Ending

Only having been damaged by the Great Flood, the mill continued under the ownership of D.E. Rhyne. When he died in February of 1933, since he had never married and had no children of his own, six of his nephews were elected as directors of his estate and the Laboratory and Lincoln Cotton Mills. W.W. Glenn was made manager of the two mills and they were incorporated as D.E. Rhyne Mills, Inc.

In 1937, Paul C. Rhyne, Sr. and his wife Agnes Mundy Rhyne bought a major interest.

In 1953 Johnathan Rhyne Sr., great nephew of D. E. Rhyne and son of Paul C. Rhyne Sr., returned to Laboratory from his work in Belmont to run the mill.

The mill continued to operate until closing in the late 1990s, when the Rhyne's donated the mill to Preservation North Carolina, an organization dedicated to preserving North Carolina's historical buildings. But, as you know, the ending was only temporary...