Bios: JAMES C. RANEY : Lawrence County, Pennsylvania

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  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lawrence Co transcribers.
  Coordinated by Ed McClelland

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
 
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  Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
  Lawrence County Pennsylvania
  Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
  
  An html version with search engine may be found at 
  
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/lawrence/1897/
  
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    JAMES C. RANEY,
    
    [p. 227] a miller of the borough of Mahoningtown, was born in Youngstown,
  Ohio, Jan. 7, 1860, and is a son of Almon and Nancy (Bower) Raney. Almon
  Raney was a son of John D. and Jane (Parker) Raney, the latter a native of
  Edinburg, Pa., and a daughter of James Parker, a native of Virginia, and a
  soldier of the Revolution, who lived to be upwards of ninety years of age,
  dying in Edinburg. John D. Raney was born in Coitsville, Ohio, in 1812, and
  passed away at the age of seventy-two years in Youngstown, Ohio, which city
  he had served as mayor, and was holding a commission as justice of the peace
  at the time of his death. During his residence in Edinburg, he served his
  district in the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was a miller by occupation, and
  followed milling in Edinburg and Youngstown, but had retired from active work
  several years previous to his death. He was of Scotch descent. Our subject's
  mother was a daughter of David and Mary A. Bower. David Bower kept a store on
  "The Diamond" in Mahoningtown, during the days of the canal, and lived to
  attain the age of sixty-three years.
    
    James C. Raney was reared in Youngstown, Ohio, where he lived six or seven
  years of his boyhood, and in the various cities and towns in States west of
  Pennsylvania, where his father had resided during our subject's youth,
  working at civil engineering. The family lived successively at Danville,
  Ill., Bloomington and Washington, Ind., and New Lisbon, Ohio. He received the
  most of his schooling in New Lisbon, Ohio, where he lived for a considerable
  period with his grandparents, and then removed to Franklin. He learned
  milling under the supervision of his uncle, Bostwick Raney, familiarly known
  to a large circle of acquaintances as "Doc," at Franklin Square, Ohio, where
  he resided some six years. In June, 1883, he came to Mahoningtown, and
  engaged with his uncle, James A. Raney, as miller.
    
    Mr. Raney deserted the state of single blessedness to become a benedict in
  September, 1886, when he married, in Mahoningtown, Della Brock, daughter of
  Capt. John and Rebecca (McMillan) Brock. Her mother was born in Beaver
  County, and was a daughter of William and Martha (Marquis) McMillan, the
  former a son of John and Eliza (Moore) McMillan, and the latter a daughter of
  David and Nellie Marquis. Mrs. Raney's father was born in Lancashire, Eng., in
  1820, and was a son of James and Eleanor Brock. Mrs. Raney is a member of the
  Presbyterian Church, and warmly interested in all its benevolent work.
  Politics do not appeal very strongly to Mr. Raney, for his business has never
  failed to claim his whole attention to the exclusion of all other interests;
  he is content to exercise his franchise as a simple American citizen, and as
  a supporter of the Republican party. He has been a stockholder in the
  Mahoningtown Bank since its organization, and is president of the school
  board.