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Rhoads family story

The Rhoads family came to America from Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg (now part of Germany), settling in Pennsylvania.  Heinrich Roth — later Henry Rhoads — emigrated with his wife Catharine around 1737.  Henry was born 23 Jan 1712 and married Catherine Cable in about 1730.  They had four children before emigrating, and five more in America.

In the early 1760s he and his family moved to what is now Somerset County, Pennsylvania, where he acquired large amounts of land and built a mill.  He was heavily involved with religious activities — the German Baptist Brethrens (“Dunkards”) and later the Stony Creek German Baptist Church which met first in his mill before the meeting house was built.  Henry died 7 Apr 1774, and his wife died a year later.

Their youngest child was Daniel Rhoads who was born 5 Oct 1755

Daniel enlisted in the First Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment in June 1775, serving as a private, and was discharged in June 1778, according to his pension papers.  He married Eva Foust, then aged 15, on February 10, 1777.  The family moved to Nelson County, Kentucky.  They had eight children, including Jacob, who was born May 10, 1785 or 1786.  Eva died in 1792.

Daniel married his second wife, Elizabeth Newman, on March 15, 1794, in Nelson County, Kentucky.  They had seven children, including Thomas Foster, who was born in 1796.  Daniel died in 1838 in Edgar County, Illinois.  Elizabeth died in 1855.

Jacob married Elizabeth Ripple on 23 July 1808 in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.  She was born 29 Aug 1788.  Jacob and Elizabeth had nine children, including Benjamin Tolbert Rhoads, who was born 28 Dec 1815.

Jacob and Elizabeth remained in Kentucky until the 1820 when the moved to Edgar County, Illinois, along with Jacob’s half-brother, Thomas Foster.  Thomas Foster later became a Mormon, playing a major role in the migration of Mormons to Utah.

Jacob and Elizabeth’s son, Benjamin Tolbert “B.T.” married Miriam Tolen on 10 Jun 1838.  She had been born 3 May 1815 in Bath County KY.  They had nine children, and Sarah Catherine, their youngest daughter was born 8 Nov 1853.  She married Robert Daniel McConchie on 28 Nov 1873 in Edgar County.

B.T. died in1887 in Edgar County at the age of 71, and Mariam died in 1896 at the age of 81.