wrote to the family in Indiana, extolling the virtues of the fertile and virtually treeless land. Two of Daniel's brothers. Joseph and John, decided to join him there in 1848. Their uncle, Seymour Cobb Rhode also moved to Fremont Co., Iowa, around 1850. Some of his sons came a few years later. Thomas Rhode and his sons sold their farms and left for Iowa in 1848 as well. Thomas and his family, however, settled near Salem, in the southeastern part of Iowa. Later generations of Rhodes headed to the Sheridan, Wyoming vicinity and to Sonoma and Orange counties in Southern California. In 2000, five areas are known to have significant concentrations of Rhode family descendants: Warren Co., Indiana; Henry Co., Iowa; Fremont Co., Iowa; Sheridan Wyoming and Orange Co., California. John Rhode's Final Resting Place John Rhode died in 1840 and his wife Mary Lewis Rhode in 1843. On one of the farms, once owned by William Rhode and situated between small towns of Pine Village and Independence, is the Quaker-Rhode Cemetery. John and Mary Lewis Rhode are buried here, and their graves are marked with a very impressive tombstone bought in the 1950s by contributions from many of his decendants throughout the U.S. Many other Rhode family members and those close to the family are also buried here. Other Rhodes are buried in the nearby Gray Cemetery, in Pine Twp., Warren Co., Indiana east of Pine Village and north of Rainsville. John and Mary Rhode lost at least five nephews in the Civil War: John, William and George T. Summers, all three of the sons of Mary's sister Esther Rhode Summers. Thomas Jefferson Murray, son of Mary's sister Mary Rhode Murray. The above fought for the Confederacy in South Carolina regiments. Virgil Cobb, son of Mary's sister Esther Rhode Cobb, died fighting for the Union in an Indiana regiment.
|
