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In the late 1800's the little Wright County, Missouri town was known as Worsham, MO. In 1904 my grandfather's(George Washington Rayburn) brother Richard Rayburn applied to have the town named after him and his brothers to be called Rayburn, MO.

The story passed down to this day is that Richard did not write very well (no typewriters or computers then) and when the application came back it was approved to be called RaybOrn, Missouri.

This was in the time before birth certificates when name spelling was not considered terribly important....so Richard - and the entire Rayburn clan - just changed their names to RaybOrn. But, they maintained the pronunciation of RaybUrn.

According to post office records found in National Archives microfilm #M841, roll 74 the postmaster was then Lucinda Rayborn, wife of Richard. Lucinda resigned as postmaster May 5, 1915 and was followed by L. R. Hutsell.

The post office was "discontinued" January 20, 1956 when President Eisenhower combined many small post offices and mail was then handled by Manes, Missouri.

In December of 1959 I had graduated from college and was minister of music at the First Baptist Church of West Plains, MO in Howell, County, just south of Wright County. I decided to drive to Rayborn, MO to have my Christmas cards postmarked "Rayborn, MO." However, when I got there, the old post office was piled high with hay.

I drove back to West Plains to mail my post cards. The post office was gone but I still signed the cards
"Bill Rayborn" all because my grandfather's brother had poor penmanship.

=Bill Rayborn=
Grapevine, TX
02/24/2002

SEE PHOTO OF RAYBORN, MO POST OFFICE *(taken about 1956) under Rayborn on Ancient Faces.

P. S. I have recently read a story saying that the name was changed because of a misprint on the sign on the post office building. However, I am more inclined to believe the first story since if the sign were the problem it would likely have just required correcting the sign.

=Bill Rayborn=

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