Rains County

Rains County's farmers kept voting against the established order. Granges and cooperatives appeared in the 1870s, and the Farmers' Alliance followed. In 1892 the Populist candidate James B. Weaver took 448 votes here to Grover Cleveland's 353. The Socialist Party, organized in neighboring Van Zandt County in 1904, drew its largest Texas following in this county and Van Zandt, and crowds turned out for Eugene V. Debs in 1914. That year renters sued a bank they accused of breaking the state's usury laws, and the case exposed rates as high as 35 percent.

What the plaque says

Rains County One of the earlier areas of Texas to be settled. J. H. Hooker, first known settler, built a grist mill on the Sabine River here in the 1840s. Emigrants from the Old South came in after 1840, although the county was not created until 1870. The name honors pioneer Emory Rains (1800-1878). He served as Senator in 8th Legislature from district out of which this county was later carved and had a long public service career. Rains County is known as the birthplace of the Farmers Cooperative and Educational Union of America, founded in 1904. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 26 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.

More markers nearby

• Near Offices of "Rains County Leader" — steps away
• Emory United Methodist Church — steps away
• Emory Rains — 0.3 mi
• Smyrna Union Church — 3.7 mi