This
blog was established to present the history of the Imles. But interesting tales
sometimes require a detour to other connections. One of those detours involves
the Rhoads family, which was a major focus in our last blog. If you remember,
the Revolutionary veteran Daniel Rhoads had a great great granddaughter Olive Geisert,
who married my grandfather Adam Imle. And Daniel had a great great grandson
Lawrence Willington Rhoads, who married Bessie Maude Hanks, a relative of Abraham
Lincoln’s mother. Except she wasn’t.
Daniel Rhoads had other
interesting descendants, one of them his son Thomas Rhoads.
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Thomas Rhoads
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In 1835, while living in
Edgar County, Illinois, Thomas Rhoads converted to the Latter Day Saints Church. In May
1846, Thomas, his wife, a multitude of his children, and other Saints started out
to help look for spots for Mormon pioneers. This was a year before
Brigham Young left Nebraska on his trek to Utah, and was the month and year
that the Donner Party headed west from Independence, Missouri. Thomas and his
fellow travelers bypassed the Salt Lake, traveling all the way to California
and arriving in October. They made the journey without mishap. The Donner
Party, which was delayed by only a few weeks, did not.
Thomas and his eldest son
John were called on to help rescue the Donner party travelers. John headed the
first Donner relief expedition, an adventure worthy of much more than a blog.
Thomas settled in the
Sacramento Valley and was reportedly working for John Sutter in January 1848
when gold was discovered on Sutter's property. Thomas and other saints were
called to come to Salt Lake City and Thomas obeyed, leaving California in August,
1849. Thus, Thomas Rhoads returned in a direction opposite that being taken by
the "Forty Niners."
Though Thomas did not
participate in the California gold rush, he reportedly arrived in Salt Lake
City a rich man. He acquired a fine home and four wives. He also is believed to
have significantly helped finance the Deseret Mint.
In later years Thomas and
his son Caleb were said to have obtained large amounts of Indian gold from
abandoned Spanish gold mines in the Uinta Mountains. Apparently, Thomas, and
later Caleb, were assigned to collect gold from a Ute war chief, Wakara (called
"Walker" by white men), who had been converted to the LDS Church.
Whether true or not, the rumor has been the basis of many prospecting trips and
a number of books, including one coau by Thomas's great great grandson Gale R. Rhoades (his line adds an "e"), Footprints
in the Wilderness. The prices of Rhoads Mines books have skyrocketed due to buyers hoping
to discover the mines. A well-used paperback copy of Footprints cost me $140,
and my only interest was history, not fortune. Even though I was Gale's fourth cousin, once removed, I received no discount.
