NAME: George W. Ray

BIRTH DATE: September 15, 1828

DEATH DATE: 1862

CEMETERY NAME: not known (no stone)

BUSHWHACKER STORY: George W. Ray was the third son of John W. Ray and Isabell Foster, and in 1850 census they lived in the Gadfly area of Barry County. Family legend says that George W Ray was killed during a bushwhacking incident, part of the civil war activity in Southwest Missouri. As the story goes, he was working at the mill when he heard there were Yankees in the area. He jumped upon his most spirited horse and went to investigate. He happened upon a patrol of Yankees who challenged him. His horse was skittish, bolted, and ran from the patrol.

George was shot and killed.

Family stories always seemed to indicate that George was a confederate sympathizer, however, there is some confusion to this part of the story, an 1861 tax list that showed that the Ray's favored the Union.

It is doubtful that the exact date of George W. Ray's death will ever be found, but the family stories do state that the youngest child was a baby when he died. Since Manda Ray Muray was born in May 1861, according to the 1900 census of Parker County, Texas, and Elizabeth, the youngest, was born in April 1862, as is stated in her marriage license application in Dolores County, Colorado. George must have been killed in 1862. Since the story says that his youngest child was just a “babe in arms” at the time he died. His wife Elizabeth died just a few months later. Their children were placed in an orphanage, probably the one that was operated by Mary Phelps, the wife of John Phelps, who later became governor of Missouri.

There was a George W. Ray who was a member of the Missouri State Guard, who was killed in action during the Battle of Wilson's Creek near Springfield, Missouri. His name was mentioned in the United Confederate Veterans 10th reunion at Joplin, MO; 26-27 Sep 1906 as being a casualty of the war. Some researchers think this was the George W. Ray of this family. (It has been discovered that the George W. Ray named in the reunion stories and who was about the same age, was from Jasper County, Missouri, and is not the same person as the subject of this article.)

Submitted by: Loyd M. Bishop