My Genealogy Hound

James O. Bain, planter and merchant, Portland, Ark. Mr. Bain, a gentleman possessed of progressive ideas and tendencies regarding the management, and conduct of a farm and one well posted in the business affairs of the community, was born in Alabama, on February 28, 1852. His parents, S. S. and Artemisia (Wilkins) Bain, were natives also of that State, and their two children, both now living, are residents of Ashley County. The mother died in 1854 and the father received his final summons in 1872. James O. Bain became thoroughly familiar with farm life at an early age. He received a common-school education and attained his growth in Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, and emigrated to this State in 1869, beginning work for himself on his father’s home place. In 1882 he began farming on the bayou, in Union Township, and three years later he purchased goods and opened a plantation store carrying a stock of goods valued at $2,200, but which has since been increased to $5,000, and his annual sales amount to $15,000. He is a very popular business man, and his intelligence and enterprise, have acquired for him a popularity not derived from any factitious circumstance, but a permanent and spontaneous tribute to his merit. Mr. Bain was married on December 1, 1887, to Mrs. Bettie B. Lindsey, nee Hollaway, and they are the parents of one child, a son. Mr. Bain is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and is a Democrat. He and wife are members of the Methodist Church.