comments

I don't know why, but I can't get any comments to show up on my blogs. If any of you have an asnwer to this problem, please email me at drains1@carolina.rr.com. Thank you so much.

Cats & Dogs

5 years ago, I spent $6000 for an operation on my old dog Nicky, to remove a tumor from his stomach. He lived a year after that. 3 years ago, I spent $9000 on my cat Sunshine. She is still alive and doing well. Last evening my minature poodle Koko was attacked and dreadfully harmed by a vicious german shepard. Koko is in intensive care at the emergency veteranary hospital. I pray to God he can recover,  regardless of the  cost, because he is my best dog and companion.

Comments

It seems Blogger has been having problems with the comments. Not just mine, but everyones. They are working to fix it. If you have comments right now, leave them on FB.

Apparitions

I am seeking stories from folks who have seen ghosts or other weird things. I have been told by some of my family that they have seen our dead mother. I would like to experience that, also. Please, if you have any such stories, post them on my blog.

Rains family

I suppose that most of the family knows our history, but I am posting some info., just in case someone might like it. We descend as follows: Henry Rains, Esquire, 1720-1789, and Ann Cross Blackwell; John Rains, 1742-1772, and Mary Ingram; Henry Rains, 1767-1838, and Martha Patsy Lane; Needham Lee Rains, 1802-1849, and Nancy Turner; William Ballenger Rains, 1835-1917, and Sarah Turner; William Preston Rains, 1872-1949, and Cordelia Turner; Second wife, Nancy Simpson; William McKinley Rains, 1900-1984, and Nancy Sikes, 1909-1973. NOTE: William Preston Rains and Cordelia Turner  had the following chidren: Nilia Rains, William  M. Rains, Ernest Rains, Josh Rains, Clarence "Toots" Rains; Amanda, Cordelia, Betsy, Margaret, and several other daughters. By Nancy  Simpson he had Joe Rains, Walter Rains, Otis Rains, Eugene Rains, and some daughters whose names I don't know. My father and mother had thirteen children,  of which two died when very young.

Contracts

I included some items of law that might be of interest to the average layman. Some contracts are for mortgages, car purchases, credit cards. You must ALWAYS read the fine print, and remember that the spoken word means nothing. Sometimes you think you have a legal case and it turns out to be an arbitration case.

Contracts, in order to be legal, must have the following components:
Agreement, which means both an offer and an acceptance of the offer; Consideration, which means payment;Capacity, which means you must be of legal age and mentally competent, legal, which means the contract must be for something that is legal. Many contracts have language that is so exculpable as to be unenforceable in most courts or arbitration forums. Exculpable means that one party is trying give himself rights the other party doesn't have. The concept that all  contracts are a two way street must be interpreted equally between both parties.

Res Gestae

Again, I posted this to let people know about some of the law that normally only lawyers know.

What is Res Gestae?

Res gestae (a Latin phrase meaning "things done") is an exception to the rule against Hearsay evidence. Res gestae is based on the belief that because certain statements are made naturally, spontaneously and without deliberation during the course of an event, they leave little room for misunderstanding/misinterpretation upon hearing by someone else (i.e. by the witness who will later repeat the statement to the court) and thus the courts believe that such statements carry a high degree of credibility. Statements which can be admitted into evidence as Res gestae fall into three headings:

Words or phrases which either form part of, or explain, a physical act,

1. Exclamations which are so spontaneous as to belie concoction, and
2. Statements which are evidence as to someone's state of mind.

(In some jurisdictions the Res gestae exception has also been used to admit police sketches.)

The following scenario is an example of types one and two:

Imagine then a young woman standing on the side of a main road (the witness). She sees some commotion across the street. On the opposite side of the road to her she sees an old man shout 'The bank is being robbed!' as a young man runs out of a building and away down the street. The old man is never found (so can't appear in court and repeat what he said) but the woman repeats what she heard him say. Such a statement would be considered trustworthy for the purpose of admission as evidence because the statement was made concurrently with the event and there is little chance that the witness repeating the hearsay could have misunderstood its meaning or the speaker's intentions.

Res gestae is also used to refer to those facts or things done which form the basis or gravamen for a legal action.

Argumentation

ARGUMENTATION

Argumentation comes down to us from the Greek philosophers, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and many others such as St. Augustine. Argumentation has three root parts that are inseparable. They are:

1. Rhetoric. The art of speaking to an audience with the goal of winning them to your viewpoint. Rhetoric is how we communicate knowledge. It must not be empty bombast, or phrases that don’t mean anything, but facts geared to prove your point or argument to the audience. Those facts must be presented clearly and in plain language, easily understood.
2. Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of discovering the available means of persuasion in a given case.” All young men who wanted to enter government service or politics had to be schooled in rhetoric. Consider Cicero, Rome’s greatest rhetorician, who wrote on philosophy.
3. Logic.  Reasoning is logic, which may be formal logic, such as in mathematics and science, or informal logic, which doesn’t have a degree of certainty. It’s not mathematical in precision and may reflect the argument we are making. It is the close cousin of argumentation itself.
4. Dialectic. Though there are many differing ideas about dialectic, such as Karl Marx’s great dialectic about communism versus capitalism, the true meaning of the term is simply discovering and testing knowledge through a series of questions and answers. When you are cross-examining someone on the witness stand, you are engaging in dialectic. Any conversation that is critical and has people thinking about answers, such as between employer and employee, or husband and wife or parent and child, is using dialectical methodology.

We use argumentation every day in our dealings with family and co-workers. The art is in using it wisely, without sounding like a “know it all,” or pedantic.

Advocacy

Forms of advocacy

There are several forms of advocacy, which each represent a different approach in the way change is brought into society. One of the most popular forms is social justice advocacy.

Although it is true, the initial definition does not encompass the notions of power relations, people’s participation and a vision of a just society that is promoted by social justice advocates. For them, advocacy represents the series of actions taken and issues highlighted to change the “what is” into a “what should be”, considering that this “what should be” is a more decent and a more just society. Those actions, which vary with the political, economical and social environment in which they are conducted, have several points in common. They do the following:

question the way policy is administered

participate in the agenda setting as they raise significant issues
• target political systems “because those systems are not responding to people’s needs,” especially in the mental health areas.
• are inclusive and engaging
• propose policy solutions
• open up space for public argumentation.

Some of the other forms of advocacy include:

• Mass advocacy: is any type of action taken by large groups (petitions, demonstrations, etc.)
• Interest-group advocacy: lobbying is the main tool used by interests groups doing mass advocacy. It is a form of action that does not always succeed at influencing political decision-makers as it requires resources and organization to be effective.
• Bureaucratic advocacy: people considered “experts” have more chance to succeed at presenting their issues to decision-makers. They use bureaucratic advocacy to influence the agenda, however at a slower pace.
• Legislative advocacy: legislative advocacy is the “reliance on the state or federal legislative process” as part of a strategy to create change.(Loue, Lloyd and O’Shea, 2003)
• Media advocacy: is “the strategic use of the mass media as a resource to advance a social or public policy initiative” (Jernigan and Wright, 1996.) In Canada for example, the Manitoba Public Insurance campaigns illustrate how media advocacy was used to fight alcohol and tobacco-related health issues. We can also consider the role of health advocacy and the media in “the enactment of municipal smoking bylaws in Canada between 1970 and 1995.” (Asbridge, 2004)
• In a legal/law context: An 'advocate' is the title of a specific person who is authorized/appointed (in some way) to speak on behalf of a person in a legal process.
• In a political context: An 'advocacy group' is an organized collection of people who seek to influence political decisions and policy, without seeking election to public office. NAMI is an advocacy group.
• In a social care context: Both terms (and more specific ones such as 'independent advocacy') are used in the UK in the context of a network of interconnected organizations and projects which seek to benefit people who are in difficulty (primarily in the context of disability and mental health).
• In the context of inclusion: Citizen Advocacy organizations (citizen advocacy programs) seek to cause benefit by reconnecting people who have become isolated. Their practice was defined in two key documents: CAPE, and Learning from Citizen Advocacy Programs.
•  
• Today, advocacy groups contribute to democracy in many ways.

 They have five key functions:

• Give a voice to (misrepresented) citizen interests such as the mentally and physically disabled
• Mobilize citizens to participate in the democratic process
• Support the development of a culture of democracy
• Assist in the development of better public policy
• Ensure governments’ accountability to citizens.

We are advocates for our family members who cannot speak effectively for themselves. We must learn to speak up without fear to assure they receive proper and professional care in medications and continuing therapy.

Family to Family Training (F2F) is the best way for a person to acquire the skills necessary to be a good and effective advocate. Only the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) offers this training. It is free.

More dog stories

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.
-Anonymous

Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
-Ann Landers

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
-Will Rogers

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.
-Ben Williams

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves
himself.
-Josh Billings

Cicero on budget

Cicero

What have we learned in 2,064 years?

  "The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."

                                                           Cicero   - 55 BC

  So, evidently, nothing..

NC Loyalists in RW

NC Loyalists in RW

September 13, 1781 – Colonel David Fanning is wounded at Lindsey's Mill on Cane Creek near the Alamance-Chatham line. He is shot in the left arm and the musket ball "broke the bone in several pieces". Captain John Rains commands the troop which delivers the Governor to the British near Wilmington. DSR Note: The governor was the first elected NC governor. Until then the governors had been appointed by the royal  governor. The man was governor Burke.

Highlander's oath of loyalty

Highlander’s Oath

 1777 - July 25. Duncan McNabb, Archibald Stewart, John Campbell, Daniel

Campbell, Norman Campbell, John McIntire, William Williamson, William

Eccles, Daniel McDougald, Duncan McDonald, Daniel McDonald, Duncan Henry, Alexander Cumming, William Henderson, William Thompson, and Garret White, being cited, appeared before this court and refused to take *Oath prescribed by Act of Assembly passed at Newbern, May 10th 1777, entitled an Act for the Security of the State.

Ordered that the said persons be commanded and directed to depart the State of North Carolina, either to Europe or the West Indies, within 60 days from this date.

*The Highlander’s Oath: I, do swear and as I shall answer to God at the great day of Judgment, I have not, nor shall have in my possession any gun, pistol or arm whatsoever, and never use tartan plaid or any other part of the Highland garb; and if I do so may I be cursed in my undertakings, family and property; 

Death of Jenny the Slave

Johnston County, NC – Court 1780

Trial & Death of Jenny, a slave

Court - Johnston Co., NC 8 Nov 1780 – Trial – Minutes of the Special Court for the Trial of Negroes: At a special court held for the tryal of Negro Jenney the Property of the late Lewis Bryan Dec'd, charged with the Poisoning of Needham Bryan his Father & family at the Court House of the sd County on Wednesday the 8^th day of November AD 1780.

Justices Present: Nathan Williams, James Lockhart, Jesse Tyner, Richard Warren.

Freeholders present: Benj. Williams Jr, Wm Avera, Aaron Vinson, John S. Whitley

Who being legally Summoned to the Tryal of the said qualified & proceeded to the isamenation of Negroes Juno, Patti Beck and Treacey together with the Testimony of Patty Lynch, James Bagget evidences against the said Negro Jenney & after Considering the same & the circumstances belonging - are of the opinion that the said Negro Jenney is Guilty of the poisoning so laid to her charge as aforesaid and do accordingly order & sentence that the said Negro Jenney be carried back to the place of confinement & from there to be taken to the ground of the Court green. On Saturday the eighteenth of this instant (November) between the hours of twelve & one of the clock in the after noon, & there to be burnt to death by a stake & that the Sheriff of this County see that the said sentence be carried into execution.

At the same time the Court taking the value of the said Negro under consideration do value her to Five thousand pounds cur. Certifyed under the hand and seal of the said Justices & Freeholders respectfully this eighth November AD 1780.

 Editor’s note: The Sheriff of Johnston County, NC, in 1780 was Needham Bryan, Jr., the son of the murdered man.

Henry Rains, Esquire, would have been chief justice, but died just before the trial. Henry Rains served under the dead man, Colonel Needham Bryan, in the revolutionary war.

Native Americans

Native American DNA in Rains/Raines

Here is the response from FTDNA regarding Native American Lineage:

Certain haplotypes and haplogroups have been linked to Native American populations. Specifically, Y-DNA haplogroups Q, Q3, O3, C and C3 have been documented in Native American populations. MtDNA haplogroups A, B, C, D, and X have been associated with Native American ancestry as well. These haplogroup assignments do not definitively prove Native American ancestry in all cases because they can also be found in Asian populations in other parts of the world. MtDNA haplogroup X, for example, has the widest distribution of any haplogroup, and can be found on every continent. The oral history and genealogical records must be used in conjunction with the test results to prove Native American ancestry definitively in most cases. Y-DNA haplogroup Q3 is the only haplogroup found exclusively in Native American lineages.

Since none of these haplogroups have been documented among members of your Rains project, none of these lineages have Native American ancestry. DSR Note: This is the answer from Family Tree DNA testing.

Leonia DeRains

6. Leonia de Raines

This effigy of a lady, thought to date from about 1220, was rescued from the Old Church by the Kirkby Conservation Society in 1977 and depicts a heart burial. It is considered to be an effigy of Leonia de Raines, the sister of Ralph Britto de Annesley, who gave the Norman church into the care of the monks of Felley Priory in 1158. Some versions give her name as Leonia de Raines, whilst others are more singular, but the Order of Service for her rededication uses Raines. The formidable Bess of Hardwick was one of her descendants.

Dogs & cats

I have two dogs and two cats. One dog is a miniature poodle, and the other is a bichon. The poodle is smart as a tack, and the bichon is as dumb as a doornail! When I come home the bichon runs arround and around in circles. The bichon loves to eat my cat's food which makes her very nervous. The cat is a black and white tuxedo cat that we call Sunshine or $unshine. She has cost me $9000.00 in vet bills for two operations. She is worth it. My other cat is an outside cat named Daisy. None of the other animals mess with Daisy because she is ready to fight at the drop of a hat. The two dogs are 7 years old, Sunshine is 10 years old, and Ms. Daisy is 18 years old. I love them all!

Where do we come from?

A lot of us don't realize that most Hillbillys are of English descent. I have talked to people who said "the Rainses were brought over from Wales to work the coal mines." Nothing could be further from the truth! We mostly descend from good English stock, and we have been in KY for 100 years before any  coal was even discovered. The same holds true for the Turners and Marsees, old families that were in KY in 1790, before KY was a state. We came up from NC and VA.

Blog visitors

Why is it so hard to get people to comment when they visit my blog? We are all  hillbillys, or descendants of hillbillys, and all our opinions are equally good and important. Please speak up and let everyone know what you think.

The Shaman's Daughter

Here are some excerpts from my book The Shaman's Daughter:

The Trial

When judge Forrester walked into the courtroom, the bailiff hollered “all rise, the honorable court is now in session.” Everybody stood except John Rains, who was deaf and dumb, and wasn’t looking at the front of the courtroom.

His son tapped his arm and pointed to everyone standing, and motioned for John to stand. I was standing already, and watched John Rains stand up. He was a fascinating man to me!

The trial was for assault with intent to kill, and the accused was John Rains’ first cousin the Reverend Dale Martin. John had been at the scene of the crime, along with half of the men in Middlesboro, when the assault happened.  

Dale had been talking to my dad, William Rains, who was in the same church with Reverend Martin, when the argument that precipitated the attempted murder took place. John Rains was there watching, and his son was talking for him. John had to use sign language, and his 12 year old son interpreted the signs and spoke the words.

Here is what happened, as I recall it, since I was there with my father and watching everything, especially the deaf and dumb man using his hands to talk. I had never seen a deaf and dumb man, and here was one that was even a cousin of mine.

He looked like an Indian using sign language in the movies. I wanted to learn how to do that, and teach my sister, so we could talk without mama knowing what we were saying!

Henry Rains

My book "Henry Rains, 1767-1838" is a history of my family dating back to the original Henry Rains, Esquire..  The original Henry was grandfather to the Henry Rains who settled in what is now KY, but was then NC. Henry Rains, 1767-1838, fought against the Chicamauga Indians in what is now Hawkins County, TN, but was then the western reserve lands of NC. Henry was living with his mother, Mary Ingram and her husband Captain Thomas Lee. Henry had no siblings named Rains, but had eight half siblings named Lee.This Henry had the following children: Sarah, who married James Kellems; Margaret, who married Preston Davis; Mary, who married Spencer King, Sr; Patsy, who married Preston Snuffer and then Joseph Turner; William, who married Jane Marsee; Henry Lane Rains, who married Peggy Lane and then Margaret Denny; Ballenger, who married Margaret Marsee; Needham, who married Nancy Turner; John, who married Cynthia Pearcy. Most of Henry's children stayed in KY or Claiborne County, TN. Many of them  married Turners or Marsees.

My Book

I have witten a book called The Shaman's Daughter. The book is available at any online book store. It is sellling well. If you are interested in hillbilly culture, please buy a copy. These are my parents in 1919. William McKinley Rains, his cousin Bob Turner and Nancy Sikes, my mother, and her sister Grace Williams Sikes.

Blog visitors

Please comment when you visit this blog. I would like for some of my friends and relatives to make their views on hillbilly culture known. I know many of you are very literary, so please post.

Please comment when you visit this blog. I would like for some of my friends and relatives to make their views on hillbilly culture known

Join & submit your knowlege

If you are from the hills, or if your ancestors were, please join and contribute what you know about the hillbillys. I am kin to the Turners, Sikes, Lane, Whitaker families, and I have written a book called Henry Rains, 1767-1838, the Rains family of Yellow Creek. It explores all the family ties. I am laterally related to the Simpsons, and Partins.

We hillbillys have been around for a long time. KY was formed in 1792, from KY County, VA. Most of the people who settled in KY were of English descent, with some Scots and Irish thrown in to flavor things up. During the Civil War, we sent men to each side, but we were mostly union supporters. Two of my ggrandfathers fought for the USA, Wylie T. Sikes and Captain William B. Rains. William B. Rains was also the first school teacher in Bell County, KY. See "The History of Bell County," by Dr. Fuson. One of my other ggrandfathers was the infamous Jack Turner, leader of the Turner faction in the Turner-Sowders feud.

Hillbillys say "air" for there. Hillbillys say "Hants" for haunts. We are good song writers and story tellers, and good at working in coal mines. Think of Loretta Lynn's "coal miner's daughter." Some notable hillbillys were, or are, Lee Majors, Dolly Partin, Ricky Scaggs. We invented bluegrass music. Think of Bill Monroe and Merle Travis.

About this blog

The purpose of my blog is to share stories and promote dialogue about the social structure of mountaineers. I am a mountaineer, commonly called hillbilly, who was born and raised in Eastern Kentucky. I welcome all comments and look forward to a lively and entertaining dialogue in this space.