In 1901, brothers John and Joe Rhea purchased property from Capital Freehold Land Company, owners of the XIT Ranch, and later sold parcels of the land to farmers, establishing the Rhea Community. Many settlers, including a number of German immigrants, migrated here from the midwestern U.S. Early institutions included a post office, Immanuel Lutheran Church, which became one of the earliest of that denomination in the Texas panhandle when it organized in 1910, and a school. The schoolhouse also functioned as a community center until 1949, when the Rhea School District was divided into the Friona and Bovina districts. Today, Rhea remains a viable farming and ranching community.