James Raynor, a retired farmer from Auburn, Nebraska, was born on May 1, 1834, in Nottinghamshire, England. He emigrated to America in 1837 with his family. His father, Thomas Raynor, was born in Lincolnshire, England, on December 18, 1796, and died in Ohio in 1864. James served in the Civil War as a lieutenant and was brevetted captain. After the war, he engaged in wagon and carriage manufacturing before moving to Kansas in 1870 to farm. James married Harriet Vrooman in 1854, and they had two sons. Harriet passed away in 1902. James was active in Masonic and veteran organizations and served as a justice of the peace.
James Raynor, a retired farmer of Auburn, Nebraska, dates his birth in Nottinghamshire, England, May 1, 1834. He is a son of Thomas Raynor, who was born in Lincolnshire, England, December 18, 1796, and who emigrated with his family to America in 1837. Three times married, by his first wife he had one daughter, by his second wife one son and one daughter, and by his third wife eight children. His third wife was Jane Wetherell, a native of York, England, born in 1808, daughter of Thomas Wetherell, an innkeeper. Their eight children were as follows: Elizabeth, wife of George W. McIntyre, of Lowell, Massachusetts, has one son; Thomas Wetherell, a retired railroad man of Jackson, Michigan, has one son and one daughter; George, who died in Waterville, Maine, left a widow and one daughter; James, whose name introduces this sketch; Jane, wife of B. S. Gillman, of San Francisco, California; Robert W., a locomotive engineer and foreman of the round-house at Battle Creek, Michigan, has four sons; John W., who died in Kansas City, Missouri, April 26, 1896; and William B., of Muskegon, Michigan, has been twice married and has one son and two daughters. The father of this large family died in Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, March 16, 1864, and the mother died at the home of her son in Mount Vernon, Illinois, in April, 1875, at the age of seventy-four years.
James Raynor was three years old when he was brought by his parents to this country, and his boyhood days were spent in Vermont, the removal of the family to Ohio being in 1854, when he was twenty. He attended the public schools up to the time he was seventeen, when he began learning the trade of carriage painter. After serving an apprenticeship of three years to this trade, he continued work at it until the outbreak of the Civil War.
August 15, 1861, Mr. Raynor volunteered his services for the protection of the country into which he had been adopted. At this time he was in Albany, Green County, Wisconsin. As a member of Company E, Thirteenth Wisconsin, he served one year to the day. He was then transferred to the Thirty-first Regiment, Company F, the fortunes of which he shared until July 6, 1865, when he was mustered out at Madison, Wisconsin. He was during the first year of his army life made a second lieutenant, later was promoted to first lieutenant, and was in command of the company twenty-two months, as first lieutenant. He was brevetted captain. Mr. Raynor was in four hard-fought battles — Parksville, Peach Tree Creek, Nashville and Decatur.
After the war, Mr. Raynor returned to Albany, Wisconsin, and engaged in the manufacture of wagons and carriages, under the firm name of The Tilleys & Raynor. Selling his interest in the establishment in December, 1869, Mr. Raynor came further west the following year, landing in Washington County, Kansas, in June, where he engaged in farming. He still owns one hundred and sixty acres of land in Barnes Township, Washington County, Kansas.
April 9, 1854, Mr. Raynor married Miss Harriet Vrooman, a native of Ohio, born in 1831, daughter of Frederick and Elizabeth (Becker) Vrooman, both of Otsego County, New York. To Mr. and Mrs. Raynor were given two sons. One died in infancy and the other, Willis J., is a practicing physician of Auburn. Mrs. Raynor died October 31, 1902, in Barnes, Washington County, Kansas, at the age of seventy-two years, after the term of their married life had lengthened out to nearly fifty years. A true wife, loving mother, noble woman — her death was a sad loss to Mr. Raynor.
Fraternally, Mr. Raynor is identified with the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the Republic. In the last named organization he was post commander three terms, two terms in Beadle Post, Nebraska, and one in Barnes Post, Washington County, Kansas. He has been a life-long Republican. He was a justice of the peace and police judge many years, in both Kansas and Nebraska. Mr. Raynor may be called a self-educated man. All his life he has been a close observer and a careful and constant reader. Naturally of a genial disposition and with a retentive memory, both physically and mentally well preserved, and with a rare store of interesting reminiscences, he is indeed a cheerful companion for both young and old.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.