Rufus Randolph Rhodes

Rufus Randolph Rhodes (1818 – 1870) was born in Wilcox County, Alabama. Rhodes spent most of his life as an attorney in Mississippi. After serving a tenure in the United States Patent Office in Washington, D.C., he was appointed as first and only Commissioner of Confederate States Patents from 1861 to 1865 based in Richmond, Virginia.

Early life Rufus Rhodes was the first child born to Capt. Thomas Rhodes and his third wife, Jemima Williamson Rhodes, in Wilcox County, Alabama. His father was a US government land surveyor for the Louisiana Purchase who had left his wife, children, and home in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, to survey recently ceded Indian lands in south Mississippi and south Alabama. While there, he met Jemima, the daughter of wealthy planter, George Williamson, and the two were married.

His father was captain of engineers for Andrew Jackson. At an early age, Rufus moved with his family to Mobile, where Thomas Rhodes purchased a home prior to 1829. While in Mobile, Thomas Rhodes dabbled as an attorney, dealing mainly with estate settlements, but he began to set his sights on the richly timbered lands in nearby Jackson County, Mississippi.

The Rhodes family bought a summer house in East Pascagoula, Mississippi, in 1834. This site later became the site of the East Pascagoula Hotel opened there in 1836. The Rhodes family held a residence in Mobile, Alabama, but put down roots in Jackson County as early as 1840, and Rufus' father began operating a sawmill there. Rufus Rhodes later said that he had been a resident of Jackson County since about 1828.

Marriages Rufus Rhodes married Jane Myers in Jackson County, Mississippi on January 15, 1846. She was the daughter of William Myers, an early settler of Jackson County and inhabitant of Griffin Point in present-day Moss Point. Jane Rhodes died on March 19, 1852, aged 22 years, two months, and 13 days. Rufus and Jane Rhodes had two daughters.

Rufus married, second, Martha Anne Fisher and member of the Tennessee legislature from 1881 to 1882.

Education and career Rufus Rhodes was working as an attorney as early as 1846 when he applied for a position as District Attorney of Lauderdale County, Mississippi. He was listed as a lawyer in the 1850 Jackson County, Mississippi census and on Mississippi Law Registers of 1851, 1852, 1853, and 1856. In the January–February 1854 session of the Mississippi House of Representatives, Rufus served as a member-elect from Jackson County and brought forth ideas such as relinquishing a plot of land in Jackson County to the United States for the erection of a military asylum. He proposed the incorporation of Ocean Springs, Mississippi and connecting the Mississippi Gulf Coast by rail via New Orleans or Mobile. The latter passed in the later formation of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad.

Rufus Rhodes' home at East Pascagoula, Mississippi was burned by an arsonist during the night of August 27, 1856. The family barely escaped alive, and Rhodes' infant, Rufus Napoleon Rhodes, was badly burned when an ember ignited his night gown. About this time, Rufus accepted a position as an examiner in the United States Patent office in Washington, D. C. and moved there with his family after June, 1857. Soon after, he gained a seat on the Patent Office's Board of Appeals. appointed Rhodes as Commissioner of the Confederate States Patent Office in May 1861. The office was then in Montgomery, Alabama, but when the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia, a month later, Rhodes traveled there to set up the new office. Rufus Rhodes opened his patent office in Richmond's former Customs House building, which was shared with the offices of the Confederate War Department and the office of the Attorney General. The Patent office was located in the south front room on the third floor, and large room in the rear of the office was used for exhibition of models of inventions. During the war, Rufus served on committees that raised relief for the wounded soldiers of Mississippi and for the relief and aid of the exiled citizens of New Orleans.

Of the exiled citizens of New Orleans, one was Rhodes' sister, Mrs. Theodore Duval, and her family and also his father-in-law, Samuel Fisher. Rhodes wrote a letter to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus on March 12, 1863, on behalf of Mr. Fisher.

“My Dear Sir,” he began, “As an old friend I venture to invoke your services on behalf of my father-in-law Mr. Sam’l C. Fisher who is a fugitive from New Orleans where he resided and who is by the chance of war cut off from all of his resources. He has no funds or resources that he can now command and the necessity of procuring employment presses upon him with a sternness that admits of neither delay or escape. I ask you to find some employment for him as a favor I can never forget. You know well were our positions relatively the converse of what they are I would strain every nerve to serve a friend of yours, and I do not doubt that you will grant the favor I ask if it be within your powers. Mr. Fisher is an accomplished book keeper and business man generally and I am sure he would fill any place you might procure for him with ability. He desires to be as near to New Orleans as possible to increase the chances of occasionally hearing from his wife and children. His sons that are old enough to bear arms are in our army or already dead upon the field of Shiloh and hence he does not wish to come to Richmond where I could find a place for him. I take it that among all your kind friends I have troubled you as little if not less than any other and it appears to me therefore that I have some small right to ask you for this small favor." Rufus signed the letter, “Very faithfully & truly, your friend, Rufus R. Rhodes.”

As the war intensified, Rufus sent his wife Martha and their children to live at Cluster Springs, Virginia, away from the front lines. Rufus fled Richmond with the rest of the Confederate Government on April 2, 1865 ("Evacuation Sunday"). He was captured by Federal forces at Danville, Virginia, in May 1865 just as the war was drawing to a close.

Post War When the Civil War ended, Rufus signed an Oath of Allegiance to the United States on May 23, 1865, shortly after his capture at Danville. Due to his affiliation with the Confederate Government, Rhodes had to apply for amnesty and seek a presidential pardon. Rhodes went to Washington, D.C., and signed, on July 24, 1865, the oath prescribed by President Andrew Johnson's proclamation of May 29, 1865. While in Washington, Rhodes visited his old friend Charles Mason. The two had worked together in the Patent Office before the war. Mason wrote in his diary that day, "He [Rhodes] gives a sad account of the condition of things south." Rufus Rhodes received his pardon in September, 1865.

Rhodes returned briefly to Jackson County, Mississippi, but then moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, to practice law prior to April, 1866. In January, 1867, he and fifteen other men in New Orleans were allowed to resume their law practices after taking the Constitutional Oath. Rufus settled in as a patent attorney on the third floor of 23 Commercial Place in New Orleans. He held this position until his death, or at least as late as the summer of 1869.

Death Rufus Rhodes died of a stroke in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 16, 1870. Two weeks later, the Second District Judicial Court of Orleans Parish appointed Martha Rhodes, his widow, as executor to the estate. On December 5, 1870, all furniture and personal items belonging to Rufus at his 319 Second Street residence and his Commercial Place business office. The estate was valued at $8,830.30. Martha Rhodes moved her children to Clarksville, Tennessee, where she taught school for many years. Rufus Rhodes' son, Rufus Napoleon Rhodes, became the celebrated editor of the Birmingham Times.