A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931 JOHN E. RAY, who is general agent for the Equitable Life Insurance Company of Iowa, with executive headquarters in the City of Waterloo and with office in the Pioneer Building, is a native son of the Hawkeye State and a representative, in the third generation, of one of its sterling pioneer families. Mr. Ray was born on the parental home farm three miles southeast of Shellsburg, Benton County, Iowa, on the 4th of January, 1872, and is a son of John H. Ray, Jr., who was born in New York City, he having been a son of John H. Ray, who was born in Sweden and who became an orphan when he was but a child. He was a lad of nine years when he initiated his seafaring career, and he continued a sailor on ocean ships during a period of twenty years and having voyaged far and wide. After retiring from the sea he maintained a Sailor's Home in New York City for a time and then removed to Indiana, from which state he came with his family to Iowa and became a pioneer settler in Linn County. There he owned and developed a productive farm, and he passed the closing period of his life in the village of Palo, that county, where he died November 13, 1902, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. He was a man of strong mentality, was well fortified in his political convictions and was an ardent supporter of the cause of the Republican party, as a representative of which he voted for Abraham Lincoln for the presidency of the United States. He was long and actively affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and received in the same the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite. His wife, who was of German ancestry, preceded him to the life eternal. John H. Ray, Jr., father of the subject of this review, was a boy at the time of the family removal to Linn County, Iowa, where he was reared on the pioneer farm and received the advantages of the public schools of the period. His youth was one of industry, as he early began to assist in the work of the home farm, and he started his independent career as a farmer by renting land from his father. He thus continued his operations three years and then, in 1874, removed to Sioux County, where he entered claim to a homestead of eighty acres. Like many of the other pioneers, he went through the three year grasshopper scourge soon after his arrival. He reclaimed this land to cultivation, erected good buildings and made other improvements, and there the family home was maintained until 1884, when removal was made to Hull, that county, in order to give the children the advantages of the public schools of the village. He continued to supervise the affairs of his old home farm and also of a farm adjoining Hull. There he remained until 1894, when he removed to Riceville, Iowa, where he died April 5, 1896, at the age of forty-seven years. His wife, whose maiden name was Lucinda Miller, survived him many years and was within a week of eighty-three years of age at the time of her death, October, 3, 1928. She was born in Ohio and was a daughter of Paul and Catherine Miller, who were residents of Iowa at the time of their death. John H. and Lucinda (Miller) Ray became the parents of four children: Paul M., vice president and superintendent of agents of the Provident Life Insurance Company at Chattanooga, Tennessee; John E.; Daniel G., manager of the Farmers Cooperative Association at McGregor, Iowa; and Martha Gertrude, who lives at Blackwell, Oklahoma. John E. Ray supplemented the discipline of the rural district school by attending the public school at Hull, including the high school. That he profited by the advantages thus afforded him is shown by the success that attended his service as a teacher in the public schools, he having been principal of schools at different places and after continuing his pedagogic service several years he was a traveling salesman twenty years, during the period of 1898-1918. In the latter year he assumed his present position of general agent for the Equitable Life Insurance Company of Iowa, and he has marked the passing years with successful administration in this position. His political support is given to the Republican party and he takes loyal interest in all that concerns the welfare of his home city and native state. In the year 1892 Mr. Ray was united in marriage to Miss Etta M. Sanborn, who was born at Columbus, Wisconsin, a daughter of George E. and Mary (Tompkins) Sanborn, representatives of families that came from England to America in an early period of the nation's history. Mr. and Mrs. Ray have five children: Elfa married John L. Thorson, a grocer at Waterloo, and they have one daughter, Patricia Darleen, born November 19, 1922; Lula E. married Blaine W. Gilda, a bank cashier at Grimes, Iowa; Mary E. married Frederick Thorne, inspector for the Viking Pump Company at Cedar Falls, Iowa, and they have one son, Ray F., born September 22, 1924; John H. III is a soloist and choir director and music teacher; and Paul E. is traveling in several Southern States for the Florsheim Shoe Company. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa History Project _http://iagenweb.org/history/_ (http://iagenweb.org/history/) Scott County, Iowa _http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm_ (http://ww w.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm) **************New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making headlines. (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000026)