RHODA MAY (1806-1889) is the stalwart spouse of the “talented, but erratic” Rev. Joseph Martin James (1791-1848). Rhoda withstood all transgressions, indignities, & social ostracism that her husband created with admirable Teutonic stoicism. When acute alcoholism took Joe’s life at age fifty-seven, Rhoda became a forty-two year old widow, left alone to raise nine children. For the next forty-one years… (more…)
