Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 405 - 406 

JACOB C. RODKEY, one of the few octogenarians of the city of Wichita, ripe in honors as well as years, is now retired from the labors of a long and active life, and spending his declining days in the midst of ease and plenty at a handsome home on Douglas avenue.  He was born Oct. 19, 1806, in Huntingdon County, Pa.  His position, socially and financially, is the result of his own unaided  industry, coupled with the sound sense and excellent business capacity with which nature endowed him.  The history of a career more than ordinarily  interesting we give in brief as follows:

      Our subject is the son of John and Hester (Christian) Rodkey, natives respectively of Maryland and Pennsylvania.  The father, born in 1777, served as a soldier in the War of 1812 for a time, but subsequently paid a sum of money, and was released from military duty, and returned to his farm.  He was a man of great force of character, accumulated a comfortable property, and died when fifty-five years of age at his home in Huntingdon.  He possessed decided views upon Christianity and morality, and was a member in good standing of the  Lutheran Church.  The mother died in Miami County, Ohio.  Of the children born to John and Hester Rodkey, the record is as follows: Jacob C. of our sketch was the eldest born; Elizabeth and Annie are deceased; Susan; Samuel; David and John, deceased; Joseph, Margaret, Mary, and Jessie who died when about twenty-three years old.

      Jacob C., when about eighteen years of age, left the farm and commenced learning the tanner's trade, which he followed four years in his native State with excellent results.  He left Pennsylvania in 1845, and located in Darke County, Ohio, whence he removed to Indiana in 1849.  He had in the meantime followed tanning, but now became interested in the fur trade, and subsequently embarked in general merchandising at Middleport, which he continued until 1865, and thence he removed to Kokomo, Ind.  October of 1884 found him in the city of  Wichita, settled at his present home, and he has since lived retired.  Success followed his efforts here as elsewhere, and he wisely invested his surplus capital in additional land, and continues the owner of considerable real estate which is very valuable.  He has a half-section near Mulvane, in Sumner County, and property in Wellington, this State, besides eighty acres in Indiana, and his home in Wichita.  The latter, a model of comfort and convenience, comprises a  handsome and commodious dwelling, carriage barn, fruit trees, shrubbery, and all the surroundings indicative of cultivated tastes and ample means.    

     Mr. Rodkey, while a resident of Pennsylvania, was first married, in March, 1830, to Miss Sarah Hess, who was born in Huntingdon County, Pa., Feb. 17, 1809, and departed this life at her home in Indiana, in 1854.  Of this union there were born eight children, namely:  Mary A., Rebecca, Samuel, Hannah, David, John, Margaret and Sarah.  The second wife of our subject was Mrs. Lucinda Sliffer, who died Sept. 18, 1878, in Kokomo, Ind.;  they had no children.

      The present wife of our subject, to whom he was married Nov. 13, 1879, was formerly Mrs. Susan Bidleman, a native of Montgomery County, Ohio, and who was born June 15, 1824.  Mrs. Rodkey is the daughter of John and Jane (Maze) Hannaman, who were natives of Ohio.  Her father carried on farming there in Union County during the brief years of his life, and died in 1824, the same year of his daughter's birth.  The mother was born in 1809, and departed this life at her home in Dayton, Ohio, in 1879.

      Mr. Rodkey entertains a deep and abiding admiration for the principles of Masonry, and became identified with the fraternity in the State of Indiana as early as 1838, when he was received into Howard Lodge No. 93, at Kokomo.  He has not only officiated in all the offices of his lodge, but advanced to the Royal Arch degree.  He has always taken great pride in tracing the history of this organization which was founded centuries ago, and which has commanded the respect and attention of some of the best men who ever lived.

      The paternal grandparents of our subject were natives of Maryland, where the grandfather carried on farming and merchandising, and became very wealthy.  The great-grandfather was a native of one of the Rhine Provinces of Germany, and crossed the Atlantic when a boy ten years of age.  He located, it was believed, in Maryland, where he developed into manhood, married, and reared his family.

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