Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[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.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 13 May 2001