Rains County
Emory, Rains County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Rains County Formed from Wood, Hopkins, Hunt and Van Zandt counties Created June 9, 1870 Organized December 1, 1870 Named in honor of Emory Rains 1800-1878 Member of the Texas Congress and Legislature Emory, the county seat
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Carved from four neighboring counties, Rains County was created in June 1870 and organized that December, part of the rapid subdivision of Texas as settlement spread across the state. It was named for Emory Rains (1800–1878), a veteran legislator who served in both the Congress of the Republic of Texas and the later state legislature. The county seat, Emory, also bears his name.
Why it matters
The county's founding reflects the westward march of American settlement and self-government that reshaped Texas in the decades surrounding the Civil War.
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Related people
- · Emory Rains
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Emory Rains
Emory, TX
Emory Rains was a Texas pioneer whose public life spanned three governments: he served as an alcalde under Mexican rule, helped mediate the violent Regulator–Moderator feud of the 1840s, and sat as a senator in the Congress of the Republic of Texas, where he helped pass an early Homestead Act. He was a delegate to the 1845 convention that brought Texas into the Union and later worked in the legislature to create the county that bears his name. Its seat, Emory, honors him as well.
Rains County Courthouse
Emory, TX
When the Texas Legislature carved Rains County from four neighbors in 1870, the little community of Springville was renamed Emory and chosen as county seat. Fire destroyed the first log courthouse, then gutted its brick successor in 1908 — though the steel records vault survived and became the literal core of the 1909 Classical Revival building that stands today. Built of distinctive "ginger" brick, the courthouse square has hosted speakers including Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson.
Rains County
Emory, TX
Among the earlier-settled parts of Texas, this area saw J. H. Hooker, its first known settler, build a grist mill on the Sabine River in the 1840s, with emigrants from the Old South arriving after 1840. The county itself was not organized until 1870, taking its name from pioneer legislator Emory Rains, who had represented the surrounding district in the 8th Legislature. Rains County is also celebrated as the birthplace of the Farmers Cooperative and Educational Union of America.
Ambrose Fitzgerald
Emory, TX
A Missourian by birth, Ambrose Fitzgerald settled in 1846 on land then part of Nacogdoches County, and as new counties were carved from it he became the first clerk for both Van Zandt and Wood counties. After serving in the Civil War he returned to hold nearly every clerical office in newly formed Rains County. A Baptist preacher as well as a public servant, he baptized James S. Hogg, who would go on to become governor of Texas.