(This information was in a file on Rains at TSLA, many years ago. DOC 2014)
TSLA Manuscript
Section, Ac. No. 958; Moore B29, f5.
Gen. James E. Rains, was born April 10, 1833, and
graduated from Yale Law School at the age of 21 years. Practiced
law in Nashville and was elected in 1860 District Attorney
General for Davidson, Williamson and Sumner Counties. Generals
in Gray by Ezra Warner, p. 250. Apparently was not married at
the time of his death.
Rev. John Rains
was the son of John Rains Of Maysville, Ky
and grandson of Cornelius Rains and Mary Kenton Rains. (See the
"Fauquier County, Virginia, Genealogy Homepage"
web page at
http://www.future1.com/~burgess/fqva.htm), sub site List of
41
persons leaving Fauquier to go to Mason Co. KY.) Even though his
son, General James E. Rains, was a Confederate, Rev. John
Rains
remained loyal to the Union.
Details of the
Cornelius Rains family are found in the
Draper Manuscripts and have been abstracted from a section
dealing with the Simon Kenton family. TSL&A, Accession No. 29,
Lyman Copeland Draper Papers-Wisconsin Historical Society
Microfilmed Manuscripts, Series: S, Volume: 21, #122, #126,
#139,
#142, #143:
Tennesse State Library and Archives
Lyman Draper Papers
Microfilm Accession # 29
Reel 50, Series S, Vol. 19-23
Vol. 21-Frame 122
(This information is not an exact quote. I just abstracted enough to have a better
idea of Rev. John's family.)
Mrs. Mary
Bennington, daughter (& only surviving child)
of Cornelius
& Mary Kenton Rains was born in Fauquier
County, Virginia,
May 10, 1783 and was brought the same
year to KY. Her mother, Mary Rains died in Fleming
County, KY about
1803 and her father 2 or 3 years later
at Maysville, KY.
Vol. 21, #126
Children of
Cornelius Rains:
1. John Rains (8 years or more older than my
informant
Mary
Bennington). Lived at Maysville,
KY. Had a son
John, now aged
and long a Methodist preacher near
Nashville,
TN. His son is Confederate Gen. James E.
Rains. Father remained devoted to the Union.
2. Wm Rains - his sons were Alex. & John,
daughter
Elizabeth wife of
John Anderson of Ohio. Lived
adjoining
Aberdeen, Ohio
3. Benj. never married
4. James settled near Danville, Ky
5. Simon another son of Cornelius
6. Frances married Joh Lucas
7. Catherine
Vol. 21, #139
Informant John
Rains of Aberdeen, Ohio, born 30 October
1796 near Kenton's Station, Ky. His father Wm Rains
was born 22
November 1763 and died adjoining Aberdeen
Ohio, 30 January
1937. Wm's wife was Jane Edwards born
22 Nov 1768 and
died 10 July 1859.
Vol. 21, #142
Wm Rains (father
of John above) served under
Washington, was
at capture of Cornwallis.
Vol. 21, #143
Cornelius Rains
was a native of Ireland. (It appears
John Rains, son
of Wm is his informant on this.)
Per the Nov. 14,
1964 DAR application, Nat. No. 506733, of
Mrs. Juliette Ewing Pressing, born 10/25/1893, The 800, Apt.
304,
800 South Fourth, Louisville, KY her ancestor, James Rains
was
born about March 1757, served in the Virginia line as a
private
in the company of Capt. Grant of the Regiment commanded by
Col.
William Grayson for a term of 3 years, from 1777 -1780, died
in
Boyle County on March 20, 1846. Danville, the county seat of
Boyle County, is about 30 miles southwest of Lexington. He
married Nancy Owens, born in 1764 in Virginia, in Lincoln
County,
KY on 7/14/1784.
Lincoln County is on the southeast side of
Boyle and is pretty much due south from Lexington and its
county
seat Stanford is about 35 miles south of Lexington. He was
living in Mercer County, KY when he was granted a pension on
Dec.
20, 1830. Mercer
County is the next county north of Boyle
County, county seat Harrodsburg. She listed 10 children of James
Rains and Nancy (Owens) Rains including a Cornelius Rains,
but
none of them married an Allen.
*******************************
Subj: Re: Rains
query in Davidson Co., Tn
Date: 8/16/1998
To: VUnruh@Bellsouth dot Net
In a message dated 8/16/1998 5:17:32 PM Central Daylight
Time, VUnruh@****dot Net writes:
<< Debie, I am working with a Rev. John Rains,
Methodist minister
(1796-1879). Unsure of his father, although his mother
(Nancy) died in
1848 in
Cincinnati. Rev. John married Lucinda
Cartwright and had a
large family. Do you know if he is a descendant of one of
the Rains
brothers you
mention? He was the father of General
James E. Rains,
CSA. Thank you. >>
As far as I know at this point Rev. John Rains and my Capt.
John Rains are not related.
I have searched through my files on the computer and have
come up with a little on Rev. John. I
know I found more in the W. A. Provine papers at the TN State Library and
Archives. Just never got around it typing it up. When I have time I will dig through my Rains
stuff and see if I can find more. This
should get you started.
Debie
**********
This website has information on the Rains and or Kenton
family:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~daisy/trek.htm
http://www.rootsweb.com/~daisy/kenton.htm
http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/arts/sos/simonkenton.html
http://www.foryou.net/~ccpaohio/simon kenton2.html
See the W.A. Provine papers, TSL&A for more information
on this family. Also see the Lyman
Draper papers concerning the Kenton and Rains families in KY.
Provine states there werefour brothers, James Rains, b.
1757, died 1846 near Danville, Boyle County,
Ky, Will Bk I:58; Simon Kenton Rains; Benjamin Rains and John Rains, who
m. Nancy Edwards.
Rev. John Rains,
a Methodist minister, was born in Maysville,
Mason County, Kentucky on May 2, 1796 (May 27 per Provine)
and died
on July 4, 1879 at the age of 83 years. Rev. Rains and his wife,
Lucinda, are both buried in the City Cemetery. Rev. Rains married
Lucinda Cartwright Sept. 10, 1824.
Rev. John had an
obituary written by David McFerrin in the
Methodist Christian Advocate: He had 15 children. Was the son of
John Rains and Nancy Edwards. His oldest son Capt. John Rains died
in Confederate service.
Another son was Dr. T. B. Rains of
Columbia, Tennessee.
Dr. Rains is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in
Columbia, Tennessee.
His tombstone is labeled: Dr. T.
B. Rains,
Surgeon.
John B. McFerrin, a
Biography,
(1889) by O. P. Fitzgerald.
The son of Rev. John Rains and Lucinda, James
E. Rains, became the editor of the Republican Banner: "March 15,
1857, the paper was enlarged, and soon after James E. Raines
became
connected with it as editor.
He withdrew March 12, 1858, . . ."
(Clayton's History of Davidson County, (1971 reprint), p.
472). He
was one of the seven men born in Nashville that gained the
rank of
general in the Confederate army. He fought mostly in East
Tennessee and was killed at the Battle of Murfreesboro on
January
_____, 1863. (History of Davidson County, (1971 reprint), p.
172).
His body was taken to the Harding house where General
Cheatham saw
it and reportedly "wept openly." He was buried in the Currin vault
in the Nashville City Cemetery (Nashville Union, January 8,
1863)
and removed to Mt. Olivet in 1888.
There is a
biographical sketch of Gen. J. E. Rains in
Tennessee, the Volunteer State, Vol. 2, edited by John
Trotwood
Moore, page 216:
James Edward Rains
was born in Nashville, Tennessee in
April, 1833. He was graduated at Yale in 1854 and then
studied law. In 1858 he became city attorney of
Nashville, and in
1860 Attorney-General for his judicial
district. He was a Whig, but when the war began in
1861,
he was elected
Colonel of the Eleventh Tennessee
Infantry. The greater part of his service was in East
Tennessee, where in
the winter of 1861-62 he commanded
the garrison at
Cumberland Gap. The efficient service
rendered by him in
the movements in East Tennessee was
rewarded by a
commission of Brigadier-General on November
4, 1862. He took part in the Battle of Murfreesboro
where he was killed
while gallantly leading his men
against a Federal
battery.
