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Guice of Biloxi, MS. She is a great-granddaughter of John Rhodes and has done considerable research on this family. We have shared all of our Rhodes and related research with her, and she has incorporated it into her publication. In 2007 she gave us a copy that we have in our files, and she donated a copy to the Hancock County, MS Historical Society.
Through her research, she located the ?Death Certificate? for John Rhodes in the New Orleans, LA Board of Health records. It said John was a ?native of Pennsylvania, age 62, and died at Hotel Dieu Hospital on November 29, 1881 of Malaria Fever.? Julia also found his obituary notice in the St. Tammany Farmer newspaper, Covington, LA, December 3, 1881 issue. The obituary said he died in New Orleans and his body was taken to Mandeville for interment. He was referred to as ?Captain John Rhodes? and was known as ?the oysterman.?
His estate was opened in St. Tammany Parish on December 20, 1881, in the 18th Judicial District Court, Succession #147 3A. His widow was named as ?Samantha Rhodes.? The record names his four living children, twins, Louisa J. Rhodes and Sophia M. Rhodes, Joseph W. Rhodes, and Agnes Rhodes. It states he owned a ?small schooner called Velocity? and a vacant lot (lot #1, square 75) in Mandeville. The lot eventually sold for $50.50. His other assets were listed with a total value of $727.25. There was no home listed, indicating the family was renting a home somewhere in Mandeville at the time of John?s death.
Also of interest is John Rhodes had filed for divorce from Samantha on October 25, 1881 - a little more than a month before his death! This record is also found in the St. Tammany Parish Courthouse. A copy of this record was supplied by Loma Schindler of Lake Charles, LA. She is related to this family through her husband, Warren L.
Schindler. Lorna has done a lot of excellent research on these families, and we are most grateful for her efforts. This record gives their marriage date as February 25, 1869, and says she was a ?Green? when he married her. The basis of the divorce was ?adultery? in that she ?committed adultery with one William G. Davis, a resident of St. Tammany, as well as others.? There was no action taken in this case due to John?s untimely death.
Looking back on what Samantha?s daughter, Pauline Heitzmann, said about ?John Rhodes being mean to her mother,? he may have had a reason for being mean to Samantha! As often the case, we will probably never know the truth of these accusations. The following is a list of the children of John and Samantha Rhodes:
I.	Sophia Mary ?Sophie? Rhodes - was bom in Louisiana in 1871 according to
the 1880 census of Mandeville. According to Pauline Heitzmann?s Bible entry, she died in New Orleans, LA on September 26, 1904. She is buried in St. Rock Cemetery in New Orleans, LA according to Pauline. The cemetery records for St. Rock list ?Sophie Caldonia? died this same date at age 26. She had a ?head board? there, but it has rotted over the years leaving no head marker today. She was a twin sister to Louisa. She married an Italian man called Marco Caldona (also spelled Cardris, Caldania, Cordona, Cardona, and Cardani) on her marriage record in Harrison County Courthouse in Gulfport. She married on January 22, 1890.
Marco was accidentally drowned, and she remarried but divorced shortly after her marriage. She moved to New Orleans, LA where she lived the later part of her life. She had only one son by her first husband called John. We found a ?John