Dr. William Nathaniel Raines, with his wife, Ann Eldridge, came to DeSoto County, Mississippi, in 1844 from Sussex County, Virginia. He first came to that section of DeSoto County called “Little Virginia.” (Horn Lake was its post office). He had just completed his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania, married and had come immediately to this new land. He first bought land on the old Horn Lake Road and began the building of this famous eight-sided Octagon House as a gift to his lovely bride, Anne Eliza Eldridge in 1844 in what is now known as Horn Lake, MS.