JOHN PIERCE RHOADS

Sacramento County

Biographies

JOHN PIERCE RHOADS

JOHN PIERCE RHOADS, deceased, was born in Muhlenburg, Kentucky, October 5, 1818, being the third child of Thomas and Elizabeth (Foster) Rhoads. His parents moved from Kentucky to or near Vincennes, Indiana; and as early as 1830 to Edgar County, Illinois, where he owned a farm. John P., was brought up on a farm and his educational opportunities were limited. He used to tell of helping in his youth, among other jobs, in the construction of a section of the National Road, near the Wabash, for which his father held a contract. By private study and great industry he supplied the deficiency in his early education, and in mature life was regarded as a well informed man. At the age of eighteen he was married to Miss Matilda Fanning, also a native of Kentucky, probably on the eve of his family’s removal to Missouri, in 1836. He farmed in Ray County, in that State, and six children were born to them there, of whom three are still living: Thomas F., now a resident of Rapid City, Dakota; Mathew M., of Modoc County, California; and Mary E., now Mrs. William H. Taylor, of Hudson, Grant County, New Mexico. With the father and both families he came to California in 1846. Separating at the Hastings’ cut-off from the Donner party and following the old route the Rhoads family escaped the disasters that befell the Donners. When the news was brought by the “Forlorn Hope” to Johnson’s crossing, on the Bear River, where the Rhoads family were living, John P., was the most active in the effort to rescue the survivors. He immediately extemporized a small raft on which he crossed the swollen river and hastened across the plains on foot to carry the dreadful news to Sutter’s Fort. He was a member of the first and fourth relief parties, and among the heroic services rendered one grateful survivor, Naomi L. Pike, then a child, afterward Mrs. Schenck, since deceased, of the Dalles, Oregon, tells how he carried her over forty miles upon his shoulders, carefully wrapped up in a blanket. Early in 1847 he moved to Sonoma County with his wife and children, but in the fall of that year he bought land on the Cosumnes, known as lot five of the Sheldon estate. With the discovery of gold in 1848 his farming plans were laid aside for a time, and he went to mining in Rhoads Diggings, near Folsom. During that year, in his absence, twin sons were born to him in Sonoma, Andrew J., and James K., who are now living in Tulare County. Later in the year when the gold fever had somewhat chilled, he moved his family to his ranch on the Cosumnes, and engaged in general farming and stock-raising. Here in 1850 another child, William B., was born, but he was killed in childhood by falling from the second floor of a barn. In 1851 the mother died, leaving six surviving children. In August, 1852, Mr. Rhoads was married to Miss Mary Murray, a native of Ireland. She bore him eight sons, five of whom are still living: John M., in 1853; Francis J., in 1854; Michael M., in 1855; Daniel C., in 1856; and Rufus H., in 1860. Daniel C., is married and is the father of one boy. November 18, 1884, Rufus H., married his wife, Mary A., a native of this State, and a granddaughter of S. W. Taylor, a native of Pennsylvania, and for some years a settler on the Cosumnes, but now residing, at the age of seventy-nine, in Hudson, Grant County, New Mexico. He now has two sons,—Emmet Francis and John R. Michael M., was married December 26, 1887, to Lizzie Murphy, of Toronto, Canada, and resides in Sacramento. In 1863 John P. Rhoads was elected a member of the State Assembly on the Republican ticket. He was a school trustee of the Rhoads district for twenty years, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of his neighbors in all relations of his life. He died December 20, 1866, his second wife surviving until February 9, 1869. Francis J. Rhoads, and his younger brothers, J. M., and M. M. D. C., and R. H. Rhoads, besides the usual district school education, took a course in St. Mary’s College in San Francisco; Daniel C., afterward in the Pacific Business College of San Francisco.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 641-642. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.