Our Rich Family Heritage:Information about Jonathan Rhode
Jonathan Rhode (b. 22 Aug 1788, d. 23 Nov 1845)
Notes for Jonathan Rhode:
According to the DAR application of Frances McMahill Molsberry (John Rhode, Jonathan Rhode, John Rhode, Daniel T. Rhode, Alonzo Lyman Rhode, Bernice Rhode McMahill), Jonathan Rhode was born in the Georgetown District of South Carolina.
Jonathan Rhode was born to John and Mary Lewis Rhode in 1788 in Dorchester Co., South Carolina; he was their second child and second son.When he was about 22 years old, Jonathan Rhode left Dorchester Co. for Ohio about 1810-11. It is not known whether he accompanied his older brother William Rhode, who left in 1810, but he left before his parents and younger brothers in 1814. The Rhodes left the South with other Quakers after the religious group decided that slavery was wrong.
Either during the trip or shortly after he arrived in Ohio, Jonathan Rhode met Mary Harriett Anderson, and their marriage is recorded in Butler Co., Ohio on October 17, 1811. Harriett Anderson Rhode was, according to Rhode family tradition, the first cousin of William S. Rosencrans, later a Union general in the Civil War. Some sources say her name was Rosencrans, and that she had been married before to an Anderson. Jonathan and Harriet Anderson Rhode's first child, Hester, was born in 1813, but died before she was a year old.
After Jonathan's parents, John and Mary Lewis Rhode, and his younger brothers, Caleb, Thomas and Seymour, arrived in Ohio, the Rhode clan decided to move again to Seymour, Indiana, in Jackson Co. They moved once more, to Warren Co., Ohio, before they were recorded as residents of Wayne Co., Indiana, in the 1820 census. In those six years, Jonathan and Mary Harriet Anderson Rhode had four more children: Daniel, b. 1814; Allice, b. 1816; John, b. 1817; and Joseph, b. 1819.
The Jonathan Rhode family, along with the rest of the Rhode clan, lived in Wayne Co. near Richmond for six years until 1826. Hannah, b. 1821; Caleb, b. 1822; and Seymour T., b. 1825, the last three of their children, arrived during that time.
In 1826, Jonathan, his father John, and all four of his brothers, William, Caleb, Thomas and Seymour, bought land grants from the U.S. government for land in Warren Co., Indiana. The land was in a heavily forested area in the northwestern part of the state, near the Illinois border and close to the Wabash and Tippecanoe rivers. For the next 13 years, Warren Co. was the family's home. But in 1839, Jonathan and Mary Harriet decided to move their family west to Lead Hill, then in Carroll Co. (now in Boone Co.), Arkansas,near the present town of Forsythe. The couple's grown children and their spouses and their nephew, Isaac, son of Jonathan's brother William, went with them.
A letter to Jonathan and Mary Harriet Anderson Rhode from Caleb and Rachel Little Rhode still exists. The letter was sent by Rachel Little Rhode to "Jonathan Rhode in the State of Arcanses Carl Co. Carly Post Office." The letter tells the details of John Rhode's estate.
It was an unwise move. The land in Indiana had been very difficult to clear of timber and stumps, but the Arkansas land was filled with rocks. The family encountered much hardship. Mary Harriet fell ill, and on her deathbed, she begged her family to return to Warren Co,Indiana. She died, and is buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery there. After her death in 1843, Jonathan and nearly all the rest of the family did move back to Warren Co. However, their eldest living child, Daniel, and his family, along with their nephew Isaac, stayed in Arkansas.
From 1843 until 1848, Jonathan Rhode's remaining extended family lived in Warren Co. Jonathan Rhode died in 1845, and was buried in the Quaker-Rhode Cemetery in Warren Co., Indiana.
In 1848, Daniel Rhode finally decided he had wrestled enough with northwestern Arkansas' rocky soil. He bought land a through U.S. government land grant in the very southwestern corner of Iowa. He soon was writing to his Indiana family, praising the treeless and rich soil of his new home in Fremont Co., Iowa, near Tabor. Jonathan's sons John and Joseph Rhode, listened to their brother's recommendation, and in 1851 they decided to buy adjoining farms to Daniel's also through U.S. government land grants. In Iowa, all three brothers and their families prospered. Eventually, more Rhode family members joined them. Today, Fremont Co., Iowa has the second-largest concentration of John Rhode's descendents.
A deed recorded in Book G, pages 67, 68, & 69, Boone County, Harrison, Ark., signs over 412 acres to David McCord for $400 on June 12, 1882. It was signed by 27 people in Warren County, Indiana. Many of them are Rhodes. The rest may be Rhode relatives. Names are: Seymour B. Gray, Eliza B. Gray, Nelson H. Baker, Martha M. Baker, Lewis Rhode, Eliza J. Rhode, Seymor Rhode, Matilda Rhode, ? Rhode, Emily Rhode, Joel Rhode, Ellen Rhode, Caleb Rhode, Malinda Rhode, Sylvester Lewis, Mary E. Lewis, Jacob M. Rhode, Mary Jane Rhode, Bosel J. Walters, Sarah J. Walters, Sarah Jane Gray, John Wesley Gray, Joel W. Gray, Josephine Gray, Mary R. Gordon, George L. Rhode, Lucinda Rhode.
More About Jonathan Rhode:
Burial: Unknown, Quaker-Rhode Cemetery, Warren Co., Indiana.
Religion: Quaker.
Residence 1: 1816, Seymour, Jackson Co., Indiana.
Residence 2: 1818, Warren Co., Ohio.
Residence 3: 1820, Richmond, Wayne Co., Indiana.
Residence 4: Abt. 1823, Warren Co., Ohio.
Residence 5: 1826, Warren Co., Indiana.
Residence 6: 1840, Lead Hill, Boone Co., Arkansas.
Residence 7: 1843, Warren Co., Indiana.
More About Jonathan Rhode and Mary Harriet Anderson or Rosencrans:
Marriage: 17 Oct 1811, Butler Co., Ohio.
Children of Jonathan Rhode and Mary Harriet Anderson or Rosencrans are:
- Hester Rhode, b. 1813, Ohio, d. 1814, Ohio.
- +Daniel Anderson Rhode, b. 06 May 1814, Indiana, d. 03 May 1885, Ross, Fremont Co., Iowa.
- +Allice Rhode, b. 24 Jan 1816, South Carolina, d. 14 Oct 1888, Warren Co., Indiana.
- +John Rhode, b. 12 Sep 1817, Wayne Co., Indiana, d. 22 Jul 1897, Tabor, Fremont Co., Iowa.
- +Joseph Rhode, b. 19 Mar 1819, Wayne Co., Indiana, d. 17 Jan 1886, Tabor, Fremont Co. Iowa.
- Hannah Rhode, b. 09 Mar 1821, Wayne Co., Indiana or Ohio, d. 28 Jul 1862, Warren Co., Indiana.
- +Caleb Rhode, b. 02 May 1823, Warren Co., Ohio, d. 25 Jan 1882, Warren Co., Indiana.
- +Seymour T. Rhode, b. 13 Feb 1825, Wayne Co., Indiana, d. 22 Jan 1874, Near Attica, Fountain Co., Indiana.