Ray, Martin C.

RAY

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 23:57:36

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.873

MARTIN C. RAY
M. C. Ray, a progressive, active young business man, who acts as station agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Ford and conducts extensive farming and stock-raising interests on section 15, Richland Township, was born at Hartford, this state, November 12, 1872, the son of James M. and Mary E. (Snowden) Ray. His father was a native of Indiana, where he was born in 1818. He was a cooper by trade, in which occupation he was en­gaged in Indianapolis at the time of his marriage to Mary E. Snowden, who was born at Upper Sandusky, Ohio. The young couple came to Warren County, October 14, 1847, where the husband entered land one mile west of Hartford. He also established a cooper shop at Hartford and divided his time between the two industries, making the farm his permanent home. Dur­ing the dark days of the Civil War he enlisted in Colonel Henderson's regiment at Indianola, the Thirty-fourth Infantry, and held the rank of corporal. He was honorably discharged and returned to his anxious family and again took up the work of the civilian. Here he spent the remainder of his days, passing away September 2, 1896, having survived his wife, who died on June 7, 1896, but a few months. They were the parents of five sons and four daughters, and Charles is the only one now deceased. With the exception of one sister who resides in Hartford, the members of the family are widely separated.
M. C. Ray, the youngest member of the family, was reared on his father's farm west of Hartford. Here he received a good common school education, which was supplemented by a course in the Iowa Business College at Des Moines. On starting out in life he followed the occupation of farming for one year, after which he engaged in railroad work at Carlisle, where he re­mained for one year, when in 1896 he accepted a position with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad as station agent at Ford, where he has since re­mained continuously. Mr. Ray now has a half interest in a farm of two hun­dred and fifty-one acres in the home place, upon which he has placed many valuable improvements. He has remodeled the house, built a barn and other necessary outbuildings, has put in cement walks and installed a hot and cold water system, and added further improvements necessary for the comfort of his family and the profitable conduct of his business. He feeds and raises about one carload of cattle and two carloads of hogs each year, in addition to the raising of hay and grain.
On September 8, 1896, Mr. Ray was married to Miss Emma K. Smith, daughter of Jacob Smith, and a native of this county. Unto this union have been born five children: Mabel W., Phoebe A., and Mary Lucile, all living and two sons, Clyde S. and Eldon J., deceased.
In politics Mr. Ray is a Republican. His fellow citizens, recognizing his worth and ability, have honored him with various local offices. Fraternally, he is a Master Mason, being a member of the Hartford lodge. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which lodge he has passed through all the chairs. He is likewise a member of the Yeoman of Hartford, and of the Modern Woodmen of America at Swan. He attends the Presbyterian Church at Hartford, of which his estimable wife is a member. The success and prosperity to which Mr. Ray has attained are entirely due to his own efforts, as he began life empty-handed and has acquired his property through self-denial, industry and good management.