My Genealogy Hound

Robert W. Rains, a leading farmer of Jonesboro Township, resides on his well-improved farm three miles north of Jonesboro. His parents were natives of Tennessee, in which State he was born August 27, 1847. His father, Hugh G. Rains, came to Craighead County, Ark. in the year 1871, locating in Powell Township on a farm of 270 acres, 100 of which are improved, and resided there until his death in 1872. He was a Mason and was buried with Masonic honors. In his political convictions, he espoused the cause of the Democratic party. He was married to Margaret A. McCarns, who still resides on the old homestead; and of this union fourteen children were the issue, of whom the following reached their majority: Sarah, Cathaline, Robert W., John M., Neal B., James F., Alantha C., Margaret E. and Margaret Ann and Lucinda J. (twins). Robert W. Rains was reared in Tennessee, and was there married November 6, 1866, to Margaret E. Stiles, a native of Tennessee, whose parents were Evan and Polly Stiles, the latter deceased, the former still residing in Tennessee. He lived with his father for two years, then bought a farm near Herndon and remained there for the same period. Then he bought eighty acres of land near his mother, and after three years there, went back to Tennessee for a year. Returning to Arkansas, he engaged in the saw and grist-mill business in Powell Township for two years. He then bought his present farm of 120 acres, and on this and his farm of 128 acres has about sixty under cultivation. Mr. Rains has been married three times, his second wife was Margaret M. Albright, and his present wife who is a pious lady and a member of the Methodist Church, South, was Eugenia O. Grigsby. Mr. Rains has had five children: Lee Etta, Cicero D., Margaret E., Ida C. (deceased) and Kenneth W. He is a Mason, and a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, has always been a Democrat in politics, and was elected in 1888 justice of the peace of Jonesboro Township.