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]
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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]
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© 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.
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