Abner Gaines
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Abner Legrand Gaines (abt. 1766 - 1839)

Abner Legrand Gaines
Born about in Orange, Virginiamap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married 16 Dec 1792 in Augusta, Virginia, United Statesmap
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 73 in Walton, Boone Co KYmap
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Profile last modified | Created 30 Dec 2010
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Biography

Abner Gaines was part of a Southern Pioneer Family.

Abner Legrand Gaines, son of James Gaines and Mildred Bland Pollard of Orange, Virginia, was a school teacher, planter, and tavern keeper. Gaines also became the proprietor of the first stagecoach line that carried mail and passengers between Cincinnati and Lexington; a thirty-four hour trip in 1818. Gaines was a Boone County Justice from 1805 to 1817, at which time he was appointed Sheriff.[1]

"Migrated to Boone County, Kentucky in 1793 and built the house known as Gaines Tavern in Walton. The house was used by General Kirby-Smith (friend of James Forbes Robinson) as staff headquarters during the Civil War. He purchased property in southern Boone County from Archibald Reid in ca.1813. He continued to operate a tavern and inn built by Reid in ca. 1795. Gaines built a striking new house in ca. 1814, which is preserved today as the Gaines Tavern History Center." [2]

"Abner and his wife Elizabeth (Matthews) had 13 children [and raised orphaned nephew, Peter Hanger, who was instrumental in establishing toll roads and stage lines in Territorial Arkansas]; several of them experienced some notoriety in various areas of the United States. Abner’s oldest son, James Matthews Gaines, became the first postmaster for the community referred to as Gaines Cross Roads, now Walton, in 1815. Woodford Gaines became a paymaster in the US army and spent time at Fort Smith, Arkansas. President Andrew Jackson appointed Richard Gaines U.S. District Attorney of Mississippi. William H. Gaines made a successful claim for a large portion of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Major John Pollard Gaines was a soldier and a statesman. He was also the original owner of the Maplewood Farm, along with Margaret Garner and her family, before he sold it to his brother, Archibald, and moved to the Oregon Territory to assume his position as governor. Archibald K. Gaines enslaved Margaret Garner as well."[3]

"Margaret Garner, her husband Robert, and her children crossed the Ohio River in 1857 [quite literally across ice floes as described in Harriet Beecher Stowe's fictional portrayal of escaping slaves in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' in 1852]. The [Garner] family took refuge in the home of a formerly enslaved person in Cincinnati. With the legal support of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, deputy marshals [from both Ohio and Kentucky] apprehended the Garner family. Unwilling to return her children to captivity, Margaret cut the throat of one of her children and attempted to kill the other three before being stopped. Margaret was tried for murder and sold further south. Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, the 1988 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, was inspired by Margaret Garner's actions."[4] Abner Legrand Gaines died in Boone County in 1839. His wife, Susan Elizabeth (Mathews) Gaines survived him 22 years dying in 1861.

Sources

  1. Robin Edwards, “Abner Gaines House,” ExploreKYHistory, Kentucky Historical Society. Accessed October 22, 2021, https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/671.
  2. ibid.
  3. ibid.
  4. ibid.
  • Transcriptions from Collins and Gaines Family Bibles. Dallas Genealogy Quarterly. http://dallasgenealogy.org/DGS_Docs/Journals/1994/March/PDF/Dallas_Quarterly_XL_1_1994_03.pdf.
  • The Davies and allied families Collection, Arkansas State Archives, Department of Heritage. Little Rock, Arkansas. MS.000773
  • U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA via Ancestry.com. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=135514433
  • Calvin E. Sutherd, A Compilation of Gaines Family Data.... Ft Lauderdale FL, 1972,
  • 1800: Kentucky, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1810-1890. Kentucky, Tax Lists, 1799-1801. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999
  • 1810; Census Place: Boone, Kentucky; Roll: 5; Page: 110; Image: 00068; Family History Library Film: 0181350. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999
  • 1820 U S Census; Census Place: Burlington, Boone, Kentucky; Page: 16; NARA Roll: M33_18; Image: 20. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999
  • 1830; Census Place: Boone, Kentucky; Series: M19; Roll: 33; Page: 256; Family History Library Film: 0007812. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999
  • Virginia Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
  • "Ghosts of Gaines Tavern. Travel Channel. https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/ghost-hunters-2021/episodes/ghosts-of-gaines-tavern.




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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Abner by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Abner:

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Categories: Boone County, Kentucky, Slave Owners