Sarah Jane Emmerson and Giles R. Rainwater

On 3 April 1831, Elizabeth Lawless Rainwater gave birth to her first son. She and husband John Rainwater named this child Welcome Giles Rainwater. Giles so hated this name that he for most of his life he used only Giles, eventually adding a middle R., which according to his descendants, didn’t stand for anything.

Giles had five siblings, two of whom, Squire and Mary, died in childhood, and three, Nancy, Susannah and George Alfred, who lived to adulthood. Like his father, Giles was a farmer, and in faith, a Methodist.

On 10 September 1861, Giles married Sarah Jane Emmerson. Together they had eight children: Tilitha, born 6 March 1863; Daniel Francis, born 26 April 1865, Matilda E. Rainwater, born 22 April 1867; Patsy J., born 12 November 1869 and died 18 January 1886; John Silas, born 21 April 1872; Milton Durham, born 18 May 1874; George Mitchell, born 22 May 1879; and Herbert F., born 16 July 1882.

Sarah Emmerson Rainwater died on 6 May 1911. Giles followed on 17 December 1920. The couple is buried in the graveyard of Mintonville Methodist Church in Casey Co., Kentucky.

Credits
Photo supplied by Hal Irving

© 2018 Susan Chance-Rainwater
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License