George Rainey
George Rainey
“He was a good man with a strong will; his mental acumen was clear; his patriotism unquestioned; and his contribution to our generation noble and priceless.”
Biography
George Rainey was born in Missouri and graduated from Northwestern Normal College and Business Institute, taught school for several years, and came to Oklahoma and Kingfisher County in 1889. He was appointed as the first county clerk of “C” County, now Blaine County by Governor A.J. Seay of Oklahoma Territory when the Cheyenne-Arapahoe country was opened to settlement in 1892. Rainey made the run into the Cherokee Strip at its opening in 1893 and moved to Garfield County to again teach school. He served as Garfield County superintendent of schools (1904-1913) and served as Enid’s postmaster from 1921 to 1933. He was the author of many books, including several that were adopted as history textbooks for Oklahoma public schools and wrote an important work on Indian Migrations in the United States, which portrayed the migrations among twenty-seven colorful maps.
Fun fact
George Rainey was a prolific author whose works included Civil Government: National and State, No Man’s Land (1937), Oklahoma Historical Maps (1935), and The Cherokee Strip (1933) which sold out with more than 3,000 copies in its first edition.
Oklahoma connections
Rainey came to Kingfisher County, Oklahoma Territory, in 1889.