Ray

Most of my information of the Ray family comes from a volume titled "A History of Pope County, Arkansas".  Ray history more properly starts with the McGuires.

Alegane (Alleghany) McGuire was born 6 Aug 1757, in Cumberland County, Virginia Colony, about 50 miles west of Richmond. He was a soldier in the Virginia Militia during the Revolutionary War. He served as an Orderly Sergeant in Capt. Scott’s company for six months in 1777. Later he served for nine months as a private.

He applied for a pension in 1832, in Maury County Tennessee. The reference to his pension application says that he was a member of the Virginia Militia, without reference to rank or unit. He was awarded Certificate No. 14948, crediting him with 15 months service as Sgt, and 9 months as private. It granted him 105 dollars a year as a pension. This ancestor makes eligible any female descendent who wishes to join the D.A.R.

After the war he lived for a time in Henry County, Virginia where he married Sarah Holliday 27 June 1782 in Martinsville. All of their children are assumed to have been born in Virginia: Roda, b. 16 Nov 1785; Mourning, b. 20 Aug 1787; Nancy, b. 3 June 1789, Cynthia, b. 9 Feb 1791, Holliday, b. 29 Dec 1792, and Matilda, b. Oct 1794. The McGuires moved to Elbert County Georgia in the latter part of 1794, where they remained for many years.

Allegane applied for a land grant from the state on 11 Nov 1794 and was granted a deed for 240 acres. Cynthia married Richard Vawter/Vaughter of Elbert County 11 Nov 1806, and was the mother of eight children:

Alagany Vawter, b. 1808

Noel J. Vawter, b. 1810

Lorenzo D.(also called Alonzo) Vawter, b. 1812, m. Elizabeth_______

John R. Vawter, b. 1840 Alabama

William J. Vawter, b. 1842 Mississippi

Thomas Vawter, b. 1845 Tennessee

Asa M. Vawter, b. 1847 Mississippi

Louisa Vawter, b. 1849 Mississippi

Martha M. Vawter, b. c. 1814

Sarah W. Vawter, b. c. 1816

Nancy M. Vawter, b. c. 1818, m. Samuel Marcum 13 Feb 1844 in Lawrence Co. Tenn.

Asa S. Vawter, b. 1820

Alpha F. Vawter, b. 1825, m1 Smith Voss 8 Nov 1840 in Lawrence Co. TN

Sylvester R. Voss, b. 1841, TN

Cynthia Voss, b. 1842, TN

Martha F. Voss, b. 1844, TN

Nancy J. Voss, b. 1847, TN

After Voss’s death she married Joseph Trotter in Lafayette County, Mississippi.

Richard Vawter was from a well-to-do family who had moved from Virginia. Leaving Elbert County, Georgia in 1811, the family moved to Maury County Tennessee first, then to Lawrence County. This change of county may have been due more to restructuring county lines, rather than moving.

Richard Vawter died in Lawrence County March 1827. Cynthia married John Ray, a widower also with a large family, c. 1828. John Ray was born c. 1775 (possibly in South Carolina), had been living in Lawrence County from at least 1817, and died there April 1843. I suppose John was a fairly prominent citizen of Lawrence County. He was a Justice of the Peace in 1818, and elected a constable in 1826. He received a deed from the state for 160 acres of land in 1821, and in 1831 purchased 25 acres of land from a neighbor, Solomon Blackwell. This land was on the south side of Big Buffalo Creek (also called Big Buffalo River), and in the north part of the county. The following children were born to John and Cynthia:

Alexander Ray, born c. 1829, married 28 Sep 1848 in Lawrence County, Elizabeth Matthews, born c. Feb 1828 in Tenn.

Alleghany Ray, born c. 1831, married 19 Mar 1855 Sarah Elizabeth, in Pope Co. Ark.

Cynthia R. Ray, born c. 1834, m1 3 Jan 1856 Robert Hamilton. This marriage is believed to have ended in divorce c. 1862.  m2 c. 1864 Dempsey Taylor, and d. c. early 1870s

Alleghany McGuire died in McNairy or Hardin County c. 1840-50. He ended his days as a member of his son Halladay's (Holliday's) household.

Sometime after 1843, widow Cynthia Vawter Ray and her family moved first to Lafayette County Mississippi, then by 1851 to Pope County Arkansas. The Mississippi 1850 census shows them living in son Alonzo (Lorenzo?) Vawter’s household and near daughter Alpha.

Alexander and his wife Elizabeth were parents of the following children:

John W. Ray, b. 1849, m. Sarah Elizabeth Bowden 24 Dec 1868

Stephen T. Ray, b. 1851, m. Annie Eggleston 14 Feb 1884

Sarah (Sallie) J. Ray, b. 1853, m. 19 Sep 1880 John Richard Lloyd (see Lloyd line), d. 1899 at Russet, Johnston Co., Oklahoma

Martha Ann Ray, b. 1856, m. H. G. Hamilton in 1880

Lorenzo D. Ray, b. 1858, m. Florence Ellen Keeton 17 Sep 1882

Harrison (Harry) Ray, b. 1860, never married

Mary E. Ray, b. 1860

Julia Francis Ray, b. 1862, d. 16 Mar 1893, m. John Tomas Keeton 2 Oct 1881

Alexander Ray died 1 Sep 1865 in Pope county, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the old Williamson Cemetery located by the Russellville-Dover road..

Alleghany Ray and his wife Sarah were the parents of two children who died in childhood, and the following three children:

Francis M. Ray, b. 1856, d. before 1866

Daniel T. Ray, b. 1859, d. before 1866

William J. Ray, b. c. 1861, m. Eliza Webb 29 Dec 1881

Thomas Jefferson Ray, born c. 1863, m. Mary Alice Pearson c. 1886

Robert Alexander Ray, born c. 1865, m. Savannah Montgomery 9 Jun 1889

Alleghany and Sarah lived in the valley now called Bradley Cove, about three miles due east of present-day downtown Russellville. Alleghany Ray was shot in the back and killed by an assassin 21 Aug 1866. There are several local stories about why his death happened. Sarah apparently was fearful her sons would grow up and try to retaliate, starting one of the family feuds common in that period, and zealously guarded the truth of the matter. The most probable account is that several days before his death, Alleghany was involved in a fistfight with a neighbor, and the neighbor came off second best. It was strongly suspected at the time, that this neighbor was the assassin.  Alleghany was also buried in the old Williamson Cemetery of Pope County.

Sarah later married a John Ray (unrelated) of Ennis County, Texas 9 Jan 1867. This marriage was apparently an unhappy one and ended in divorce. Sarah then married a man named Jones. This circumstances of this marriage are unknown except that Sarah gave her last name as Jones when she married Adam Chronister 21 Dec 1873, who provided a good home for her sons.

In the late 1880's, her sons were living in Hunt County, Texas, but each had returned to Pope county to marry. By the turn of the century they were all living near Comanche, Oklahoma, and all are buried in Oklahoma.

Cynthia Ray married Robert L. Hamilton, b. 1813, on 3 Jan 1856 at the home of her brother Alexander Ray. Robert and Cynthia were parents of the following children:

Eliza M. Hamilton, b. 1850

Martha Arkadelphia Hamilton, b. 1857

James Hamilton, b. 1858

Nancy Hamilton, b. 1859

Cynthia and Robert divorced c. 1862 since Robert L. Hamilton married Sarah Jane Cline in either 1862 or 1864. Cynthia married Dempsey Taylor a widower c. 1865, and they were parents of the following children:

Henry Taylor, b. 1866

Minerva Taylor, b. 1867

The article I have liberally quoted, references a book in the Russellville Public Library titled: "Alleghany Ray, his Ancestors and Descendants" which provides more information.