Canton, Van Zandt County
(September 18, 1839 - August 2, 1906) Born in Georgia, Raines came to Texas in 1858. After serving in Gen. R. M. Gano's Texas Cavalry Regiment in the Civil War, he was a teacher in New Braunfels and a lawyer in Canton. Van Zandt County Judge from 1876 to 1878, he played a major role in the infamous County Seat War of 1877. He published newspapers at Wills Point, Mineola, and Quitman. In Quitman he became Wood County Judge and was appointed State Librarian in 1891 by his friend, Governor James Stephen Hogg. Raines rebuilt the neglected state library and began its invaluable collection of Texana from 1895 to 1899 and again from 1899 until his death. (1998)