EBENEZER RAYNALE, MD.

A Pioneer Birmingham Inventor

Shown above is a copy of Dr. Ebenezer Raynale's U.S. Patent No. 157,221 dated November 24, 1874.

This is the original model submitted by Dr. Ebenezer Raynale to the U.S. Patent Office. It is from the collection of Gary Kohs.

Here is a closeup view of the paddle.

Dr. Ebenezer Raynale, father of Dr. Charles Raynale and grandfather of Dr. George Raynale.

Ebenezer Raynale was born October 12, 1804 in Hartland, Vermont. As a young man he began the study of medicine, reading in Niagara County N.Y. and Springfield, Pa. He received his M.D. degree in 1828. For a few years he practiced medicine in Franklin, Michigan. According to his son, Dr. Charles Raynale, Ebenezer once traveled several miles into the country to visit a sick lady who was very poor. On his return he was lost in a snow storm and traveled over sixty miles being out all day and all night, yet his bill was only $3.00.

In 1835 he was a delegate to the Convention which framed the first Michigan Constitution. The following year he was elected to the first State Senate. While serving as a Senator in Detroit (then the Capital of Michigan) he was taken violently ill. His brother Senators provided a covered wagon and placed him in a bed and sent him home to die. However, he recovered and outlived them all. He was the last survivor of the First Michigan Senate. He was a staunch Jeffersonian Democrat and was intimately associated with General Lewis Cass and Michigan's first Governor, Stephens T. Mason.

Dr. Raynale assisted in forming Michigan's first Medical Association.

In 1839 Dr. Raynale moved to Birmingham. He was the first Treasurer of Birmingham's Masonic Lodge No. 44 which was chartered in January of 1851. The first issue of THE ECCENTRIC dated May 2, 1878 carried this announcement, "Doctor E. R. Raynale wishes the party who borrowed his scythe last summer to return it immediately." Apparently, the notice had no effect, since it appeared again in the following issue.

In 1846 Dr. Raynale had been part of a group of 21 men who purchased 2 acres of land from Ziba and Elizabeth Swan for $100. This land is now part of Greenwood Cemetery and prior to 1846 had been used as a burial ground for 21 years through the kindness of Dr. Swan who saw to it that the area was kept neat and clean. After Dr. Swan's death, Dr. Raynale cared for the cemetery, even having a fence built around it. It is possible that the scythe mentioned above was used by the Dr.for cutting weeds at Greenwood where he was buried in 1881.

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