Rhoda Stiles

Rhoda Stiles Willett

Rhoda was born in 1800. She died at the age of 88 on December 20th, 1888.

General Notes
- Rhoda was born in New Jersey and emmigrated to Kentucky with her family when she was 9 years old. She was named after Rhoda Stiles of New Jersey who married Ezekiel Munson. The family in New Jersey must have remained close to these emmigrants since she named one of her children "Munson".
  
  Rhoda married Griffeth Willett who came to Stiles, Ky from Pottinger's Station to woo her. He was a kinfolk of Lewis and Charles' wives, who were also Willetts. The two of them certainly prospered on their part of the Stiles land. In 1860 the census from that year shows that Griffeth and Rhoda had $4,000 worth of real estate and $15,000 of personal property. Still living at home with them was their son George and his daughter, Hannah. George had real estate valued at $8,000 and personal property worth $3200.00. Franklin and his wife, Elizabeth also were living at home with Griffeth and Rhoda and they had real estate worth $2000 and person property worth $4000.00. This was before the outbreak of the Civil War and a lot of that personal property was in slaves. The family had a total of 18 slaves between them. Losing the slaves meant that they not only lost the value of the slaves, they also lost the value of the real estate since they had no labor force to continue their farming operation.
  
  As evidence, in 1870, Griffeth and Rhoda, who had had $4000 in real estate and $15,000 in personal property just 10 years earlier, now had $2500 in real estate and only
  $1600 in personal property. Slavery seems onerous to us, but obviously was accepted by our ancestors.

Click here for details of Rhoda's family with Griffith Willett