LEVI C. BAIN is worthy of representation in this Album as he is an honorable man and as a practical farmer is contributing his quota towards sustaining and extending the great farming interests of Calhoun County. He is pleasantly situated in Richwoods Precinct where he owns one of the many fine farms for which this locality is noted. Mr. Bain was born in Lincoln County, Mo., December 9, 1848. His father, John Bain was born in Kentucky December 17, 1806, his father having been a pioneer farmer of that State. He went from there to serve his country in the war of 1812 and lost his life.
The father of our subject was but six years old when his father died and he was reared by his mother and step-father. He early learned the trade of a stonemason and went to Missouri when a young man and was a pioneer of Lincoln County. He bought a tract of timber land seven miles from Troy and erected thereon n cabin for the shelter of his family, and other necessary buildings. He worked at his trade part of the time and the rest of the time was engaged in farming, continuing his residence there until 1860, when he went to Arkansas and settled near Little Rock. He was there when the war broke out and on that account as he was a Union sympathizer he returned to this county and bought a tract of land that he might carry on farming here. Only part of it was improved and the rest of it was in timber, but he did not clear much of it as he soon sold it and moved to Madison County, Mo.; from there he again went to Arkansas where he died about 1878.
Our subject was united in marriage in early manhood to Mary Guinn who was born in Lincoln County, N. C. in 1812. Her father, George Guinn was a Virginian by birth and went from there to South Carolina with his parents, and thence to North Carolina where he married, taking as his wife Annie Wheeler, a native of North Carolina. He finally moved to the Territory of Missouri traveling overland and was a pioneer of Lincoln County. He bought land near Troy which he developed into a farm and made his home until his death, and his wife also died in Missouri. Mrs. Bain now resides in Batchtown with her children. She is the mother of thirteen children, of whom the following twelve lived to maturity: William, Mary, Effie, Julia, John, Emeline, Rhoda, George, Martha, Levi, Charles and Sarah. James, the first born died young.
Levi Bain, of whom we write was twelve years old when he came to this county with his parents. He was reared to agricultural pursuits and by the time he had attained manhood was a thorough practical farmer. He lived with his parents until he was fourteen years old and then became self-supporting, working out by the day or month until his marriage. After that important event in his life he rented farm land one year and then located on a tract of eighty acres of land that his father-in-law gave to his wife, on section 16, Richwoods Precinct. He soon bought eighty acres adjoining it on the same section and now has it under substantial improvement. He has the greater part clear and under admirable cultivation and has a roomy well-ordered set of frame buildings. He has a fine orchard of nearly twenty acres, choice fruit trees of various kinds, and from it he derives an excellent income.
Mr. Bain took unto himself a wife February 26, 1870, in the person of Rebecca (Wilson) Powell, a daughter of A. C. and Sarah Wilson, of whom an extended sketch appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Bain have eight children living named as follows: Mary, Ida, Levi W., Ora, Lottie, Blanche, Rose, and Rebecca. Mrs. Bain had one child by a former marriage named Sallie. Mr. Bain is a stalwart Democrat in his political views and is a good citizen of his precinct. He is a worker who understands well how to direct his labors advantageously and his thrift and good management are evidenced in the appearance of his farm and in the reputation that he enjoys of being a good farmer.
Extracted 24 Jan 2017 by Norma Hass from Portrait and Biographical Album of Pike and Calhoun Counties, Illinois, published in 1891, pages 250-251.
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