Ellis County Texas Archives Biographies.....Mc Cain, R. A. "Uncle Rufe" 1850 - unk ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/txfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Carl Martin ctm007@gmail.com July 30, 2006, 10:36 am Author: Milford Weekly News McCain, Rufus Andrew: (This record from a newspaper clipping from the Milford, Texas, Weekly News, dated May 22, 1931 was in the possession of Mrs. Adam Rosson, Milford, Texas.) "MILFORD CITIZENS "We doubt if there is another man in Ellis County who can outclass R. A. (Uncle Rufe) McCain, who lives just across Mill Creek from Milford. Next September 29th, he will be 81 years of age. He is up with the chickens every morning, makes a regular hand on his farm, rarely ever rides to town, but always walks, rain or shine. "I have never been sick except when I had the flu, and never miss a meal," he stated. "In 1869 I was living in Red River county and decided I wanted to come to this part of the country. I started out and landed at the John Vancleve** home between Milford and Maypearl, on August 10. I had known the Vancleves in Alabama. That afternoon Miss Fate Vancleve and I saddled up two mules and loped all the way to Milford and back. That was the ftrst time I ever saw Milford, and there were only a few stores and residences here then. I stayed around the Vancleve's a few days and went back to Red River county. On the road I saw wagons bogged down, loaded with lumber from East Texas and which had been in the bog since the spring before. "In 1872 my father's family came and we rented the old Coffey ranch and lived there for several years. Later my father bought the old Peter McCain place, which is over near the old Dr. Cornwell place and we lived there for several years. Milford has been my post office ever since 1872. In all I have made 39 crops on the W. T. M. Dickson land, having moved off and back on the land four times. I have two brothers now living, Jake lives in Fisher county, and John lives at Maypearl. I have four sisters as follows: Addie, married Jim Thomas now lives at Maypearl; Annie, married W. W. Darrow; she died several years ago. Manda, married Dr. Cornwell and also lives at Maypearl; and Mary married Robt. Harris and they reside on their farm near Italy. "This was a great country until the railroads and barbed wire got here," Mr. McCain says. Some 35 years ago he bought a small farm near town, built his home and has raised a large family there. He states that in all these years he has only been in Milford four times after night. "The occasion that first brought him to town was when the town turned on electric lights several years ago and he states that he wanted to see how the old place looked under electric lights. "Uncle Rufe looks to be good for many years yet and can match yarns with the best of them, in fact he has never been known to fail to have one to fit any occasion." Additional Comments: Left Guntersville, AL, with his parents and siblings just after the Civil War of 1860 -1864. Settled first with his family in Red River Co. TX. He visited the Vancleve family between Maypearl and Milford in August 1869. Came to settle in Ellis County with father and family in 1872 -- Milford area, Maypearl, Bee Creek. Son of Peter E. McCain (Pvt/Sgt CSA Co. I, 4th Regt. (Russell's) AL CavalryCSA) and Tranquilla King Married Oct 1876 Sophrona Eudora "Dora" Garrard Had nine children: Jacob A., Thomas R. Clayton "Pomp", Mazie Addie, Sarah Ann, Mary Tranquilla, James, Amanda, John D. [ Sophronia Eudora Garrard was a daughter of Thomas Garrard and Jame Wilds Cooke who both died in the 1873 Yellow Fever epidemic in Robertson County. She was a granddaughter/niece of the three Cooke brothers of Kentucky who were prominent in the Republic of Texas: Major Hiram W. Cooke, Texas Ranger, buried Texas National Cemetery Dr. Wilds K. Cooke, one of the first physicians in the Republic, First Texas Legislature Louis P. Cooke, Army of the Republic, Texas Legislature, Secretary of the Texas Navy File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/ellis/bios/mccain25gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/txfiles/ File size: 4.4 Kb