BRAY, Henry Augustus 1844-1943

BRAY, PETTIT, CHRISTIANSEN, LEWIS

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 5/28/2013 at 23:56:49

[Waterloo Sunday Courier, Sunday, May 9, 1943]

Henry A. Bray, last Civil war veteran in Black Hawk County, who as a youth of 19 fought in the battle of Vicksburg, died at 4:45 p.m; Saturday at his home, 327½ Edwards Street. He was 99 years old.

Death was due to general senility. He had been confined to his bed since Monday. Had he lived 23 days more, he might have ridden again in the Memorial day parade.

Enlisting at Kankakee, Ill., Aug. 7, 1862, when he was 18. Bray subsequently served nearly three years in the Union army, under Generals Grant and Sherman most of the time. He was mustered out of Company F, Seventy-sixth infantry, at Galveston, Tex., July 22, 1865.

In many battles, Bray served as an ambulance driver. He saw active service at Natchez, Miss.; Memphis, Tenn.; Baton Rouge. La., and Savannah, Ga., and was with Grant's men when they stormed the heights at Vicksburg, Miss.

Bray was last member of Robert Anderson post No. 68, Grand Army of the Republic, Waterloo, which once numbered 478, and also last member of the Whipple post at Kankakee. Ill. He was a private thruout the war.

Born Feb. 25, 1844, at Bourbonnais, Ill., Henry Augustus Bray was son of Henry and Elmira Bray and one of a family of nine children.

After the Civil war, he married Jennie Hutchinson and the couple then farmed near Lancaster, Wis., until Mrs. Bray died about 62 years ago. Bray then came to Iowa, settling in Quasqueton, where he married Ella Lewis on Oct. 24, 1878.

For a number of years he operated a tavern in Quasqueton before coming to Waterloo
in the early '90's.

For a long period just before and after the turn of the century, Bray ran what was then termed a "hack" service, transporting patrons about the city in his carriage. His headquarters were at the former Logan house, located at Fourth and Sycamore Streets on the corner where the James Black Dry Goods company building now stands.

His hobby during this period which he also turned to business advantage—was raising of blood hounds and other types of dogs. Bray had kennels at that time at his home on Polk street.

Returned Here in 1928 - In 1914 Bray, who was then separated from his wife, moved back to his birthplace near Kankakee, Ill., and returned to Waterloo in 1928 to live with his daughter, Mrs. Alice Lewis, 327½ Edwards Street. Mrs. Bray died in November, 1941, in St. Paul, Minn.

He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Quasqueton.

Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. Nellie Pettit, Kalispell, Mont; Mrs. Lew Christiansen, St. Paul, Minn., and Mrs. Alice Lewis, Waterloo; 22 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Two sons by his first marriage, Girden and Wern, died in 1918 and 1925 respectively; another son, Frank, died last June in St. Paul and a fourth son, Buryl, died in Omaha, Neb., in 1938.

The body was taken to the O'Keefe & Towne Funeral Home. No funeral arrangements have been made.

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[Waterloo Daily Courier, Monday, May 10, 1943]

Funeral Tuesday
for County's Last
Civil War Veteran

Taps will be sounded for Henry A. Bray, the last Civil war veteran of Black Hawk County, when his flag-draped casket is lowered to its grave in Elmwood cemetery Tuesday afternoon. A firing squad from Eugene Clark post, 1623, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and a bugler will take part in the final rites, while representatives from all patriotic organizations of Waterloo will stand with bowed head.

Funeral services and military rites will be conducted at p.m. at the O'Keefe & Towne chapel with Rev. William Crossley, pastor of St. Paul's Methodist church, officiating. Participating in the military rites will be officers of the Woman's Relief corps, ladies of the G. A. R., Daughters of Union Veterans, United Spanish-American War Veterans and Sons of Union Veterans.

Casket bearers will be six members of the Sons of Union Veterans. They are William A. Davis, Orville J. Wolgast, Frank H. Lemley, Calvin D. Engledow, David F. Merrirnan and Edward Beal.

Mr. Bray, who was 99 years old, died Saturday afternoon at his home, 327½ Edwards street.