Biography - Orange Rhodes
ORANGE HAMPTON RHODES. AS the popular proprietor of the leading livery
business of Vienna, Illinois, Orange Hampton Rhodes is well known to the
citizens of his community, who have realized and appreciated the fact that
he has endeavored to give them the best of service. Mr. Rhodes is an
excellent example of the self-made men of whom this country is so proud, and
is gratified by the fact that whatever success has come to him has been
brought about by his own efforts. Mr. Rhodes was born January 19, 1862, in
Wabash county, Indiana, and is a son of Ezekiel and Clarissa (Johns) Rhodes,
natives of Virginia.
Ezekiel Rhodes, who was a carpenter by trade, followed that occupation in
his native state and later in Indiana, where he died in 1864, leaving twelve
children, seven by his first wife and five by the mother of Orange H., whose
other children were: Alphonsus Jerome, Martha Alice, Margaret Catherine and
Elzorah Ellen. The brave mother, although left in humble circumstances,
managed to keep her family together, rearing her children to sturdy man and
womanhood and fitting them for the positions which they later took in life.
Her death occurred at the home of her son, Orange H., in Vienna, January 31,
1910, at the age of eighty-six years, her birth having occurred in Virginia,
January 23,1824.
Orange Hampton Rhodes secured his education in the public schools of his
native county, and began work at a very early age to do his share towards
supporting the family. When he was only seventeen years of age he went to
Benton county, Indiana, where he remained until 1894, following various
occupations. During the winter months he taught school, while in the summer
he worked as carpenter, painter, telegraph operator, or at whatever
occupation presented itself, and thus, by the spring of 1894, had enough
money to bring his family to Johnson county, Illinois. From that time until
1901 he managed a farm for the Hon. Pleasant T. Chapman, and the next three
years were spent on his own eighty-acre farm, which he had purchased from
his savings, and he is now the owner of one hundred and forty-eight acres of
well-improved property, located one and one-half miles west of Vienna. In
1904 Mr. Rhodes purchased the livery business of Dwyer & Company, at Vienna,
and he now operates a hack line from the Big Four Depot and to West Vienna.
All of his equipages are modern in every respect, while his horses are well
groomed and of good breed. In addition to the livery business Mr. Rhodes has
been engaged in the hay, grain and coal industry, and has built up an
excellent trade in Vienna and the vicinity. He is a stockholder in the First
National Bank, is fraternally connected with the Knights of Pythias, and he
and his wife are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church in
this city.
In 1888 Mr. Rhodes was married to Miss Fannie May Ale, of Benton county,
Indiana, daughter of John and Rebecca Ale, and five children have been born
to this union, namely: John, who is twenty-one years of age, and associated
with his father in business; and Robert, Herbert, Clarissa and Alice May,
who are attending school. Mr. Rhodes is well known and very popular in
Vienna, where he has displayed traits of character that mark him as an
excellent business man, a good friend and a public-spirited citizen.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 659-660.
