John Rhodes Chapter
Organized August 7, 1935
Luray, Virginia
"Fort Rhodes" or "Hope Farm" was the Shenandoah Valley home of the Swiss immigrant, the Reverend John Rhodes, his wife, and their eight children. In August of 1764, the last Indian outrage recorded in Page County was perpeturated when the family was brutally attacked by savages and massacred. John Rhodes, his wife and three sons were killed outright, one son and one daughter were killed on the mountain. One son was taken captive and went with the Indians to the Ohio country, returning three years later.
The oldest daughter, twelve year old Elizabeth, escaped with a sixteen month old sister by courageously running through a field of tall hemp to the home of her brother, Joseph, some twelve miles away. This brave deed is recorded in the writings of the historians, Samuel Kercheaval, John Wayland and Harry M Strickler. In 1924 a memorial of limestone, suitably inscribed, was unveiled on the garden site of the old Rhodes home.
The present Rhodes Fort was built about 1766 by John Rhodes II, a grandson of the massacred preacher. The original home was a typical pioneer log cabin atop a fireproof, fortified cellar in which there was a spring, ammunition and stores to resist Indian raids. The rebuilt structure is larger and has a fort-cellar with hand-hewn logs dove-tailed and chinked with mortar. It is said that this particular type of building is peculiar to Page County.
The members of the John Rhodes Chapter are proud to commemorate the heroic act of a fine pioneer family and to perpetuate, for all time, an honorable name.