Myles Andrew Julius Rhynes: Gaston County Poet, Minister, and Librarian
by Brian Brown with the Gaston County Public Library - Apr 6, 2021

Transcript from Video

The Reverend Myles Andrew Julius Rhynes once said about his life as a poet, “It’s a lonely and discouraging life.”

Described as hindered by a vocal handicap from taking a full time career path in the ministry, Rhynes still found many ways to earn a living. He was a minister, a poet, a public school teacher, a clothing salesman, and a Librarian.

The son of Dave Rhynes and Margarette Costner, Rhynes was born in Dallas, North Carolina, on October 22, 1885. He began writing poetry before he received his theological training at Shaw University, Raleigh, and spending one term as a student at Fayetteville State Teachers college. At age 19, he taught for one year as a rural school teacher in Clover, South Carolina.

After moving north, Reverend Rhynes, published a collection of poetry in 1914 titled “The Echoes of a Traveler’s Dream” which he dedicated to his mother Margarette L. Rhynes. While in Washington D.C., he served as a minister of Mount Carmel Baptist Church under the Reverend William Henry Jernagin in 1918.

Rhynes found creative ways to copyright his poems such as this 1916 broadside from the collection of Brown University Library. He printed his poem, The Prince of Ethiopia about Booker T. Washington, on 12 by 4 ribbons of silk cloth which he could then sell for 0.25 cents each.

Three of his other poems, including the “Voice of Ethiopia” and “Uncle Sam’s Battle Cry” were arranged to music. Rhynes 1920 poem titled “My Lord, Taker Me Home” would be set to music by Francis A. Clark, Black musician and composer from Philadelphia. Three years later, a performance of this spiritual by the Boston A.M.E. Zion Choir was broadcast on Boston radio station WNAC

Rhynes wrote a letter to scholar and civil rights pioneer, W. E. B. Du Bois, in 1926, requesting contact information for composers that could arrange music to Rhynes’ poems. Du Bois responded to this letter and copies of both letters are held in the Archives of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

After returning to Gaston County in 1931, Rhynes assisted the Pastor Ezekiel W. Burke of the Tabernacle Baptist church. Rhynes later volunteered as Library Director for the Gastonia Community Center which was located at 725 North Falls Street.

Bookmobile service started at this time for the African American community with the establishment of five book stations. The Reverend Rhynes was in charge of the newly inaugurated station at the Falls Street location.

According to the Gastonia Daily Gazette, the County Library’s bookmobile made its first stop of the year at the Falls Street Community Center library on Friday October 6, 1939. 141 books were left for school children and adults to check out as well as to read inside the center’s library.

Myles Rhynes moved to Fayetteville where he broadcast a weekly radio program Saturday mornings in June of 1948. His radio broadcast covered subjects including “Biblical and Christian Poetry.”
Featured in the “Fayetteville Personalities” section of the Carolinian of July 17, 1948, Myles Rhynes summarized the sacrifices he made devoting himself to a lifetime of writing poetry.

“Believe it or not, it’s not the pros nor the cons of life that concern me most. For mine I have chosen and prefer writing poetry for my hobby instead of courtship or matrimony. In fact, the chief concern of my whole being has been to learn more about God, nature and the finer things of life.”
Reverend Myles Andrew Julius Rhynes

“Notwithstanding, I am handicapped in more than one way, like most struggling writers. At the same time beating against the tide for the want of a soul mate; howbeit, the climax of my ambition in the literary world has never been reached, however, I can say thank God for the art that sets the lever of my thoughts in action to write verse out of the red blood of my heart’s mind as I dip my pen in the fountain of hope.”
Reverend Myles Andrew Julius Rhynes