Benjamin J. H. Gaines
SOURCE: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889
Contributed by Michael Brown
18 Oct 1998
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SEBASTIAN CO
page 1317
Benjamin J. H. Gaines, ex-judge of the county court of Sebastian County,
[p.1317] Ark., is a native of Rhea County, East Tenn., and was born in 1817.
His father, James S. Gaines, was of Welsh descent, and was born in Culpeper
County, Va., in 1767. He was married in his native State to Miss Judith Easley,
and after a short residence in North Carolina returned to Virginia, and in
1800 moved to Rhea County, Tenn., and in 1820 took up his abode in Southern
Alabama, where he died two years later. His wife was born in Virginia, and also
died in 1822. Benjamin J. H. is the youngest of their thirteen children, and
was only five years old when his parents died. From that time until he was
sixteen years of age he resided with his brother, John S. Gaines, and then
became salesman in a store in Knoxville, Tenn., but at the end of one year
returned to Southern Alabama, and engaged in pedagoguing, and also did some
clerking in the courts. From 1839 to 1840 he taught school in the “Lone Star”
State, and at the latter date returned to Alabama, and was married in 1848 to
Miss Sallie Inge, who was born in Fayetteville, Lincoln Co., Tenn., in 1827,
by whom he became the father of four children: Helen, wife of J. L. Duke, a
jeweler of Fayetteville, Ark.; Thomas W., a merchant; Marshall S., a merchant,
of Greenwood, Ark.; and John H., who clerks for his brother, Marshall. In 1849
Mr. Gaines was elected clerk of Sumter County, Ala., but the following year
the law was changed and he was deprived of his office. At the same time,
however, he was elected probate judge of the same county, serving in this
capacity six years. In 1856 he moved to Monroe County, Tenn., and in 1859 took
up his residence in Fayetteville, Ark., for the purpose of educating his
children. He had commenced the study of law in 1848, and the following year was
admitted to the bar, practicing his profession in Fayetteville until 1880,
when he became a citizen of Greenwood, Ark. Two years later he was elected
judge of Sebastian County, being re-elected in 1884 and 1886. He has always
rendered his decisions with judicial fairness, and has made a capable and
popular public officer. Previous to the late lamentable war he was a Whig in
politics, but since that conflict has been a supporter of Democratic
principles. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. His wife belongs to the Christian Church. His son, Marshall S.
Gaines, a prosperous young merchant, of Greenwood, Ark., was born in Monroe
County, Tenn., in 1857, and was educated in the schools of Fayetteville, Ark.
At the age of sixteen years he began clerking in a store in Fayetteville,
continuing four years, and then engaged in merchandising on his own
responsibility in Greenwood, and in 1883 formed a partnership with Thomas E.
Little, and the firm was known as Little & Gaines. In December, 1887, they
dissolved partnership by mutual consent, and the firm has since been known as
M. S. Gaines & Co. Their stock, which is valued at $15,000, is the largest
stock of general merchandise in Greenwood, and is bringing in Mr. Gaines a
handsome annual income. He is a man of sterling worth and of exceptionably
good business qualifications, and commands the confidence and esteem of the
citizens of the county. May 25, 1877, he was married to Miss Rebecca A.
Hodgins, who was born in Mississippi in 1861, and died on March 20, 1887,
having borne a family of four children: J. Bennie, Edmund P., Bessie and
Helen. September 9, 1888, Mr. Gaines married Miss Sallie Whitworth, a native
of Texas. He is a Democrat, and has been a member of the school board of
Greenwood for six years; is a Master Mason, a K. of H., and he and wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.