Ebenezer Raynale, only son of Ebenezer and Mary Raynale, was born in Hartland, Windsor county, Vermont, on the 21st of October, 1804. His father, who died in September of the same year, had done a little in the business of farming, and to this had added the professions of teacher and land surveyor.

Three years after her husband's death Mrs. Raynale removed with her two children, Harriet and Ebenezer. to Brooklyn, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, where, a year later, she married Jonathan Sabin, and soon after they removed to the township of Ovid, now Lodi, Seneca county, New York. Here they remained but a short time, and removed to Reading, Steuben county. New York, where thev resided until 1819, when they made another removal, this time to Cambria, Niagara county, New York. Here young Raynale lived with his stepfather until he reached the age of nineteen years, when he went to Brooklyn, Pennsylvania, his former home, and there for four years devoted himself unremittingly to the acquisition of learning and the preparation for the duties of a professional life, which he had decided on entering.

At the expiration of this time, with certificates of three years' medical study in his pocket, he returned to Cambria, and gave another year to hard study under charge of Dr. Darius Shaw, and was then admitted to the practice of medicine and surgery, under the laws of New York, which at that time were very rigid in this particular.

In the first part of May, 1828, having decided to emigrate to Michigan, he took passage on the steamboat "Henry Clay," at Buffalo, for Detroit, where he arrived on the 5th, and after a veiy short stay in the city, proceeded to the place which is now the village of Franklin, in Southfield township, where he established and commenced business in the line of his profession on the 12th of May. He was then the only physician in Southfield, and his nearest professional brethren on the east and west were Dr. Ezra S. Parke, at Piety Hill, and Dr. Ezekiel Webb, at Farmington. The country was but sparsely settled, and physicians were called from a long distance. Dr. Raynale, in the performance of his professional duties, was obliged to traverse and re-traverse the townships of West Bloomfield, Farmington, Southfield, and Bloomfield, always, of course, on horseback, and it was not long before he commenced to enjoy that professional popularity and esteem which has followed him through all the years of his career.

During the winter of 1828-29 he procured the establishment of the post office of Franklin, and was himself appointed postmaster, which position he held for seven years. In October, 1830, he married Miss Eliza Cassidy, of Springville, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, with whom he has lived in happiness for almost forty-seven years. They have four children, all of whom have reached adult age, Mrs. E. R. King, of Pontiac ; S. B. Raynale, of Corunna, Michigan ; Mrs. G. A. Patterson, of Detroit ; and Dr. C. M. Raynale, of Birmingham.

In 1835, Dr. Raynale was elected a member of the convention to form the State constitution, and in the fall of the same year was elected to the State senate for the term of two years, through which he served ably and faithfully. At the first meeting of the legislature, a part of its business was the election of a United States senator, concerning which there was a warm contest, though not between different parties, as there was really but one party, the Democratic, represented in, that first legislature. Dr. Raynale sustained the candidates who proved successful, and he is today the only survivor among their supporters in that legislature.

During his senatorial term a great amount of work was done, among which was the establishment of the common school system, of the State university, the lunatic asylum and the State prison, the framing of a new code of laws adapted to the wants of the people, and the commencement of a system of internal improvements.

At the expiration of his term in the senate, Dr. Raynale settled on a farm in Bloomfield, where he remained for two years, and then settled in Birmingham, resuming the practice of his profession in 1839. In 1850 he was elected a member of the convention to form a new constitution, and served faithfully with that body. He has now relinquished his practice to his son, Dr. C. M. Raynale, but his services are still frequently called by patrons whose physician he has always been, and who desire no other.