John W. Ray

RAY, OVERMAN, BARTHOLOMEW

Posted By: Diane Wilson (email)
Date: 5/19/2004 at 22:29:46

John W. Ray, the present county treasurer of Butler county, is serving his second official term, having been elected in the fall of 1879 and again in 1881. He was born in Mahoning county, Ohio, in 1841, where he lived until about eighteen years of age. His father died when he was but a child.
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He removed to Cedar Falls, Black Hawk county, with his mother’s family in 1859, and enlisted August, 1862, in Company B, 31st Iowa Volunteer Infantry, serving three years. The 31st regiment belonged to the 15th Army Corps, and he participated in all the battles in which that famous corps engaged.
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When nineteen years of age he engaged in J.M. Overman & Co.’s mill, at Cedar Falls, to learn the trade. He removed in 1865 to Shell Rock, where he was engaged in milling up to the time of his election to his present position. He still owns one-half interest in the mill at that place.
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Mrs. Ray, formerly Mrs. Emma R. Bartholomew, born in Illinois, is his wife. They have four children-William F., Cora A., James F. and Lulu N.
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Source: History of Butler and Bremer Counties, Iowa
Union Publishing Co., Springfield, IL, 1883
Page 296