Tommy Rinehart was never married, he worked all his life in the textile mills of the south. He had a speech impediment, perhaps a cleft palette, he could not pronounce the word "I". --Jeni

Translation of Text

#174 -- JTS RHYNEHART, Biltmore Hospital, Biltmore TWP, Buncombe Co., NC; male, white, unknown marital status, about 51 yrs old, parents unknown, died Nov 1, 1920 at 8:45am of "Depressed Fracture of Skull, Nocline? of Life? Ulna Ohbula? in R R accident" on Oct 31, 1920 - buried in Marshall, NC on Nov 1, 1920 by Noland Brown & Co, Asheville, NC - Informant: Mr Williams, Marion, NC
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Tommy Rinehart was born on Meadow Fork Creek in Madison County to John Rinehart & Elizabeth Jane Duckett Rinehart, the 6th child of 10 children. Tommy had a speech impediment, possibly a cleft palette as he could not pronounce the word "I"; the children used to tease him to try to get him to talk. Tommy never married, he worked all his life in the textile mills of South and North Carolina and drank quite a bit, he usually stayed with relatives. He was working in Spartanburg in 1913 where he was on the city directory, and he was staying with his nephew Thomas Garfield Rhinehart in Marion, NC & working in Cross Cotton Mill there when he was killed in the accident. Thomas G's wife Flossie said that Tommy was a strange sort of man, he was superstitious, he would not touch anything that had belonged to a dead person; When she took his hat & placed it on his deceased mother's sewing machine, she said he got so upset that she had to move it. Tommy also would not eat tomatoes, he believed they were poisonous (which many people of his generation also believed because tomatoes were first grown as a flower, not a vegetable, but unlike most people, if Flossie put tomatoes on the table, Tommy would get so upset he would leave the table).

On the night of the accident, Flossie said the men had been out drinking, a group left the bar in a car & were on their way to another town where a religious meeting was supposed to be held the next day. All of them were drunk, including the driver. Her husband Thomas G was in the car as well, and his brother Jeter Rinehart, the news article said there were 8 people in their car & 4 of them were killed, including a boy named Fred Condrey who was 9. Flossie said the men were on a winding road that went over & over the railroad track, and when they saw the train coming, they tried to outrun the train, with disastrous consequences. The news article of the accident says the train stopped after it hit the car & people on the train loaded up the injured & dead & took them to Biltmore Hospital where Tommy died the next day. Thomas G was also one of the injured, Flossie said her husband was close to death for several days. Jeter died as well.

Some people said Tommy was the father of Thomas Garfield, his nephew, but Flossie said it was not true. As far as I know, Tommy never had any children. Flossie showed me a copy of a school report card that Tommy had left at her house, it said he had been attending school in Newport, Cocke Co., TN and had learned to read & write. He was very proud of that.
--Jeni