1822-1901
Guide to the Collection
Restrictions on Access
The bulk of the M. M. Rhodes & Sons records are stored offsite and must be requested at least two business days in advance via Portal1791. Researchers needing more than six items from offsite storage should provide additional advance notice. If you have questions about requesting materials from offsite storage, please contact the reference desk at 617-646-0532 or reference@masshist.org.
Abstract
This collection consists of the records of M. M. Rhodes & Sons, a button manufacturing company in Taunton, Mass., primarily financial volumes dating from the 1870s and 1880s. The collection also contains miscellaneous unrelated volumes.
Historical Sketch
M. M. Rhodes & Sons was a button manufacturing company in Taunton, Mass. founded in 1861 by Marcus Morton Rhodes (1822-1916). The company manufactured various types of buttons and related items, including shoe buttons, shoelaces, hoop skirt trimmings, and lining nails, but it was best known for its papier-mâché shoe buttons, made with a machine designed and patented by Rhodes. Rhodes invented a variety of new products over his years with the business.
Two of Rhodes' sons, Charles Marcus Rhodes (1846-1926) and George Holbrook Rhodes (1848-1916), joined the business in 1872, and a third son, Albert Clinton Rhodes (1857-1926), joined in 1888, the same year the company was incorporated. M. M. Rhodes & Sons was in operation until 2014 and stayed in the Rhodes family for its entire existence. The old factory buildings, located at 12 Porter Street in Taunton, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Collection Description
The M. M. Rhodes & Sons records consist of 30 volumes in three record cartons (stored offsite) and one oversize box (stored onsite). Twenty of the volumes are financial records of the company dating from the 1870s and 1880s, including two volumes of pay accounts kept by George Holbrook Rhodes, three sales books, six journals, three ledgers, two cashbooks, and four income and expenses books. The collection also contains ten apparently unrelated volumes: two grocer/dry goods cashbooks, unidentified indexes, a private journal and sermon possibly kept by John Lowell of Concord and Hartland, accounts of Cephas Stodder of Preston, Conn., and a bound volume of issues of the Boston Weekly Gazette.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Cliff Devine, 1980.
Restrictions on Access
The bulk of the M. M. Rhodes & Sons records are stored offsite and must be requested at least two business days in advance via Portal1791. Researchers needing more than six items from offsite storage should provide additional advance notice. If you have questions about requesting materials from offsite storage, please contact the reference desk at 617-646-0532 or reference@masshist.org.
Detailed Description of the Collection
[George H. Rhodes] pay accounts for piece work, 1871–1877
Included are accounts for lining nails, heads and linings, hoop skirt buttons, non-extension slides, hoop skirt linings and heads, glazier points and hoop skirt buttons, hoop skirt trimmings, sticking, packing, shoe buttons, and blanks.
George H. Rhodes pay accounts for piece work, 1878-1885
Included are accounts for shoe buttons, shaving buttons, shavers, blanks, picking over buttons, and picking over blanks.
M. M. Rhodes & Sons sales, 1871-1881
M. M. Rhodes & Sons journal, Jan. 1877–Jan. 1879
Ledger, Jan. 1877–June 1882
M. M. Rhodes & Sons journal, Jan. 1879–Feb. 1881
M. M. Rhodes & Sons cashbook, Nov. 1879–July 1882
M. M. Rhodes & Sons journal, Jan. 1881–July 1882
Volume "D," income and expenses, Jan. 1882–June 1884
Journal, 1882
Journal, Jan. 1882–June 1884
Ledger, 1882
Cashbook, Taunton, Jan. 1882–Nov. 1884
M. M. Rhodes & Sons sales, Jan. 1882–May 1888
M. M. Rhodes & Sons sales, Jan. 1883–Feb. 1886
M. M. Rhodes & Sons journal, Taunton, July 1883–Nov. 1884
Income and expenses, Taunton, July 1884–Oct. 1885
Ledger, Dec. 1884-Oct. 1886
Income and expenses, Nov. 1885–Apr. 1887
Income and expenses, May 1887–Dec. 1888
Grocer/dry goods cashbook, July 1834–Mar. 1836
Stored onsite at Ms. N-2577 (OS).NOTE: This item is dated earlier than M. M. Rhodes & Sons existed.
Grocer/dry goods cashbook, Volume B, 5 Oct. 1844–5 Feb. 1846
NOTE: This item is dated earlier than M. M. Rhodes & Sons existed.
Unidentified index, [1894-1895]
Unidentified index, undated
Some pages of this volume are missing.
Unidentified index, undated
Unidentified index, undated
[John Lowell?] private journal, Concord, 1839-1868
Included is a record of preaching, 10 Nov. 1839–3 May 1868; funerals, 26 June 1855–28 June 1856; and marriages, 10 June-12 Oct. 1855.
[John Lowell?] sermon, No. 189, Hartland, 5 Sep. 1843
This volume was kept by the same person who kept Vol. 27 above.
Cephas Stodder accounts (various), Preston, Conn., 1822-1869
The last page of the volume contains a list of the siblings and children of Cephas Stodder (1784-1869), with birth dates. He later had more children from his second marriage (to Clarissa Pride, 1803-1881) in 1844.
Boston Weekly Gazette, 8 Sep. 1838–31 Aug. 1839
Stored onsite at Ms. N-2577 (OS).The following names are written on the inside cover: L. Hanson and George P. Hatch.
Testimonial certificate to John O. Spicer from the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, 21 Dec. 1901
Stored onsite at Ms. N-2577 (OS).Preferred Citation
M. M. Rhodes & Sons records, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Access Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.
Persons:
Subjects:
Materials Removed from the Collection
Printed material from this collection has been removed and cataloged separately. Photographs have been removed to the MHS Photo Archives. Artifacts have been removed to the MHS Artifacts Collection.