BioRaynorHoraceMerry  

 
 

 

 
 

 


  Horace Merry RAYNOR (Jonathan Norton, Joseph, Joseph, Josiah, Joseph, Thurston), was born May 29, 1842 at East Moriches, Long Island, New York.  On May 27, 1871 he married , Laura Elizabeth ROBINSON, at East Moriches. Laura Elizabeth was born June 4, 1849 in East Moriches, the daughter of Jacob Hart and Louisa (Robinson) ROBINSON of East Moriches. 

  Horace was a news reporter for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and other newspapers.  He had been a seaman from an early age making voyages to Europe, Canada, the West Indies and South America.  During the Civil War, he was in the Union Army’s Transport Service carrying cargoes to southern ports. 
 
 

 Horace and Laura resided in East Moriches, where they raised two children:

Susan ("Susie") Gertrude RAYNOR was born October 4, 1871 in East Moriches, and died June 23, 1911.  Interment was at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Center Moriches

Scott Erwin RAYNOR was born September 12, 1877, and died February 18, 1931.

UNCLE HORACE’S IDEAS

They Don’t Agree With Everybody’s – Perhaps, 
That’s Why He’s So Popular

      There’s a man out on Long Island whom the natives call Uncle Horace.  He has another name, but that doesn’t count.  Speak of Uncle Horace and everybody knows who is in your mind.  Say Mr. So-and-So and they wonder whom you are talking about.

      Uncle Horace has some strong personal characteristics.  A firm for whom he had done some work sent him a check for $11.  " Now, that’s all wrong," exclaimed Uncle Horace.  " I didn’t earn that much.  It isn’t due me.  I must have got some other man’s pay.  I won’t take it.  If the house paid me a dollar extra or even a fiver it would be all right.  Likely as not I’ve earned that and more too, one way or another; but I won’t take any money that may belong to some other man.  He needs it, likely, more than I do."

      In his home town the neighbors tell how Uncle Horace made a contract with the dredger to have his shore front improved. He wanted deeper water off his shore and he wanted higher land.  A dredging machine was nearby and the job on which it was engaged was almost finished.  Generally, it takes a lot of bargaining to get to terms regarding the amount of work to be done and the cash to be paid. Uncle Horace didn’t have any such trouble. "Come over to my place and give me $75 worth of work," he said.  That was all.  The work was done at once, and they do say that Uncle Horace got more for his money than any haggling neighbors would have received after making a close dicker.

      Uncle Horace, in the course of his career, has often stood with the brave men of the life-saving service in the most severe storms and at times of greatest peril. "I’ve seen men go out to save lives of stranded sailors," he said, "when it seemed certain that the rescuer could not live in the raging surf with timber and wreckage piling up every moment.  I’ve heard men calling  for aid out there in the storm when the weather was so thick one could not see any part of the wreck or the doomed people.  It is awful to be there and know that you cannot aid the poor fellows.  And I have seen men die under such circumstances, each doing his best.  I don’t mind it, in one sense, if a man goes out to what seems like certain death.  That’s all right.  There is excuse for the risk; but I tell you I haven’t any patience with an unwarranted risk of life.  I couldn't be hired to go to a circus.  I haven’t been to one since I was seven years old.  There the foolhardy people risk their lives every day – for what purpose?  Just to thrill the spectators and earn a few dollars.  It is unwarranted foolishness.  It is all wrong."

      One of Uncle Horace’s peculiar ideas is that it isn’t right to beat the Long Island Railroad.  He sometimes rides between two stations and the regular fare is five cents.  Several times the conductor and collector have failed to come to him for a ticket, being too busy to get all through the train while he was aboard, and invariably he has gone to the conductor afterward to make good. "The railroad never defrauded me," he says, "and why should I be dishonest with it?"

[Jerry Wacker, Brooklyn Times, 1907]
 

Horace Merry RAYNOR died May 17, 1920 in East Moriches, and Laura Elizabeth (Robinson) RAYNOR died October 2, 1932.
HORACE M. RAYNOR DIES; WAS LONG ILL

Sailor, Naturalist, Guide and Newspaper Writer
Had a Unique Career

East Moriches, L. I., May 17

  Horace M. Raynor died this morning at his home here after a long illness.  He was 78 years of age and all of his long life had been spent in this vicinity.  A wife, one son, Scott E. Raynor, and two grandchildren survive him.

  Mr. Raynor received his early education in the district school here, and at the age of 17 went to sea for a number of years, sailing on both coastwise and deep-sea vessels.  He visited many foreign ports and was a close student of life and customs in lands overseas, as well as navigation and the creatures inhabiting the ocean.  He became an expert navigator and was thoroughly familiar with the handling of both fore-and-aft and square rigged vessels.  After serving as chief officer for a number of years he quit the sea and engaged in fishing and other employment in the waters of Long Island.

  He had a fondness for hunting and was an authority on the habits of all the native animals.  His services were always in great demand as guide for visiting hunters and fishermen, and city dwellers who came here greatly enjoyed a trip after fish or game with Mr. Raynor in charge of the expedition.  He possessed a fund of anecdotes and a keen sense of humor and was a delightful companion.  He was "Uncle Horace" to a host of friends and was greatly beloved by all who knew him.

  He was an omnivorous reader and had a retentive memory, and was thus enabled very largely to supplement his early education.  For many years he was local reporter for a number of Metropolitan papers including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and his reportorial work was characterized always by the greatest accuracy, while his news stories were written in purest English.

  He was a Democrat in politics and a Presbyterian by religious faith.  He had been for 40 years a consistent member of the local church.  He had served as one of the Town Assessors and gave to those duties the same conscientious care that inspired everything he undertook.

[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York, Monday, May 17, 1920]
 

© Copyright 1999
Genealogical information provided by Stuart P. Howell, Jr. 
Photographs were  donated to the Raynor Family Association Archives by 
William Paul Penney, grandson of Susan ("Susie") Gertrude Raynor.
 William Penney is preparing a book about the seafaring career of
Horace Merry Raynor.