Jonathan Rhode and Dorothy

The original picture hung over the bed in the front bedroom at the Rhode farm, and as a child I thought they looked scary. My mother had the original framed photos and she took them out and had a mirror put in the frame. I wondered why Dorothy Gray looked so unhappy. Jonathan had a slight smile on his face. He looked so much like my grandpa Charlie that I could relate to him, but not to stern-lipped Dorothy. I can imagine my grandmother coming to the farm as a very young bride of 18, being confronted with a mother-in-law who looked so forbidding.

Jonathan and Dorothy's first child, Rebecca Arvilla, was born. in Indiana. In 1856, they moved to a farm in Fremont County, Iowa, deeded to him by his father, Seymour Rhode. Their second child, Sarah (Sadie) was born in Iowa. Here is a transcription of a letter written in Iowa in 1857 by Dorothy Gray Rhode to her parents, William and Sarah Cobb Gray in Indiana. She talks about the trouble Jonathan Rhode was having with his eyes. I have always thought that he probably had Glaucoma. Jonathan and Dorothy returned from Iowa in l859 and they bought the land on the Warren-Benton County line in Western Indiana. This is a letter from Dorothy Gray Rhode to her Mother and father William and Sarah Gray attached to a letter from her brother Seymour.

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