Page 6—Smoke Signals, Wednesday, January 31, 1973
Chowan Supporter
Raynor Leader
In Early Years
SIGNING UP—Professor Robert Mulder, of the English
Department, checks a student registration form prior to
enrolling him in an English course. Registration for the
spring semester was conducted January 16th.
Plans Outlined
For Talk-ins
By
JAMES ELLIOTT MOORE
Although not present at the
Mulberry Grove meeting of 1848,
James Rascoe Rayner was one of
the many Baptist laymen who
played a role in putting Chowan
on its feet during its first years. It
is unfortunate that little in
formation has survived about
him as he appears to have been
active in the affairs of his day.
Most of what we do know of
Rayner comes from letters
written by him in the 1840’s and
fifties and now in the possession
of a descendant of his—Mrs.
James H. Cable of Altadena,
California.
Bom on August 31, 1807 in
Bertie County, N.C., he was the
second child of Enock Rayner
and his wife Penelope Rascoe.
Where Rayner received his
education is a mystery, but his
writings indicate that he was
fairly well-trained for his day. He
was married in 1831 to Frances
Florentine Levana Lawrence and
settled on a farm near the Merry
Hill community. They were the
parents of nine children before she
died at the age of thirty-four in
December, 1847.
James Rayner spent nearly all
of his life in Bertie County except
for occasional trips to Raleigh
and Philadelphia. He made his
living by farming and engaging
in the naval stores industry. His
letters speak of many of the
activities on an antebellum
plantation. For instance, in a
communication dated Nov. 24,
1842, he told his wife “I hope you
will endeavor to manage to the
best advantage. Have the pork
killed as soon as the acorns are
gone. You must get your father to
get salt for you or if you will send
to Windsor to Roulhacs you can
get it. Keep Rose ploughing all
the time that the weather will
admit of it. Inquire about those
staves at Mr. Riddick’s if they
are not in danger of being stolen.
If your father sells his see if you
can not get him to sell ours. When
Ganza and Dick are done getting
those dead trees up make Dick
plough and Ganza clear up that
peice (sic) of land on the
road get James Mack to
build that house I was talking to
him about.”
Also, Rayner was active in
government affairs and
represented Bertie County in the
State Legislature during the 1842-
1843 session. His surviving letters
tell of raging debates and his
disgust for partisan politics.
Unfortunately, we know little of
James Rayner’s involvement
with the Baptist faith except he
was a member of Cashie Church
at Windsor, where his father-in-
law Rev. Reuben Lawrence
served as pastor for twenty
years.
As the father of five sons and
four daughters, Rayner was
vitally interested in the
educational facilities of his day.
His concern appeared in a letter
to his wife, written from Raleigh
on January 13, 1843. He said “I
would raUier that you would
attend to the instruction of the
children than anything else in the
world. I know our children are
not lacking in sense but it is the
lack of instruction that makes
them behind others that I have
seen here.”
Therefore, it is not surprising
to learn that Rayner was a
member of Chowan’s Board of
Trustees in 1849 and 1850. His
oldest daughter Aura attended
the school during his second year
as a trustee. A letter written by
him to her, dated May 10, is now
displayed in the Antiquities
Room of Whitaker Lilrary. Ap
parently, he was not satisfied
with her academic progress or
the manner in which Chowan was
being run for he wrote;
“I have no doubt Dr. Wheeler
told you I was not at all pleased
with your not having made more
progress in writing and com-
postition than you have. I do not
believe there is enough attention
paid to your studies in that
respect for certainly if there had
you would do better than you are.
You are put under no restraint
and not compelled to study and
improve as you ought, it does
appear to me your teachers think
more what sort of appearance
you will make upon the
promanade, at church, at parties
and concerts and how well you
will sing than they do about
storing your mind with useful
knowledge such as would be
useful to you in after life. There
has been more wrangling about
promanading and getting to
concerts and parties than there
has been in any other school in
the state. My patience is
threadbare. I have almost come
to the conclusion to resign as one
of the trustees and have nothing
more to do with it unless I could
conduct it as it should be, for
when there is a teacher that
places the girls under restraint as
Miss Haskell, she is passed by —
. I hope you will make good
use of your time and try in im
prove in letter writing and
compostition and not go on any
excursions or parties unless
every person concerned are
agreed to it.”
Apparently, James Rascoe
Rayner’s patience reached the
breaking point and he resigned
because he did not serve as a
trustee after 1850. The surviving
data on the remainder of his life
is brief. His wife had died several
years prior to this time, and he
married Mary Elizabeth Collins
Mebane, a wealthy Bertie
County widow. Settling at her
Qiowan River plantation “The
Hermitage,” he died there at the
age of forty-five on Sept. 27,1852.
Such was the life of one of
Chowan’s early trustees who
couldn't accept the way things
went at a BajAist girls’ school in
1850. It is interesting, and even
amusing, to wonder what he
would think of Chowan today.
Plans are being made for Talk-
Ins, 1973, a project sponsored
annually by Student Personnel.
The series would consist of four
talk-ins. They will be conducted
in the Askew Baptist Student
Union and will begin at 7:00 p.m.
“Time will be called at 8:00,”
said Dean Lewis. “Those wanting
to continue talking may do so but
each talk-in will officially last
only one hour.”
Each talk-in will be composed
of six discussion groups. A group
will consist of a discussion leader
and seven or eight students
anxious to share their ideas and
willing to consider those of
others.
Group leaders wiU be asked to
be exfremely conscious about
dominating the discussion. The
role of the gouup leader will vary
according to the group. However,
the primary purpose of the leader
will be to provide an atmosphere
where varied views can be
projected.
Faculty members have been
asked to serve as group leaders.
Resource people will be asked to
participatee in the talk-ins on
crime and transcendental
meditation.
The first talk-in has been
scheduled for January 30, 1973.
“Come Back to the Garden, Hugh
Honey,” an article which first
appeared in Dialog, V(Winter,
1966), pp. 38-43 and was
reproduced in Changing World,
Changing Family, Lutheran
Press, Philadelphia, 1967, pp. 124-
132.
“Come Back to the Garden,
Hugh Honey” attacks Hugh
Hefner’s Playboy j^ilosophy and
compares it to the traditions of
American religion and morality.
“For those who are trying to
discover some kind of meaning in
the sex revolution, the article will
be thou^t provoking and as a
result may want to dip further
into the writings of the king of
bunnies and playboys, Hugh
Hefner!” remarked Dean Lewis.
“Living with Crime,” an ar
ticle from the December issue of
Newsweek, pp. 31-36, will serve
as the springboard for the second
talk-in on February 13. The last
sentence of the article reads, “It
is only natural that Americans
should turn to bolstered police
and stronger locks to fight their
fear and the criminal; the danger
is that in the end they will put
themselves in prison.”
“Resource persons of the area
have been invited to participated
in this particular talk-in,” said
Dean Lewis.
The third discussion will be
held on Feburary 20 and will be
on abortions. The article for this
talk-in has not yet been selected.
“We would like for citizens in the
College community to recom
mend articles for this talk-in,”
said Dean Lewis.
The popular press has had
difficulty in deciding whether
transcendental meditation is a
drugless high, a kooky fad or a
medical miracle. The last talk-in
will be based on “transcendental
meditation and the science of
creative intelligence,” an article
by Paul H. Levine, a chief
scientist of the Astrophysics
Research Corporation in Los
Angeles, from the December,
1972 Phi Delta Kappa, pp. 231-235.
“With the help of Dr. Hargus
Taylor, we are hoping to bring a
specialist to this talk-in.”
Through the years the talk-ins
have grown in popularity. They
provide an opportunity for
students to make new friends.
Also, faculty, staff and students
can meet each other in a setting
other than a classroom or office.
Through shared ideas par
ticipants should develop new
perspectives or a tolerance for
those with different attitudes and
values.
Dr. Hargus Taylor has agreed
to grant the maximum two
assembly absences to those
participating in two talk-ins.
Those participating in one talk-in
will receive one approved
assembly absence.
Today in History
Today is Wednesday, January 31, the 31st day of 1973.
There are 334 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history:
On this day in 1958, Explorer I, the first United States
earth sattellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral,
Florida.
On this day:
In 1531, Holy Roman Emperor Charles II appointed
his sister, Mary of Hungary, as regent to the
Netherlands.
In 1606, Guy Fawkes, a conspirator against the
government in England, was executed.
In 1865, in the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee was
named commander in chief of the Confederate armies.
In 1943, in World War II, the Soviets announced that
they had destroyed German forces encircling
Stalingrad.
In 1944, in the Pacific, the American invasion of the
Marshall Islands began with a landing at Kwayalein.
In 1950, President Harry S. Truman announced he had
ordered development of a hydrogen bomb.
Ten Years Ago: Britain accused France of trying to
dominate Europe after the French exercised a veto
right to keep the British out of the European Common
Market.
Five Years Ago: South Vietnam’s president Nguyen
Van Thieu declared martial law in the face of mounting
guerrilla attacks throughout the country.
One Year Ago: There was violence coupled with a
general strike in Northern Ireland to protest the killing
of 13 civilians by British troops.