Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 157] 
who is engaged in milling
with his cousin Leander Raney in Mahoningtown,
was born in Edinburg, Lawrence Co.,
Pa., Aug. 26, 1843, and is a son of John D. and
Jane (Parks) Raney; the latter was born in
Edinburg, and was a daughter of James Parks,
a patriot soldier of the Revolution, who was
born in the State of Virginia, and died at the age
of ninety years in Edinburg. John D. Raney
was born in Coitsville, Ohio, in 1812, and died
in Youngstown, in 1884; he was a miller by
trade and followed that pursuit in Youngstown
and also in Edinburg. In Youngstown he
retired from active life, and served as mayor and
as justice of the peace. While a resident of
Edinburg, he represented his district in the
Pennsylvania Legislature, being a man of more
than ordinary talents, and great executive
ability.
Our subject passed the first eighteen years of his life in Edinburg, attending its district schools, and continued his schooling for a year after his parents moved to Youngstown in 1861. He began working in the mill with his father at the age of seventeen, and two years later started out to support himself, and become independent of anyone for his living. He worked in the mill at Youngstown three years, and then for sixteen years was associated in the milling industry with his brother. In 1876 he came to Mahoningtown, and after one year's labor in his uncle's mill, he leased it for four years. In 1885, Mr. Raney and his cousin Leander Raney, bought the mill and refitted it with new machinery throughout of the most approved type at a cost of upwards of $8,000, and they are now producing as fine a quality of flour as is made anywhere, shipping to all the territory tributary to New Castle. The mill is one of the first and most important industries of Mahoningtown, and would space permit we should be glad to give a more detailed account of the excellent appointments in and about the mill, and of the progress and growth of the business.
Mr. Raney was joined in marriage in December, 1871, in Youngstown, Ohio, to Lois McCullum, daughter of Ira and Hannah McCullum, and this union has been blessed with five children: Myron, who married Rachel Kincaid, is an engineer and lives in Mahoningtown; Jessie; Daisy; Paul; and Ralph. Our subject's wife is a devoted and worthy member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Raney is a Republican in his political affiliations. He is a member of the borough council, and was the first burgess after the adoption of the borough organization, and served three years in that capacity. He is a non-affiliated member of the Knights of Pythias, having joined the order at Youngstown, Ohio. In the late war, he was in the service of the United States from May to September, 1864, as a member of Co. I, 155th Ohio Vol. Inf. Mr. Raney's portrait appears on a preceding page, and we are pleased to include his name in the list of the representative and leading citizens of Lawrence County.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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