Marshall County AlArchives Biographies.....Rayburn, Samuel King, General September 15, 1811 - July 15, 1892
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Author: “Memorial Record of Alabama,” Volme 2, published by Brant & Fuller in Madison, WI (1893), pages 497-499

Gen. Samuel King Rayburn – The name Rayburn was originally spelled Reyburn, but 
it was changed by John Rayburn, father of S. K. Rayburn to Rayburn – that way 
of spelling it suited him better.  Gen. Samuel King Rayburn’s great-
grandfather, Henry Rayburn, and Joseph (or James) Rayburn, his cousin, 
emigrated from the north of Ireland to America some years before the 
Revolutionary war, and settled in Virginia, east of the Alleghanies [sic], near 
the Roanoke river.  After living in this country for some years, Henry Rayburn, 
great-grandfather of S. K. Rayburn, went back to the north of Ireland and 
married Miss Ross and brought her with him to his “new world” home.  They had 
but one son, John, who married Miss Jean McClarin, a Scotch lady, and settled 
in Botetourt county, Va.  He was a large land owner, his farm being on the head 
waters of the Roanoke river, near t little town called Salem.  To John and Jean 
(McClarin) Rayburn were born two sons and several daughters; the eldest son, 
Henry; the second son, John; there was about then years’ difference in their 
ages.  They married two sisters, Sarah and Elizabeth Shanklin, daughters of 
Capt. Robert Shanklin, who served in the Revolutionary war. John Rayburn, 
father of Samuel K. moved to Barren county, Ky., about the year 1795, his 
father having given him land warrants.  He moved from Kentucky to Tennessee and 
settled in Bedford county, where took up 1,000 acres of land about fifty miles 
from Nashville.  Samuel King Rayburn was born on this place September 15, 
1811.  In the year 1818 his parents moved to north Alabama.  Samuel King was 
John Rayburn’s seventh child.  There were ten children, all of those reaching 
maturity being highly respected men and women.  Gen. Rayburn was a man of 
literary tastes, and had a memory remarkable for its retentiveness, and it 
never failed him, even to the last day of his life.  His character combined 
that strength and that tenderness and gentleness which we only find in one who 
is truly noble.  He was a man whose very bearing and appearance commanded 
respect from all who came in contact with him.  He took a lively interest in 
all public affairs and his mind was an encyclopedia of information on all 
matters of importance that had transpired since his earliest recollection up to 
the time of his death.  He settled at Guntersville in 1834, where, with the 
exception of two years, he merchandised until 1847.  As a member of Capt. James 
M. Gen’s company, he participated in the Mexican war.  In 1849 he was elected 
clerk of the circuit court of Marshall county, and served eight years in that 
capacity.  He was elected to the state senate in 1857.  He also had the office 
of president of the Tennessee & Coosa railroad company until 1868.  At the 
outbreak of the Civil war he was elected major-general of the militia by the 
people of Marshall, Jackson, De Kalb, and Cherokee counties.  This position he 
resigned in 1862 and was appointed on the staff of Gov. Moore.  In the fall of 
that year he raised a company of volunteers and was commissioned captain of 
company B, Forty-eighth Alabama infantry.  In 1866 Gen. Rayburn was appointed 
register and master in chancery, and he was continued in the office by the 
various chancellors up to the time of his death, which was July 15, 1892.  Gen. 
Rayburn was married in 1840, go Mrs. Sarah Davenport; the son of this marriage 
was John Rayburn, captain of the Ninth Alabama infantry, who was killed at the 
battle of Sharpsburg,Va.  Mrs. Evergreen Findlay became the second Mrs. Reyburn 
[sic], in 1861. She was killed by a shell from Federal gunboats in 1862, the 
year after marriage.  In December, 1863, Gen. Rayburn married Miss Nannie Nix, 
a young lady of rare mental attainments and extreme amiability of character.  
Their tastes and feelings were so in harmony that he counted the eleven years 
which they lived together the happiest of his life.  The fruits of this happy 
union were five children – three boys and two girls, all of whom are living 
except the second son, his father’s namesake, Samuel King Rayburn, Jr.  This 
young man inherited all the good qualities of mind and character of both mother 
and father, but “whom the gods love die young,: and he died December 23, 1888, 
in the twenty-first year of his age, of typhoid fever, a few months after his 
return from the United States Military academy.  The remaining children are 
Mrs. Brooking, Samuel, John S., William C., and Mrs. John D. Chandler.  After 
remaining a widower for six years and nobly acting the part of both father and 
mother to his family of small children, he thought it to their best interest to 
marry again, and accordingly, in May, 1880, he married Miss Jane Warren, a 
maiden lady of suitable age to wed with one of his years.  Gen. Rayburn died 
July 15, 1892, lacking exactly two months of being eighty-one years old.  He 
had been suffering for some months with a difficulty of breathing, but with 
that exception was in his usual health.  About ten o’clock A.M., of July 15, 
1892, he lay down to take a nap, and while asleep his spirit took its flight.  
His death was instantaneous and painless, caused from heart failure.  
Notwithstanding his great age he was a man in the fullest sense of the word up 
to the hour of his death, being in full possession of all his mental faculties, 
and his bodily vigor being preserved to a remarkable degree.  Never was there a 
man occupying as many public positions as he did that had fewer enemies and 
more friends.  Only a few weeks before his death he attended the meeting of a 
democratic club, named in honor of himself, and made them a speech.  There were 
many of his old friends and acquaintances present, and their manifestations of 
love and esteem for him were affecting in the extreme.  He was a member of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church, most of his family being members of the same.  
They Rayburns were originally Presbyterians, but when a division took place in 
the church most of them went with the Cumberland Presbyterians.

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