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From:
Subject: [RAINS] North Carolina Rainses
Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 13:25:49 EDT


Please excuse my out of sequence responses. My comments are coming
several days late because of a busy work week, and I am responding to several
different posts to the list.

<< Date: Tue, 1 May 2001 15:51 EDT
From:
To:

Vergil, here is more:

I quote [from Katherine Buck's book]:
"There were 3 early John Rains in North Carolina. The John Rains who served
in the Cont. Line during the Rev. War received Land Grant No. 5 in 1782, for
640 acres on Brown Creek on Cumberland River. By 1790, he was gone from
North Carolina. It appears he later settled in West Virginia. . . " >>

The above quote has only a little bit of truth in it and it is
misleading. The Capt. John Rains who received a preemption grant No. 5 on
Brown's Creek was in NC, but it was the part of NC that became Tennessee in
1796. His land was centered where the Tennessee State Fairgrounds are
located in Nashville Tennessee.

Capt. John Rains, the Longhunter, was not in the Continental Line and he
never fought against the British. He was a legendary Indian fighter and
fought against the Indians who were sometimes being paid and supplied arms by
both the British and the Spanish. During the Rev. War era, the men who
fought in battles such as these were not considered Rev. War veterans, but
they are today considered Rev. War veterans by the DAR. This Capt. John
Rains was the son of John Rains and Barbara Goulden, who in 1735 settled near
Brookes Run in what later became southeastern Culpeper Co. I suspect came
from Caroline Co.

Capt. John Rains lived out his days in Nashville dying at the ripe old
age of 91 years on March 26, 1834, probably at his home on top of the hill at
Rains Avenue. There is a historical marker where his home once stood.

Off the top of my head, there was a John Rains in West Virginia, and
again, off the top of my head, he was probably descended from the Rainses who
were early settlers in Rockingham Co., Virginia. Melva Wheelwright is the
expert on these Rainses.

Eva, you did not fail in attaching John R. Ranes' will. RootsWeb tries
to not allow attachments and you are not supposed send or be able to send
attachments to any RootsWeb list. If this could be done, the viruses could
be sent through posts to the list.

I am confused by someone's statement that the existence of Anthony and
John Ranes in John R. Ranes' Fairfax Co., Va. will tends to suggest that the
Anthony and John who arrived in Randolph Co., NC in 1772 may not have in fact
been brothers. I may have missed a post. Is there any evidence that any of
the four sons of John R. Ranes of Fairfax, Anthony, John, Newman and Baley
migrated to North Carolina?

I posted a copy of the will of Henry Rains, [Sr.], the large landholder
of Caroline Co., to this list several months ago. It does clarify that the
brothers who migrated from Caroline Co., Va. to Randolph Co., NC were not the
children of Henry Rains. Henry's will was dated December 27, 1766 and was
probated on February 12, 1767 in Caroline County. The key portion of the
will is as follows:

". . . equally divided between all my children viz: my sons John Rains,
Henry Rains, Ambros Rains, & Ignatious Rains & my daughters Oliviah Pearce,
Mary Duval, & Cordeliah Perry & their heirs for ever.

Rains researcher, Gary Raines, made a statement several years ago that Henry
Rains, Sr. of Caroline Co. had another son, William. However William was not
mentioned in the will. The pension application of William Rains, R-8561,
reportedly identifies William as a brother to Henry Rains, Jr. of Hardin Co.,
Kentucky, born in Caroline Co., Va. I have not seen this pension application
myself.

The earliest Rains that I have been able to find in the area that later
became Caroline Co. was a mysterious John Reins in 1707 who lived in the
vicinity of Goldenvale Creek in northern Caroline County a few miles south of
the Spotsylvania border. (Goldenvale Creek is the modern spelling, but it
was "originally" written as Goulden Vale Creek in 1665.) Henry Rains, Sr.'s
first land purchase was in what became Caroline Co. was in 1716. Henry
Rains, Sr. also lived near Goulden Vale Creek. This John Reins would seem to
have been old enough to have been either an older brother or the father of
Henry Rains, Sr. The circumstantial evidence of proximity in a sparsely
settled place is not clear proof of a kinship, but I think it is likely that
they were related.

Cleve Weathers
Nashville



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