Cadwell Walton Raines

When Raines took over the Texas State Library in May 1891, it was "practically nonexistent" after the old Capitol burned in 1881, the Handbook of Texas says. Governor Hogg backed a $500 yearly appropriation for gathering Texas historical data, and Raines began the Texana collection. A new administration ousted him in January 1895; he returned in July 1899 and stayed until his death. His own books include a Bibliography of Texas in 1896, Six Decades in Texas (1900), the memoirs of Francis Lubbock that he edited, and Speeches and State Papers of James Stephen Hogg (1905).

What the plaque says

Cadwell Walton Raines (September 18, 1839 - August 2, 1906) Born in Georgia, Raines came to Texas in 1858. After serving in Gen. R. M. Gano's Texas Cavalry Regiment in the Civil War, he was a teacher in New Braunfels and a lawyer in Canton. Van Zandt County Judge from 1876 to 1878, he played a major role in the infamous County Seat War of 1877. He published newspapers at Wills Point, Mineola, and Quitman. In Quitman he became Wood County Judge and was appointed State Librarian in 1891 by his friend, Governor James Stephen Hogg. Raines rebuilt the neglected state library and began its invaluable collection of Texana from 1895 to 1899 and again from 1899 until his death. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Purtis Creek State Park — 16 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 24 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 26 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Governor Hogg Shrine — 29 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.

More markers nearby

• Oran Milo Roberts — steps away
• Site of 1896 Van Zandt County Courthouse — steps away
• John H. Reagan — steps away
• Dixie Hotel — steps away