BIO: John Raines; New York State
surname: Raines

submitted by W. David Samuelsen (no relation)
***********************************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm

http://www.usgwarchives.org/ny/nyfiles.htm
***********************************************************************
An Illustrated Legislative Manual
The New York Red Book
Containing the Portraits and Biographies of the U.S. Senators, Governor, State
Officers and Members of the Legislature; also with the Portraits of Judges and
Court Reporters, the New Constitution of the State, Election and Population
Statistics, and General Facts of Interest.
By Edgar L. Murlin
New Constitution Compiled by R. C. Cumming, O. L. Potter and F. B. Gilbert
Published, Albany, J. B. Lyon Company, Publishers, 1909

Copyright by J. B. Lyon Company, 1909

     John Raines, Republican, President pro tem, of the Senate, represents
the Forty-second Senate district, which covers the counties of Ontario and
Wayne. His father, of the same name was a prominent Methodist clergyman, well
known in the western part of the State. The father had several sons who had
distinguished public careers: Thomas Raines, who was State Treasurer two
terms; George Raines, who was Senator from the Monroe district in 1878-79, and
the subject of this sketch, who was successively Assemblyman, Senator,
Congressman, and Senator. John Raines was educated in the common schools, and
was graduated from the Albany Law School of Union University. His present
business is that of an insurance agent and lawyer. Mr. Raines began the
practice of law in Geneva soon after graduating but in the fall of 1861 he
raised a company of volunteers and was commissioned captain of Company G, of
the Eighty-fifth Regiment of New York Volunteers. He served in the Army of the
Potomac and in North Carolina until July 1863, when he returned to Geneva and
resumed the practice of law. In 1867 he removed to Canandaigua and opened a
law office and insurance agency there. He early joined the Republican party
and has continued to be one of its members. He was elected to the Assembly of
1881-82 and 1885, and to the Senate 1886, and continued a member of that body
until 1890. While a member of the Senate he was elected to the Fifty-first
Congress and was also elected to the Fifty-second Congress. Mr. Raines, in
December, 1894, was elected a State Senator from the Twenty-sixth district to
fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Charles T. Saxton, who had been
elected Lieutenant-Governor.

     Mr. Raines was re-elected to the Senate in 1895, and has had continuous
service in the Senate since.

     Mr. Raines was elected President pro-tem, and Republican leader of the
Senate of 1903, 1904, 1905, and 1906, and again elected by a unanimous fvote
for the years 1907-8, and 1909-10 and was made Chairman of the Committee, the
Cities Committee, and the Judiciary Committee.