Contributed by Susan Chance-Rainwater


The Will of James Rainwater
Filed 1862 Pulaski County, Kentucky
Book 6 Page 115


I, James Rainwater of the County of Pulaski and State of Kentucky do make this my last will and testament. I give to my beloved wife, Mary, all my household and kitchen furniture, and all my stock of every description which I may own at the time of my death. Also the use and occupation of my farm during the time she remains my widow, but if my said wife should marry after my death, she is only to have what the statute law of Kentucky provides for widows. I also freely empower my wife to sell any of my stocks she may think to be a surplus, either privately or publically, and loan out the proceeds thereof and the occurring interest thereon she may use for the maintenance of her and my infant children. Likewise, if she should use any of the principal in case of necessity, she is not to be accountable thereafter. I also request my wife to collect all my bonds and notes in hand, and dispose of the money in the same manner that of the proceeds of the sale.

I likewise request my wife to give to each of my five infant children: Mary, Sarah, Amanda, Samantha and Alethia whenever they may have come of age: one feather bed and bed stead, one colt, one cow, two head of sheep and one cow to be as near of equal value as possible. And at the death of my wife, I wish my executors to make sale and conveyance of my land and to expose to sale to the highest bidder all my property, to collect all my debts and distribute the proceeds equally among my children who may survive me, and to the children or heirs of such of my children as may not survive me, to be paid to the [unreadable] the same amounts and proportions that their parents would have been entitled to receive had they or either of them been living at the time of said distribution.

And lastly I appoint my sons, William H. Rainwater and Enoch Rainwater, executors of this my last will and testament. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 8th day of March 1859.

James Rainwater

Attested: E.J. Seivers, Isaac Isabell