Ritchie County, West Virginia Biography of John L. RYMER This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 54 JOHN L. RYMER is one of the leading merchants of the thriving village of Auburn, Ritchie County, where he is also vice president of the Auburn Exchange Bank, one of the substantial and well ordered financial institutions of the county. He was born in Gilmer County, this state, December 17, 1869, and is a son of W. W. and Phoebe J. (Patton) Rymer, the former of whom was born in Highland County, Virginia, in 1840, and the latter of whom was born in what is now Gilmer County, West Virginia, in 1850. The father was reared and educated in what is now West Virginia, his parents having first settled in Lewis County and later having removed to Gilmer County, where he was reared to maturity. After his marriage W. W. Rymer settled on a farm near Auburn, Ritchie County, and he is now one of the venerable and honored citizens of Gilmer County. He has been a man of productive industry and has been loyal to all civic duties and responsibilities, his political faith being that of the democratic party. Of the six children the subject of this review is the eldest; N. E. is serving, in 1921, as county clerk of Gilmer County; Miss Mary S. remains at the parental home; Howard E. is deceased; Dosia L. is the wife of Albert West, of Glenville, Gilmer County; and William I. has active management of the home farm of his parents. While the activities of the old homestead farm made demands upon much of the time and attention of John L. Rymer in the period of his boyhood and early youth, he did not fail to profit also by the advantages offered in the public I schools, besides which he later took a course in the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg. In his independent career Mr. Rymer has continued his appreciative alliance with farm industry, and is now the owner of a well improved farm of seventy-five acres near Auburn. He has conducted a well equipped general merchandise store at Auburn since the year 1910, and is one of the progressive merchants and loyal and liberal citizens of this village. He is a stanch democrat, and is past chancellor of Auburn Lodge No. 47, Knights of Pythias, his wife being a member of the Pythian Sisters and also an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1914 Mr. Rymer wedded Miss Dell S. Sommerville, of Auburn, she being a native of Ritchie County. Mrs. Rymer graduated from the Mountain State Business College, and in 1912-13 she served with marked ability as cashier of the Auburn Exchange Bank, she having been at that time the only woman bank cashier in West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Rymer have no children.