BIOGRAPHIES: Joshua RHODES, Caledonia Township, Trempealeau Co., WI

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Joshua Rhodes, a pioneer, was born in Yorkshire, England, March 21, 1827, 
son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Hinkle) Rhodes, also natives of that shire.  
He was there reared and in the summer of 1840 set out with his parents for 
America.  After a voyage of several weeks aboard a sailing vessel they 
landed in New York, and found their way to Wisconsin, where they settled 
in Brighton, Kenosha County, in which place the parents spent the remainder 
of their lives, the town of Brighton being named in honor of the several 
Rhodes families that settled there, they bringing the "Brighton" from 
England, a town by that name being in Yorkshire, where they migrated from.  
Joshua Rhodes lived in Kenosha County in 1850, and then went to Marquette 
County, where he took up a farm with a land warrant presented to him by his 
father.  In 1853 he came to Trempealeau County, and settled in section 12, 
Caledonia Township, founding the locality which was afterward known as 
Rhodes' Station.  Aside from this tract of 200 acres he secured various 
other tracts in Caledonia and Trempealeau Townships.  At once upon his 
arrival he started developing the farm in section 12.  He first erected 
a log cabin, 10 by 12, and lived a pioneer's life for a time with William 
Hanson as a companion.  Then for a while, until his marriage in 1855, he 
lived alone.  Bringing his bride to his cabin, he started life with new 
energy, and as time passed, he developed one of the best places in the 
community.  He was prominent in community, township and county affairs, 
and he was highly honored by all who knew him.  He was a man of broad 
sympathies, gentle toward the faults of others, but unswerving in the rules 
he made for his own conduct.  Honest, upright, with a wide understanding 
of human nature, he left his impress on the life of the region in which he 
lived, and his family will never cease to cherish his memory.  His death 
in Trempealeau Village Oct. 6, 1907, was sincerely mourned.  As treasurer 
and chairman of the township, as clerk of his school district, as master 
of Burr Oak Grange during its entire existence, as treasurer of the Decorah 
Farmers' Alliance, and as president of the Trempealeau County Agricultural 
Society, his services were highly valued.  Reared as an Episcopalean, he 
was friend of all churches, and contributed liberally to their support.  
He was ever a faithful attendance upon church services, and required the 
same attention to duty on the part of his family.

Mr. Rhodes was first married Feb. 1, 1855, to Susan E. Stevens, daughter of 
Samuel and Lydia Stevens, natives of Vermont, and pioneers of North Bend, 
Jackson County, Wis.  Mrs. Rhodes taught in the Bigelow school, district 2, 
the first school in Caledonia Township.  Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes were the 
parents of eight children:  Mary A., Byron S., Ida J., Henry A., Albert J., 
William L., Charles W. and Cora N.  Mary A. was born Nov. 14, 1857, married 
Charles Nelson, a native of Indiana.  They have one son, Robert.  They live 
on a part of the old home farm.  Byron S. was born July 28, 1859, and died 
Feb. 27, 1879.  Ida J. is the widow of John C. Polyblank, and lives in 
Caledonia Township.  Her sketch appears elsewhere in this work.  Henry A. 
was born April 14, 1863, and is now the proprietor of a department store 
in Seattle, Wash.  He married Harriet Williams of that state.  William L. 
was born Oct. 14, 1867, married Claudia Altenberg of Trempealeau, is the 
proprietor of a five and ten-cent store in Seattle, Wash., and has two 
children: Florenc and William.  Charles W. was born April 7, 1871, married 
Lizzie Van Ingen of Trempealeau Township and is associated with his brother 
Henry in the department store at Tacoma.  He has three children: Glen, 
Catherine and Kenneth.  Cora N. was bonr Nov. 22, 1873, and died at the age 
of three years.  Mrs. Susan F. (Stevens) Rhodes died Jan. 14, 1890, and in 
1893 Mr. Rhodes married Julia Mabie, who survives and resides in Trempealeau 
Village.

--Transcribed from the "History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917," 
pages 408-409