Rhodes
First, some Rhodes family
general history: It is reported that the British Rhodes family came
into being when William the Conqueror came to England. Nelson Osgood
Rhodes, in his book, The Family of Rhodes (1919),
indicated that the de Rhodes came to England with the Earl of
Flanders to assist William The
I would love to start our
Rhodes family with Walter, supposedly Zachariah Rodes' father, but I
have no documentation that they are related, even though you will
find this on most every tree in Ancestry.com that has Rhodes family
members. I will report that there was a Walter Rhodes in Rhode
Island at the same time that Zachariah was there, but there's still a
question in my mind about them being related. There is documentation
of Walter that indicates that he was in contact with people who were
also involved with Zachariah in early Rhode Island. The Early
Records of the Town of Providence
(Vol. XIV, index to deeds, 1906, Providence, Snow and Farnham) shows
deeds of Walter transacting business in the same area as Zachariah
as well. On another page Walter Rhodes is listed as having signed an
affidavit on 6 July, 1674. So there may
have been a relationship between Walter and Zachariah. The
family tree constructed by Nelson Osgood Rhodes indicates that Walter
was the father of Zachariah and Henry Rhodes and, as a son of the
youngest of 3 sons, Walter
may have felt that
emigration to the New World would be beneficial to him. But it is
only conjecture that this lineage is correct.
We do know that Zachariah
Rhodes came to Massachusetts in 1642. He's listed in the Founders of
Early American Families, emigrants from Europe, 1607-1657 (Cleveland:
General Court of the Order of Founders and Patriots of America,
1975, p 242). He is listed as having been born in Leamington,
Warwickshire, England according to the American
Genealogical-Biographical Index. This would make him 39 when he
arrived in America, still a single man at that time. There are
numerous records available that make it easy to follow much of
Zachariah's life in America. He was listed in Rehoboth,
Massachusetts through 1644. Rehoboth
at that time counted part of Rhode Island as some of its territory.
Zacharaiah was evidently brought up Baptist and following that faith
first became punishable by banishment and later by the assignment of
a fine, one of the reasons that Roger Williams and Zachariah wanted
to leave
Massachusetts to set up a new colony.
Zachariah
was
banished, for stating that "the court has naught to do in
matters of religion"
The
reason for this trouble was that he refused to comply with
Massachusetts law compelling support of preachers of
the “official” Congregational church. Zacharaiah
was part of the group that wanted the territory to leave
Massachusetts.
New
England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the
Achievements of her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the
Founding of a Nation (Cutter, William Richard, Lewis Historical
Publishing Co, NY, 1914, Vol. 1, pgs 510-511) has a page on
Zachariah, summarizing his early life in America:
He
was one of 58 inhabitants of Rehoboth from about 1643 to 1650, having
received land in the division of lands there. In
1650 he was in Providence, and by 1688 he was on a committee to ask
to be released from Massachusetts. He was a constable, a
commissioner, on a committee to run the Plymouth Colony line and was
also on a committee to agree with the Indians on previous purchases
from them, which, from later events, seemed to have had a profound
effect on his life. He
also owned considerable land as well as a grist mill. The picture is from the location of the grist mill in Pawtuxet.
Zachariah
went to Rhode
Island where he, with Roger Williams, his future father-in-law
William Arnold, William
Harris
and William Carpenter formed one of the Plantations of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island's actual name is The State of Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations. Zachariah married William Arnold's daughter,
Joanna on March 9, 1646. (The
Arnold family was also well respected- for the most part- and has a
long history in England which will be discussed later).
Zachariah
was active in the civil and political life of the area as seen above.
He was close to the Indians and from the above mentioned letter from
Roger Williams it appeared that both Williams and he were upset that
some other
members of the group were trying to cheat the Indians. It appears in
most of his genealogies that he was “drowned off the Pawtuxet” in
1666.
This letter indicated that he was very upset and makes you wonder
about
the drowning.
As
written it states: “I
loue & honour ye memorie of Zach: Rodes
as much as any: Yet I belieue he had dolefull thoughts, when God was
pleased so suddenly so wonderfully & dreadfully to driue him off
from Pawtuxet shoare: O how terrible must ye sight of this monster,
& his unchristjan Contentjons (& Law vexatjons about jt) be
to his dying Thoughts and Spirits? Thinck what you please &
dare: For myselfe I dare not but hope yt he was resolued if God
would once haue pleased to suffer his foote on Pawtuxet Land again he
would have endeauoured to dash out ye Brains of this dreadful
monster.” (Google
books: Rhode
Island Historical Tracts, No. 13, Sidney S. Rider, 1881). I
recently visited Pawtuxet and saw the falls where Zachariah had a
grist mill. Also there is a special event venue, Rhodes on the
River, started by a descendant of Zachariah and remaining today.
There are Rhodes houses, and streets throughout the village.
Zachariah
and Joanna had numerous children as listed in the excerpt above. The
children for the most part were also well respected and active in the
life of their community. Daughter Rebecca married (2nd) Roger
Williams' son Daniel. Mary married John Low, and it's through this
connection that we are reportedly related to the George Bush family.
We are often indebted to others for the research that they have done.
There was a court case that involved
Jeriah Rhodes and some land in
Rhode Island
that proved that he was a descendant of Zachariah Rhodes
(Zachariah-Jeremiah-John-John-Jeriah). This
was published
in the American Genealogist (Vol 35, No. 2, April 1959).
It was an article written by Charles W. Farnham entitled The
Ancestry of Jeriah Rhodes of Ulster Co., NY.
Jeriah was born in Rhode Island about 1735 and died in Ulster
County, NY in 1812. He came to New York about 1768, first being
mentioned then
in
the records of Lattintown, Marlborough. Jeriah signed the pledge of
loyalty to the Continental Congress. He was married twice, first to
Rebecca Lewis ( January 1757 in Rhode Island). It appears that her
family also came to New York from Rhode Island. His second marriage
was to Sophronia Ayers, Rebecca Lewis having died in 1779. He had 9
children with Rebecca and 10 children with Sophronia. Our line stems
from his son John (with Rebecca Lewis) and the name Lewis/Louis is
prominent in the family. John had a son Lewis, born in 1799 who
married Susan Meriah Winne (Winne was another very early family name
in the area, but I have not been able to find out which line she was
from). They are listed at the top of the journal that started my
genealogy trip. It
seems that in general the children Jeriah had with Rebecca were
respectable, but a history of Marlborough reports that
some other Rhodes, I believe those with his second wife, were not so
respectable, but have horse thieves among them! Lewis'
son, Leander
Rhodes, my great
great
grandfather had a brother, Aaron who is listed in the Commemorative
Biographical Record of Ulster County, New York. We have a postcard
of the house he built. Another
brother, Theodore died in the Civil War. He is buried with his
parents in the little cemetery at the Lattintown Baptist Church.
Leander
and his wife Mary J. Westcott (another early Ulster family) had a son
named Eugene Lewis (my great grandfather-1869-1948) who married Edith
Cosman, the lady holding me in this
picture of 4 generations. Their daughter Mary Edna married Earl
Polhamus and
they had two daughters, Ethel, my mother and Elsie. Their
son, Lewis Eugene was cousin
Estelle
Warren's
father
and later married Vi Hull.
L-Ethel
Polhamus Stoehr
R-Edna
Rhodes Polhamus
Seated:
Edith Cosman Rhodes holding Judi Stoehr
