Henry Massie Rector was born on May 1, 1816, at Fountain Ferry, Kentucky, the son of Elias Rector, a former surveyor, land speculator, and postmaster of St. Louis, Missouri. The elder Rector died in 1822.
In 1835, while still in his teens, Rector moved to Arkansas to manage lands he had inherited from his father. In 1839 he was appointed teller at the State Bank. In 1841 he moved to a plantation in Saline County where he also trained as a lawyer. In 1842 President Tyler appointed him U. S. Marshall for the Arkansas district. In 1848 he was elected to the state senate representing Saline and Prairie Counties. In 1853 he was appointed Surveyor General for Arkansas.
In 1854 Rector moved to Little Rock and opened a law office. That same year he was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives from Pulaski County. In 1859 Rector was elected to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Though Rector was related to "the Family," the group that dominated antebellum politics in Arkansas, he became friends with the charismatic Thomas Hindman of Helena. Hindman was leading a rebellion within the Democratic Party to wrest control away from the Family. He was backed by several newspapers bankrolled by wealthy secessionist planters, most of them former Whigs seeking a new home among the Democrats. Hindman persuaded Rector to be the faction's candidate for governor in 1860. Rector defeated Richard Johnson, the Family's standard bearer, by a margin of 31,518 to 28,662.
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