The name of D. P. Rhodes is distinguished among those who have contributed to the prosperity of Cleveland by the development of its coal and iron interests. For many years he has labored to build up the coal and iron trade of the city, on which its future mainly depends, and has met with a success which has benefitted the public in a far greater degree than it has enriched himself, although he has had nothing to complain of in that respect.

Mr. Rhodes was born in Sudbury, Rutland county, Vermont. His father dying when the boy was but five years old, he was compelled to work for his own living, riding horse for his neighbors whilst they plowed corn, digging potatoes and picking apples for every tenth bushel, and doing other odd jobs. When he was fifteen years old his mother married again and he lived with his stepfather till twenty-one. His stepfather, being rich, offered him a farm if he would stay with him, but he was bent on seeing the West before accepting the farm, and so set out westward. Whilst in the West he became engaged to be married, and before marriage he visited his home, when his stepfather offered him half his property if he would return there and live. The papers were made out but were not to be executed till he had consulted his affianced. To do this he returned to the West. As he traveled by canal he had abundant time to consider the matter, and the more he thought of it the more he became sick of the idea. Things were too circumscribed down east to suit his taste. He said nothing of the matter to his affianced, but wrote home that he was not coming; and to this day he has never seen occasion to regret his decision, but has been confirmed in its wisdom. To use his own expression: "By Jupiter, I would rather live west, if I did'nt live half as long."

Mr. Rhodes became early interested in the coal business, his first enterprise being in company with Messrs. Tod and Ford, in 1845, at the old Briar Hill mines, from which they raised and shipped by canal about fifty tons per week. This was considered a good business. In two or three years business increased to a hundred tons daily. In 1846, another mine was opened in Girard. This was followed by the Clover Hill mine in the Tuscarawas Valley, previous to the opening of which the firm was changed by the death of Mr. Ford. The next opened was the Clinton mines in the Tuscarawas Valley. Then a mine in Fairview, Wayne county, which was the last large transaction with Gov. Tod as partner. In about 1855, Tod and Rhodes dissolved partnership, Mr. Rhodes taking Clover Hill, and Gov. Tod all the rest of the interests.

Whilst developing his coal interests, Mr. Rhodes made important discoveries of iron ore, the first being veins of black band ore, very similar to the English and Scotch, though richer. The veins of this ore in Tuscarawas are from five to fifteen feet thick. He also discovered and worked a vein of mountain ore that will also run from five to fifteen feet thick, and is easily mined, one miner being able to mine twenty tons per day after the earth has been removed. Mr. Rhodes spent several months in the ore fields of Scotland and England in 1868, and found the veins there not over two feet in thickness.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, D. P. Rhodes]

In the Tuscarawas Valley property, Mr. Rhodes has found seven veins of coal, five of which are very good, and he has worked the whole of them. There is also as good fire-clay as any yet discovered, the finest grade being pure sandstone, which stands fire as hearthstones in furnaces better than any other. Shell ore, block ore, and limestone also exist in abundance. The iron enterprises in which Mr. Rhodes is interested are the Tuscarawas Iron Company, formed about 1864, of which Mr. Rhodes is president. This company have three or four thousand acres of mineral land in the Tuscarawas Valley, and the works have a capacity of a hundred and fifty tons per week; also the Dover Rolling Mill Company, of which Mr. Baker is president. It makes all sizes of merchant and small T rail iron, having a capacity of about fifteen tons per day.

He is largely interested in a mining company near Massillon, having three engines and three openings there, and can mine a thousand tons of coal per day as soon as the road from Massillon to Clinton is completed. This will be the shortest coal bearing road,--for blast furnace coal--to Cleveland, by fifteen miles, for it connects with the Cleveland, Zanesville and Cincinnati Railroad at Clinton, thence to Cleveland by Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad at Hudson. A company was formed and sunk some eight hundred or nine hundred feet, within three miles of Canal Dover, on the line of this company, and found salt water of the very best quality, the water itself being almost strong enough to preserve meat. There is coal within twenty rods of the wells at ninety cents per ton, whereas in Syracuse and Saginaw they have to use wood, at a cost (at the former place) of seven dollars per cord. Mr. Cass, President of the Fort Wayne Railroad, and J. N. McCullough, of the same and of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, are heavily interested in the road connections adverted to above.

At Fulton, three miles below Clinton, is another coal company in which Mr. Rhodes is interested. This mine yields about three hundred tons per day, and could double that amount if there were sufficient transportation. There are two engines and two openings at this bank.

Mr. Rhodes is also interested in three mines at Marseilles, Willmington and Braceville, Illinois. He has taken a hearty interest in all improvements, and especially in the matter of railroads. He was interested in building the Northern Division of the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad, and was on the executive committee.

D. P. Rhodes and H. S. Stevens built the West Side street railroad, and equipped it. He was also largely interested in building and equipping the Rocky River railroad. He is also interested in the Cleveland and Zanesville railroad project.

Dr. Upson, of Talmadge, and Messrs. Philpot and Camp were in the coal business when Mr. Rhodes commenced, and they have all disappeared. They only then received about one boat load of fifty tons per week by canal, whereas, the firm of Rhodes & Co. now handle from ninety thousand to one hundred thousand tons per year.

Mr. Rhodes has built his docks in this city, two of them are the largest on the line of the river. About seven hundred men are employed on works in which he is heavily interested, but nothing troubles him. He says: "If the men don't dig the coal or iron, they don't get paid for it, so I take it easy, and am giving my attention to farming. I have a stock farm of five hundred and forty-four and a half acres at Ravenna that I run myself, and I have another of eighty acres adjacent to the city, rented for gardening, and still another of twenty-six and a half acres, out on the Detroit road where I intend to build me a home to live and die in, if I do not die away from home." He is now only fifty-three years old, hale and hearty, and seemingly good for another score or two of years.

He has four children, the oldest and youngest being daughters. The oldest is the wife of M. A. Hanna, of the firm of Rhodes & Co. The oldest son, Robert, is a member of the same firm; the other son, James, has just returned from a long visit to the mineral fields of Europe and attending lectures on metallurgy and mining. By his observation and studies he has acquired an extensive knowledge of the old world and the modes of working mines. The youngest daughter, Fanny, is at school at Batavia, New York.

In 1867, Mr. D. P. Rhodes and J. F. Card being tired of the sale department of their coal business, and having immense interest in mines that required close attention, gave up their sale business in Cleveland to Rhodes & Co., a firm consisting of G. H. Warmington, M. A. Hanna, and Robert R. Rhodes, who are receiving and selling both coal and iron, the same as the old firm.

The sales of coal by the firm for the past two years amounted to one hundred thousand tons per year; together with a large trade in pig iron and ore. The Willson Bank and Massillon and also Briar Hill grades of coal are principally handled by this firm, who are also operators largely in the Pennsylvania anthracites.

The ores passing through Cleveland to supply the manufactories of the Mahoning Valley are from Lake Superior and Canada; the Canada ores forming quite an extensive item. The firm keep for sale many varieties of pig iron, the most considerable being that of the Tuscarawas iron, but including also the Lake Superior and Salisbury irons.

The business of the firm averages one million dollars per year, and extends through the entire chain of lakes, having agencies at Chicago and Milwaukee, and also on Lake Superior ports. The Chicago trade is steadily increasing, for which there are two or three good reasons, to wit: The city is growing very rapidly; the Illinois coals are very inferior to those of Ohio, and the local demand for the product of the Illinois coal fields is very large, owing to the scarcity of wood.