This information was found in the vertical files of the Genealogy Department of the Longview Public Library.

THE AVINGER CITIZEN
Special Historical Edition
June 18, 1954

The Rhyne family hails from in and around Gadsden, N.C. Many descendents of the original German ancestor who emigrated to Pa. from Germany about 1700, still reside in this area.

The local branch of the Rhyne family came to Texas by wagon train. This trip took six weeks. In the company were the Cloningers, Limeburgers, Fites, Goodsons, and Abernathys. This was in 1860. The late A.M. (Bud) Rhyne, well known local businessman, large landowner and manufacturer, before and after the turn of the century, was five years old at the time. The writer recalls hearing him tell about crossing the Mississippi in a wagon placed aboard a primitive, makeshift ferry.

Jake Rhyne, A.M. Rhyne's father, first settled at Young's chapel. Later he moved to what was known as the old Lawrence place, located about 3 miles due east of Avinger. A typhoid fever epidemic broke out causing him to move a mile closer in to town to what later became known as the Bruce place, on old Linden road. It was there that he died two years later, of typhoid fever. His first and second wives were Cloningers; when his first wife died he married her sister.

A.M. Rhyne married Miss Margaret Edwards. To this union was born one child, a daughter, who later became Mrs. A.V. Simpson. In the spring of 1883, Margaret Rhyne came down with typhoid during the severe epidemic that also claimed the lives of Jake Rhyne, his daughter Alice, age 19, a son Charlie, age 16, and the mother, Mrs. Jake Rhyne. Miss Alice Rhyne was the first person buried in the present Avinger Cemetery in 1877.

The first A.M. Rhyne home, where Mrs Simpson was reared, was located on the old Linden road about 1/2 mile east of the present low-rent housing project. Mr. Rhyne at one time operated an old fashioned mule driven cotton gin at this location. Mrs. Simpson says she also recalls a Methodist Church being located about 300 yards toward town from the gin and homeplace.

The old Rhyne house was still there until about 1928 at which time it was destroyed by fire one hot summer day. The Pete Goulden family was living in it at the time.

In about 1902, Mr. Rhyne moved into town and built the large house that used to stand in the triangle just east of the R.H. Poole duplex. Many boys of yesteryear remember the fun that was to be had on Sunday afternoons playing in the two huge barns with silos, etc. behind this house.

One of Mr. Rhyne's later cotton gins located just north of the old Lingold mill site, was completely destroyed by the tornado of 1921. This gin was built back on the same location and later moved to downtown Avinger.

One of the largest mercantile establishments in Avinger for years was A.M. Rhyne & Company, A. Rhyne and Hall partnership from 1906 until the latter's death in 1921. It continued to operate under the name of A.M. Rhyne until June 1940. From about 1900 until 1927, business was transacted in a large wooden building where the post office now stands. This building, along with an ajoining warehouse, burned to the ground at 1 AM one night in October of 1927.

After the fire, A.M. Rhyne & Company reopened for business in a building formerly used by themselves as a potato curing plant. They remained at this site, Depot street, next to the railroad track until their final move to the brick building now occupied by Daniel's Cleaners.

Mr. Rhyne died in June 1940. The business, which had been under the management of A.V. Simpson for a number of years, continued to operate until 1941 at which time the stock and fixtures were sold to J.K. Alford Grocery and Market.

Descendents of this pioneer area builder and developer still living are; a daughter Mrs. A.V. Simpson of Avinger; three grandchildren, Rhyne Simpson of Avinger, Roland Simpson of Lubbock, and Mrs. Jack Salmon of Avinger; five great grandchildren, Phil and Mike Simpson, sons of the Rhyne Simpsons, Johnnie and D'Anne, son and daughter of the Roland Simpsons and William Jack and Mary Louise Salmon.

A direct descendent of Perry D. Rhyne, a brother of Jake Rhyne who came to Texas in 1860 with the same wagon train is John Rhyne, his son of the Pruitt Lake Community. Children of John Rhyne are; Odell, Perry, Herman, Adeline and Myrtie of Hughes Springs and the Pruitt Lake Community.