My Genealogy Hound

John F. Rhodes, merchant of Earle and among the substantial citizens of Tyronza Township, was born in Tipton County, Tenn., in 1862, being the first child to bless the union of J. C. and Margaret E. (Fleming) Rhodes, natives of Tennessee. J. C. Rhodes is a trader and now lives in Mississippi. He has been twice married: first to Miss Townsend, of Tennessee, by whom he was the father of seven children, only two now living, Belle (wife of J. W. Clove, of Australia, Miss.), and W. H. (who resides at Frazier, Tenn.). In 1860 Mr. Rhodes married the mother of John F., and by her has had four children, all deceased except John F. He has again been left a widower, his wife having died in 1875. He is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and R. A. John F. Rhodes was reared, and educated in Tipton County, Tenn., and since 1875 has supported himself, having been cast upon the cold charity of the world at the age of twelve years. He has given himself a good business education, spending his thirteenth and fourteenth years in Texas as a farm hand, his fifteenth and sixteenth years in Tennessee at the same occupation, and his seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth years in Mississippi. In 1883 Mr. Rhodes came to Lee County, Ark., and entered a dry goods and grocery store at Bledsoe, where he remained for twenty months, when he commenced the grocery business at Memphis, Tenn. After one year there he returned to Bledsoe and associated himself with W. M. Taylor, buying one-third interest in the business of general merchandising. He continued with Mr. Taylor till January, 1889, when the firm dissolved, and he established his present business in April of that year, transacting $20,000 or $25,000 worth of business the past year. He runs a general country store, and has a large trade, employing two clerks besides himself. Mr. Rhodes is a pushing young man and his present business is due solely to his own efforts; he has the prospect for a bright and prosperous life.