Ray, William H.

Born: 1812-12-14 Dutchess County, New York

Died: 1881-01-25 Rushville, Illinois

Flourished: 1834 to 1875 Rushville, Illinois

William H. Ray was merchant and politician. In 1813, he moved with his parents from his native Dutchess County, New York, to Oneida County, New York, where he attended local common schools. In 1834, he moved to Rushville, Illinois, and became a merchant, initially in partnership with Hart Fellows. Fellows retired in 1840, and Ray continued alone until the firm of Little and Ray was formed in 1844, with Ray as co-owner. Ray was an old-line Whig who became a Republican and had an intimate friendship with Abraham Lincoln. In 1860, Ray owned real property valued at $40,000 and had a personal estate of $10,000. He became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives after Lincoln's death, serving in the Forty-Third Congress from 1873 to 1875.

Ray married Jane T. Cunningham in April 1838 in Schuyler County, Illinois. The couple had three children. Jane Ray died in 1848, and William Ray subsequently married Mabel B. Tolles, with whom he had nine children.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1710; Lineage Book National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (Washington, DC: n.p. 1928), 101:276; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Schuyler County, 9 April 1838, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Rushville, Schuyler County, IL, 326; Combined History of Schulyer and Brown Counties Illinois (Philadelphia: W.R. Brink, 1882), 239-40; Gravestone (Jane Ray), Rushville City Cemetery, Rushville, IL; Gravestone (William H. Ray), Rushville City Cemetery, Rushville, IL.