MARION COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES

"R"

RAINEY, Jefferson Rogers - Well known in the East Texas area as a rancher and banking affiliate, Jefferson Rogers Rainey owned and operated a two thousand acre estate in Fannin County and also, served as president of the Rogers National Bank in Jefferson.

Mr Rogers was born in Jefferson on February 12, 1886, the son of the late wright and Ida Rogers Rainey. Wright Rainey, a native of Clarksville, Texas, was one of the early cattle raisers in Tom Green County, Texas, and owner of X.Q.Z. Rancy for fifty years. He was also identified with the banking field in Greenville, Jefferson and Bonham. He was the son of Stephen Decatur Rainey, a native of Georgia. After Texas was made a state, he settled in Jefferson, Texas, where he married Mary Jane Russell of Jefferson City, Texas. He departed this life in 1916, at the age of 67 years. Ida Rogers Rainey was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson Rogers, who established the present Rogers National Bank in 1896. This institution was first known as T J Rogers and Son, bankers, and was nationalized in 1904, with Mr Rogers as president, which post he held until his death. He was succeeded in the presidency by his son-in-law, H A Spellings, and upon the latter's death in July 1935, Jefferson Rogers Rainey, grandson of Mr Rogers, became the third president that this bank had in the first 42 years of its existence.

Jefferson Rogers Rainey attended the public and high schools at Bonham, and later enrolled at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College, being a member of the class of 1905. For the next fourteen months he served as a cowhand on a ranch in Tom Green County, and then became associated with the First National Bank at Longview, remaining as assistant cashier for a period of six years. He then purchased his large ranch on Red River in Fannin County, and operated this tract, having about five hundred acres in cultivation, the remaining fifteen hundred acres being used as pasture land. Mr Rainey maintained his banking interests, having served as cashier of the Fannin County National Bank at Bonham from 1923 to 1929, and then taking over the presidency of his late grandfather's bank in Jefferson in 1935.

Mr Rainey was a member of the Baptist church, a loyal Democrat, an active member of the Rotary Club, and an affiliate of Lodge No. 13, Free and Accepted Masons at Bonham, Bonham Commandery, Knights Templar, and Hella Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Dallas.

He was married in 1908 to Annie Bob Brown of Longview, daughter of R G and Flora Crutcher Brown, and descended from old Virginia Stock who settled Texas before the Civil War. Mr and Mrs Rainey were the parents of four children: (1) Ida Lee, a graduate of CIA at Denton and a teacher at Longview, Texas; (2) Bobbie, wife of C R Sublett of Tyler, Tx; (3) Virginia, attended the University of Texas; (4) J Rogers Jr.

HOME             Bios Index

This page was last update: Monday, 19-September-2005 20:25:00 CST

This page is a part of the Marion County, TXGenWeb project and all of the information here is FREE for you to use:

The Marion County, TXGenWeb site

http://www.txgenweb4.org/txmarion/