Tragedy

On March 19th, 1926, my great grandfather, Arthur Elsworth Raymo, was killed in a terrible industrial accident at his alloy plant.

The tragedy was described in the next day's Chattanooga Times:

     Arthur E. Raymo, Sr., general superintendent of the plant of the Southern Ferro Alloys company, died at Chattanooga hospital yesterday evening at 6 o'clock following the loss of his right arm in an accident at the plant yesterday morning at 10:30.
     Mr. Raymo is said to have been inspecting machinery when the glove on his right hand got caught under a wide unloading conveyor belt, which threw him against a post and tore his arm off at the shoulder.
     He was taken to the hospital and given surgical treatment, physicians entertaining hopes of his recovery until late in the afternoon, when it became apparent that blood transfusion would have to be resorted to. Tests of the blood of individuals was made preparatory to making the transfusion and, a donor suitable blood having been found, the physicians were preparing to take blood from him when the injured man died.
     Mr. Raymo, who was 46 years of age, came to this city from Detroit, Mich., ten years ago and resided at 1025 East Ninth street. He was well known in Chattanooga, being an active member of SS. Peter and Paul's church and a member of the Knights of Columbus.
     Surviving him are his wife and four children, Arthur, Jr., Charlotte, Chester and Roger, and his mother, sister and two brothers, Mrs. William Krumm, Detroit: Ralph Raymo, Wayne, Mich., and Lester Raymo, of Ypsilanti, Mich..
     Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

The last photograph we have of Arthur Elsworth Raymo (1880-1926)

Frosty the Engineer

Chester T. Raymo, Arthur J. Raymo, Arthur E. Raymo, Roger D. Raymo

Chattanooga, Winter 1925/26

Twenty Years of Marriage

Margaret (Merrow) Raymo and Arthur E. Raymo

1925

The Family Car

Margaret and Arthur E. Raymo in their new car (which looks to me like a Hupmobile).

Chattanooga, 1924

On the Road

In September of 1923, Arthur E. Raymo went on a business trip to Michigan, Ontario and New York. He visited other manufacturing plants, presumably to study their procedures and bring back ideas to his own alloy plant in Chattanooga. He rode from city to city by train and, when he had time, he sent home letters to his wife Margaret and family.

Here is one such letter Arthur wrote from Niagara Falls, New York.

Mom and Dad

Margaret (Merrow) Raymo and Arthur E. Raymo

Chattanooga, 1923

Lookout Mountain

Arthur Elsworth Raymo

Chattanooga, 1922

The Extended Family

The Raymo & Krumm Families, Chattanooga 1920

From left to right:

Arthur E. Raymo, Roger D. Raymo, Hazel Raymo Krumm, Emma Handeyside Raymo, Evelyn B. Krumm, Charlotte A. Raymo, Chester T. Raymo, William C. Krumm (Hazel's husband), Unknown Gentleman, Arthur J. Raymo

I don't know who the older gentleman on the right is, but I can make an educated guess. He may be Owen M. Raymo, brother to Theodore Raymo and Arthur E. Raymo's uncle. Owen lived in Nankin, Michigan and conceivably could have accompanied the widow Emma Handeyside and the Krumms on their visit to Chattanooga in 1920. He would have been 66 years old at that time.

Brother and Sister

Arthur Elsworth Raymo and his younger sister Hazel E. Raymo, 1920

Hazel Raymo (1886-1974) was six years Arthur's junior and the youngest of Theodore and Emma's six children. She married William Charles Krumm and they had one daughter, Evelyn B. Krumm. Hazel lived her entire life in Wayne County, Michigan.

Arthur and Friend

Arthur Elsworth Raymo

Chattanooga, 1918

Chattanooga

From Charlotte Raymo's 1976 recollections:

[In July 1917] our family moved to Chattanooga so that our father could help build and operate the Southern Ferro Alloys Company, which would manufacture ferro silicone for use in ammunition to be used in World War I.

There had been a big flood in Chattanooga in March 1917, and it was difficult to find housing that had not been damaged by water. So the first year, 1917-1918, we lived in the St. Elmo area and attended public school--I was in the 5th Grade.

In the spring of 1918, we moved to [212] Baldwin Street, about 6 blocks from Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church and Notre Dame School (a 12-grade school). My three brothers and I enrolled in Notre Dame in September 1918 and became acquainted with the Dominican Order of Sisters--marvelous teachers and disciplinarians.

212 Baldwin Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee, c.1918

Out on a walk

Arthur Elsworth Raymo and his children, c.1916, Mount Pleasant, Tennessee

Memories of Mount Pleasant, Part Four

My father was superintendent of the phosphate mines in Mt. Pleasant. It takes lots of water to mine phosphate hydraulically, and a beautiful stream ran through the mining property. During the summer months the Negro churches would ask permission to have “Baptizings” in the stream on Sunday afternoon. It was great fun to attend these gatherings and see the men and women get dunked in the water and come up with shouts of “Hallelujah!”, “Praise the Lord!” or “Amen, Brother!”

Gone South

In 1911, Arthur Elsworth Raymo and his family moved from Dearborn, Michigan to Mount Pleasant, a small mining town in central Tennessee. Arthur accepted a new position as the superintendent of the Rhum Phosphate Mining Company.

This c.1912 portrait shows Arthur and Margaret with their four young children; Arthur, Charlotte, Chester and Roger.

Filling in the holes

There is very little in the "Charchive", either photos or documents, from the period of time between Arthur and Margaret's marriage in 1905 and their move to Tennessee in 1911. I have been able to piece together a few bits from other sources which give us a glimpse at their early married life.

The young couple had four children in quick succession:

1. Arthur Joseph Raymo, born 3 July 1906
2. Charlotte Alma Raymo, born 28 November 1907
3. Chester Theodore Raymo, born 27 March 1909
4. Roger Daniel Raymo, born 19 August 1910

I've looked up the birth registrations for the four children of Arthur and Margaret in the microfilmed records of Wayne County, Michigan. This microfilm (FHL 1377681) is available through the Family History Centers run by the LDS Church.

Arthur was born in Nankin. Charlotte, Chester and Roger were born in nearby Dearborn. On Arthur's birth registration, his father's occupation is given as "farmer." By the time Charlotte was born, Arthur Sr. was a "bookkeeper" and living in Dearborn.

The family also appears in the 1910 United States Federal Census of Dearborn, Michigan.

Arthur, Margaret and their first three children (Roger was not born at the time they were enumerated) are living in a rented house on Garrison Avenue in Dearborn. This is before the automobile boom so Dearborn is still a small township. In addition, Arthur's occupation is listed as bookkeeper for the Electric L(ight?) Company.

Also living with them is Margaret's 18 year old younger sister Josephine Merrow. The rest of the Merrow family had moved to Tennessee a few years prior. Josephine would later become a nurse for the U.S. Army.

The family's stay in Dearborn was brief as Arthur soon accepted a new job which also brought him and his family to Tennessee.

The Newlyweds

Margaret Merrow grew up in Detroit. Her father, Joseph D. Merrow, was a tug boat captain on the Great Lakes. He retired from that profession in 1894 and moved his family to Swift's Corner, north of Wayne. There, Joseph ran a general store and was a postmaster. It was there, presumably, that Margaret met Arthur.

Margaret A. Merrow married Arthur E. Raymo on 2 Aug 1905 at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Wayne, Michigan.

For their honeymoon, they travelled to where else? Niagara Falls!

The Raymo Farm

This 1897 photograph in Nankin, Michigan shows Emma and Theodore Raymo with their entire family; all their children, their spouses, and grandchildren. Emma and Theodore are seated in front.

From left to right are:

1. Herbert Avery and wife Evalena Raymo with their two sons, Leland and Ray.
2. Hazel Raymo
3. William Ralph Raymo and his wife Fannie Norris
4. Arthur Elsworth Raymo
5. Charles Hayes and wife Nora Ann Raymo with son Theodore
6. Leslie Theodore Raymo with wife Edith Smith

The Raymo farmhouse was on a 120 acre parcel of land that was divided equally between Theodore and his brother Owen Raymo after their father Mitchell died.

In the 20th century the farmland was eventually all sold away and was subsumed by the creeping Detroit suburbia. The Township of Nankin became part of the city of Westland in 1966.

Here is, approximately, where the farmhouse stood today, as seen in Google Street View:


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Arthur Elsworth Raymo

My great grandfather Arthur Elsworth Raymo was born in Nankin, Michigan on 19 January 1880. Nankin was a small farming community west of Detroit. Arthur was born on the farm of his parents, Theodore Raymo (1841-1906) and Emma Handeyside (1853-1936).

This photograph, a tintype, was taken c.1885 in the same Detroit photographer's studio that the portrait of his future wife Margaret was taken. As seen here, it was common for the photographer to hand tint the cheeks of his subjects after capturing their image.