Daniel E. Rhyne, who lived from 1852 to 1933, was a pioneer in North Carolina's textile industry. He built the Laboratory Cotton Mill on this site in 1885 and eventually amassed holdings in textiles, banking, mining, wagon building, and real estate. A devoted Lutheran, he made large contributions to many area churches and gave Lenoir College in Hickory its largest gift, which led to the college being renamed Lenoir-Rhyne College in 1923. In 1894 he built the Daniel E. Rhyne House, and in 1900 he purchased and moved to the Hoke-Rhyne House, built about 1844. He died on February 25, 1933, and was buried at Luthera Chapel Church in Gastonia, N.C. The Laboratory Historic District includes the Hoke-Rhyne House, built about 1844, the Laboratory Cotton Mill and its reservoir, built about 1887, and the Daniel E. Rhyne House, built about 1894, and it was also the former site of the Lincoln Cotton Factory, built about 1823, and the Confederate Laboratory, built about 1863.