University of Virginia Library

SAMUEL THOMAS RHODES

The subject of this sketch was born in Pascagoula,
Mississippi, February 6th, 1861, and is a son of Judge
Rufus R. Rhodes and Martha (Fisher) Rhodes.

Prior to the Civil War
Judge Rhodes was on the
Supreme Bench
in Louisiana and was appointed
Commissioner
of Patents for the Confederate
Government
during the war.

Martha Fisher
Rhodes came from a
distinguished
North Carolina family.
Samuel Thomas Rhodes
was educated at the
Southwestern Presbyterian
University, at
Clarksville, Tennessee,
and for a few years was
a cotton planter in his
native state.

He has been engaged in the life insurance business
for a great many years, being a graduate of an Actuarial
School; he is familiar with every branch of its most intricate
details from a scientific as well as agency standpoint.
He was Manager for the New York Life
Insurance Company for a number of years, and the
territory under his control showed the greatest volume
of business per capita, with less expense in securing
business per thousand, and the highest percentage in
active producing agents, in the Western Hemisphere.
He resigned his position with the New York Life to
take the management of the National Life Insurance
Company, whose home office is at Montpelier, Vermont.
His office is the only, strictly speaking, branch
office maintained in Roanoke by any company where
money is loaned and settlements made on policies for
the company.

Samuel Thomas Rhodes accepted the managership
of the National Life Insurance Company in 1904, when
the company was but little known in this section, with
practically no agency representation, but his agency,
to-day, stands fifth in the United States in production,
and is continuously increasing.

This wonderful showing has been brought about by
untiring energy, honesty, and sound business methods.

In May, 1909, the Company appointed Samuel
Bertram Rhodes, son of Samuel Thomas Rhodes, as
Manager with his father and the firm name was changed
to Samuel T. Rhodes &
Son. He was only
twenty-three years of
age at the time of his
appointment and was
the youngest manager
ever appointed by the
National Life Insurance
Company, and is to-day
the youngest manager
under contract with the
Company.

Like his father, his
information about Life
Insurance is accurate
and comprehensive, and
the experience he obtained
in the field and
Comptroller's Department,
fitted him well to
fill the responsible position he now holds.

Both members of the firm are wide-awake, active
business men, with a host of warm personal friends.

In 1882 Samuel Thomas Rhodes was married to
Nannie C Nugent, daughter of Major Richard R.
Nugent and Virginia (Geubarre) Nugent, his wife being
a grand-niece of the late Jefferson Davis, President of
the Southern Confederacy. Two children were born
to this union, Samuel Bertram Rhodes and Katherine
Nugent Rhodes. Mrs. Rhodes died September 23d,
1895. Samuel Thomas Rhodes was again married June
28th, 1898, to Louise V. Keller, daughter of Theodore
Keller and Aimee (Vellotte) Keller of New Orleans.

Mr. Rhodes is a member of Christ's Episcopal Church
and was for a number of years a vestryman of same.