Thomas Jefferson Rhyno (1899)

RHYNO

Posted By: Pat Hochstetler
Date: 5/23/2009 at 20:26:21

The Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, October 26, 1899
Page 8

Madison County Pioneer Gone

T. J. Rhyno, of South township, died at his home last Saturday after a very tedious sickness. He was about 76 years of age, and one of the early settlers of this county. He was born at Richmond, Va., but came north when comperatively young. He has always been an exemplary citizen, and has been an important factor in the development of this county.
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The Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, October 26, 1899
Page 8

St. Charles

Uncle Jeff Rhyno, who has been a patient but intense sufferer for about the last twenty-two months past, was finally released from pain and weariness on last Saturday evening, and on Monday his remains were followed to the cemetery at Peru and laid by the side of those of his wife who passed away a few years ago. Mr. Rhyno came to South township at an early date and by his energy and great business ability, became one of the substantial and well respected farmers and stockmen of the country, and aided materially in developing this section of Iowa. His days of usefulness has passed and none but good words can be said of his past life.
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Winterset Reporter
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, October 26, 1899
Page 10

Truro

Died, October 22d, at the home of Jeff Rhyno Jr., Uncle Jeff Rhyno, after a lingering illness with paralysis. The funeral services were held at the house Monday at 11 o’clock, and he was laid to rest by the side of his wife in the Peru cemetery.
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The Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, November 2, 1899
Page 8
Elm Grove

Mr. Jeff Rhyno, who has been bedfast for nearly two years, died October 21, and was buried on the 23d at Peru.
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The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Friday, October 27, 1899
Page 3, Column 4

Jeff Rhyno Dead

Jeff Rhyno, one of the pioneers of Madison county, died at his home in South township, Saturday. Mrs. Rhyno was one of the first settlers of the county and entered the farm on which he died. he has been in feeble health for years and last year sustained an accident from which he could not recover.

he was a brother of James Rhyno and has two or three sons living in the south part of the county.

The funeral which occurred at the old homestead Monday was largely attended by friends from all parts of the county. The body was interred in the Peru cemetery.
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The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Friday, November 17, 1899
Page 1, Column 3

Obituary

Died October 22, at the home of “Jeff” Rhyno, “Uncle Jeff” Rhyno, after a lingering illness of paralysis.

The above is a brief but truthful notice of the death of one of Madison county’s pioneers. The announcement, while not altogether unexpected, came as a shock to me and occasioned sincere regret. Although he lived to a ripe age yet the world seems more lonesome, now that he is gone.

T. J. Rhyno was one of the brave, determined, self-sacrificing men, now rapidly passing away, who blazed the path of advancing civilization on the prairies of Iowa, fifty years ago.

He with others, found Iowa, a wilderness and left it foremost among the states in the upper Mississippi valley.

Born in 1822, and the beautiful mountain town of Whytheville, Virginia, of humble parentage and inured to poverty and hardship, he learned a lesson of self-denial, little dreamed of by this generation. Southwestern Virginia those days, grew men of courage, dauntlessness and valor, who in years to come were to cover themselves with glory on many sanguinary fields.

As the custom in those days in Virginia, poor boys were apprenticed to a trade, which he soon mastered, but his energy was not to be circumscribed by a treadmill, and he soon abandoned it forever.

At the age of 17, he came with his widowed mother and her little children to Fayette county, Ohio, where he lived until his marriage with Sarah Draper in 1848, when he soon thereafter came to Madison county, Iowa and settled on the farm where he died. This was in 1850. South township in those days was a dreary waste, whose inhabitants could almost be numbered on the fingers of a man’s hand.

Poverty had sat by his cradle and want had dogged his footsteps. With an energy born of despair, he, in this strange and lonely region commenced life anew.

Aided by his wife and a small boy, a nephew, who drove six yoke of cattle while he held the plow, the Valley near where his house now stands soon blossomed like a rose. From this humble beginning, he rapidly and legitimately acquired property and at his death was the owner of almost 1000 acres of land.

He bought and shipped the first live stock that ever left the county and for more than twenty years was without a peer in that vocation.

No blood money was ever tracked to his door. He never in any way sought to take advantage of his position and oppress the poor. His dealings with man were frank, manly and undisguised. He despised shams and humbugs and possessed a judgment in the practical affairs of life as unerring as fate. This sympathies were easily enlisted in behalf of the oppressed and persecuted and when once aroused, he literally slept on the trail. He took no part in the “hue and cry”, that swept most men off their feet, but demanded that you make your own case.

He had a heart as tender as a woman’s and his love and fondness for children and dumb brutes, was not surpassed by the author of “Rab and his friends”.

Thirty years ago, when he came to our house, it was always a holiday for the children.

More than a year ago, he fell and received an injury that doubtless super induced the malady which carried him away. He was 77 years of age. The machinery was worn out and simply broke down. The old residents, who from far and near in that locality followed him to his grave, attested the esteem in which he was held by those who knew him best.

The intelligence of his death will awaken tender and tearful regret, where ever he was known and leaves behind him a memory as fragrant as the flowers, which will be spread upon his grave.

Humbly I place this Garland upon his tomb. J. T. R.

Gravesite
 

Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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