John Rayner & Mary Rayner

The picture below is the detail of front porch with Christine, Mrs. Ed Raynor in the foreground. Pictures by Joe & Mary Maioni
on their roots connecting trip to North Carolina in 1948.

John Alexander Rayner, son of William Rayner and Eliza C. Drew, was born 31 July 1837.
He enlisted at Windsor in Bertie County, N. C. at age 24, August 9, 1862, for the war.
As a private with Co F 4th Reg NC Cavalry. Which later was Co F 59th Reg NCT.

The home burned one night about 1896,
James Moore writes I remember my grandfather, Raynor Moore, telling me that Aunt Nell was spending that night at Uncle Marc’s. Grandpa forgot this and went back into the house and fought his way to her room. He found it empty and then remembered where she was. He suffered burns on the face and hands.
Eunice Sessoms Waters wrote: My Grandma told “I woke up in the middle of the night and my house was full of smoke and fire. Before your grandpa and I could get the chairs, tables, and beds out, it was burning all over. My husband’s eyes were burned, burned so bad he had them tied up and could not see how to walk for a long time.”
(The home was rebuilt as it had been.)
John Rayner died at his home, the new old Rayner home 22 Dec. 1901.

“Molly” Mary Winifred Rayner, daughter of James Rasco Rayner and his wife Frances Florentine Lawrence, was born 3 Feb 1840 on a raining, freezing day.
Her mother died 20 Dec 1847;
her father remarried 2 April 1850;
then he died 27 Sept 1852
and the step-mother had died by 1855.
The children lived with various relatives and friends–
Molly went to live with J O Askew (1860 census), merchant.
Molly attended the school conducted by Mr Alfred Darden at his plantation “Elm Grove” at Mapleton.
Molly died of “uremia” on the 26 April 1925 at the home of her daughter Beulah Sessoms.

Mollie Rayner

Eunice Waters wrote My Grandma had read the Bible through many times more than I thought possible.
I never asked her a question about the Bible that she did not answer and then told me in which Book and Chapter I could find it.
She had a wonderful voice and could sing from memory Hymns, old Irish & English Ballads – Folk songs – all of Stephen Foster’s – and Lullabies.
She rocked her grandchildren and great grandchildren to sleep as she sang.
She sang as she knitted stockings for the grandchildren – and she sang at Twilight – Songs and Hymns she had learned as a child and young girl.
She did not have much formal schooling – as she did not go to College though her sisters did.
Her mother died when she was very young – and her father married the widow Mebane, who had several children, so she went to live with her Aunt Mary.
She did attend a Young Ladies School in the Home of Miss Anna Darden, who was her teacher.
(She was Lil Sumner’s great aunt) – My Grandma must have been a joy to Miss Anna – Her English, oral and written was very nearly perfect. So was her spelling.
Her memory was perfect. She could recite long poems, chapters from the Bible.
Things she had learned as a child, she remembered correctly.
She never failed to correct our English.
She would quote rules to us and then say “There are exceptions to all rules –
So just say words over and see if they sound right.”
“Richer than I, no one could be, I had a Grandma, who read to me.”

Molly Rayner and her daughters:
Johnnie Moore, Beulah Sessoms and Nell Myers

Molly Rayner in her hat