James Rainey (1814-bef 1870), Our 3rd Great-grandfather

 Woodboat crew by George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879)

Why would our 3rd great-grandfather James Rainey (1814 KY - bef 1870 Pike Co., IN) migrate with his family from Pulaski County, Kentucky, north to southern Indiana in the early 1850s? I've asked myself over and over. Why not Missouri, easier to travel to than Indiana?

Pulaski County, Kentucky

I realize now that James was born in Pulaski County in 1814, the son of James Rainey, Sr., who had married Martha Parham in 1800 in Sussex County, Virginia, and settled with his family in Pulaski County before 1810. James had been farming in Pulaski County since his marriage to Millie (given name possibly Milla) Roberts (c1810-after1880) twenty years earlier in 1832. No doubt his land had given out, the yields of corn and grain less than in previous years, barely enough to feed his large family, the hogs and milk cow.  It had never been good land, not like the rich bluegrass of middle Kentucky, already widely settled. Hilly country, too, along the Cumberland, easily eroded.

Cumberland River showing Cumberland Falls upriver from where James Rainey lived

Buck Creek now used for recreation

I'd imagined James and his family isolated on their farm in Kentucky, but that wasn't true. His farm lay on the banks of Buck Creek, a sizable stream a short canter away from the town of Somerset. The Cumberland River flowed nearby, navigable to within six miles of Somerset by small steamboats plowing upstream from Nashville in the spring when the river was high. Any tobacco James raised was easily shipped downstream to Nashville.

Steamboat on the Cumberland with a load of hogsheads of tobacco.

Having been born there, James stayed longer than most men who'd tried farming in Pulaski County. Each ten-year-census reflected the surrounding land sub-divided and sold to newcomers, but these fiddle-footed neighbors soon departed - except for his father-in-law, John Roberts, who farmed nearby.

Surrounded by sons and daughters and their families, by 1850 Roberts was pushing 80 and wife Jane was 72. James' wife Millie must have chafed when contemplating leaving her old parents, knowing she'd never see them again. But their boys' futures had to be considered. In 1850 Millie was about 33 or 40 - illiterate and never quite certain of her age when the census taker came around - and James was 36. Also illiterate, but he knew his birth year, but apparently not where he was born. They were young enough to start over James told her. The boys would soon be grown. Absolom, named for her brother, was 15; James 13, Larkin 11 and Sarah 10. Cynthy Ann was 8, Everett 6, Serena 5 and Elizabeth 3. Melvina would be born in 1852. James didn't value his farm at much in 1850 - only $200 - but he owned it outright. His father-in-law valued his real property at $8,000.00. How he arrived at that figure is questionable because he possessed no slaves. Perhaps the census taker meant $800.

James and his family planned to depart before spring planting, hoping to plant a crop when they found land up north. They would not be journeying alone.  James had convinced his brother-in-law, John Roberts, Jr. (1803-before1860), to come along. John was married to Matilda Raney (1800-before 1870). James and his sister-in-law Matilda might have thought themselves distant cousins, but she appears to have come out of an unrelated line of Raneys, who settled in Pulaski County. Our family has no DNA matches with descendants of that Raney family. Besides James Rainey and John Roberts, Jr., their nephew Sebern, son of James Roberts, just turned 20, was eager to join them. He would marry in Indiana, produce children, join the Union cause and, at age 31, be killed at the Battle of Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on December 31, 1862.

They would journey by either steamboat or flatboat down the winding Cumberland to Nashville, Tennessee; then float the river back into Kentucky until reaching the Ohio River. If they took livestock, it's more likely they went by flatboat or keelboat.

The rivers united early America, allowing for communication and commerce. James would know that crops raised in southern Indiana and Illinois were shipped all the way to New Orleans. In  an old description of early White River Township and nearby Hazelton, in southern Indiana near the Ohio River,  I read:

Numerous cargoes of corn, wheat and pork were shipped from Hazelton every week. New Orleans was then the best market for farm products raised at that date, around Hazelton. The highway of travel was via the Patoka. Wabash. Ohio and Mississippi rivers and five or six weeks were required to make the round trip. A complement of five men was the usual number required with each boat. And it was no trouble to get hands, as many young men were anxious to make the trip and would do it for little pay.

It took 16 days to pole from the Ohio River up the Cumberland to Nashville, more days if the flatboat went on to Somerset, "all hands walking their boat into the current for hours on end, shoulders braced against heavy poles and feet treadmilling from bow to stern down a cleated gangway - or else going over the side to drag her through the shallows at the end of a cordelle." Ibid.

Keelboat floating downstream

So, it was in the spring of 1851 or maybe 1852, our little band of Kentucky families had an easy time floating the Cumberland downstream on leased flatboats with crew provided until reaching Smithland, Kentucky, and the Ohio River.

Where the Cumberland meets the Ohio River

They might simply have crossed the Ohio River to land on the Illinois shore and then, with livestock and goods, moved north overland through Illinois. Perhaps they tarried in Saline County, Illinois, and here's why. 

Saline County, Illinois

The Robert Evans family, also from Pulaski County, possibly traveled north with them, but put down roots in Saline County, Illinois. James' and Millie's son Larkin Rainey (b1838) either married daughter Mary Allen (b.1835), although I haven't located a marriage license, or got her pregnant without nuptials, because in April 1852, Mary Allen gave birth to his son, George F. Rainey, but died shortly thereafter. Whatever the circumstance, Larkin went on to Pike County, Indiana, but baby George Rainey was reared by his Evans family in Saline County. In the 1860 census, when George was nine, his birth was listed as 1851 in Kentucky. Later, he claimed Tennessee and a birth date of 1853 . . . so, who really knows?

We do know the Rainey family was in Monroe Township, Pike County, Indiana by the summer of 1853, because oldest son Absalom Rainey married Mary Ann Riddle there in September.

Pike County, Indiana

James Rainey was there for the 1860 census, his land valued at $250 (probably what he paid for it), his personal property valued at $350 (livestock, tools, furniture). Although in the the 1850 census he told the census taker he was born in Kentucky, this time he claimed Virginia as his birth place, which made my search for our male family line confusing.  He died before the 1870 census. I've been unable to find any information on the year or cause of his death. His widow, our third great-grandmother Millie Roberts Rainey, continued to farm with the help of her children. In the 1870 census the census taker listed her real estate value at $800 and her personal wealth at $400. She still had daughters Susan (16), Cynthia (14), Elizabeth (10) and Melvina (7) living with her. The daughters had been to school. In the 1880 census, Millie was living with daughter Melvina Rainey Hanover and her family in Pike County, and had suffered a stroke . . . "struck with thunder" the census taker wrote. She must have died shortly thereafter.

Jolly Flatboatman by George Caleb Bingham (1846)

To honor the journey the Rainey family took, which allowed us to be born, we'll end with the song The Boatman's Dance, by Old Cremona, a minstrel song credited to Dan Emmitt in 1843. A celebration of the Ohio River boatmen, bawdy and wily, recognizable by its repeated cry, "Hey, ho, the boatman row, floatin' down the river on the Ohio." HERE

Aaron Copland arranged a modern version the song in 1950. Here is a lovely version, in which you can better understand the lyrics, sung by Thomas Hampson.  HERE