Frank T. Ray

FRANK T. RAY. Graham County's popular sheriff is Frank T. Ray, a native of Northwestern Kansas, whose life has been a successful combination of hard work in private and public service since early youth.

Mr. Ray was born in Phillips County, Kansas, Jane 5, 1882. His father, Thomas Ray, was born in Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1848. He grew up in Western Pennsylvania and when a young man located in Illinois, where he married. In February, 1878, he arrived in Phillips County, Kansas, and homesteaded 160 acres four miles southwest of Phillipsburg. That homestead was his home and the center of his business activities until 1892. He then traded it for a farm in Graham County, located in section 2, township 6, range 21. He was, thenceforward, an influential factor in the life of the county until July 5, 1903, when he met death by lightning. He was an independent voter in politics and affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. Thomas Ray married Lucretia Gingery, who was born in Ohio November 3, 1848. Their only child is Frank T. Ray, and he still owns the farm which his father bought in Graham County more than a quarter of a century ago.

Frank T. Ray spent his early life in Phillips and Graham counties and was educated in the rural schools. He also attended high school for a time at Hill City. At the age of seventeen he left school to begin an active career as a farmer, and farming was his regular vocation until he was elected in 1916 to the office of sheriff of Graham County. He was re-elected in 1918, receiving abundant popular testimony to his efficiency in this office. In 1916 he was given a majority of 704 votes and in 1918, with no opponent, his vote was more than 1700. He served on the county war board, as chairman of Graham County's local draft board and carried his share of the auxiliary war work as a citizen.

Mr. Ray is a stockholder in the Farmers Union Elevator Company. He is owner of 960 acres of wheat and grain land in Graham County, and also raises large numbers of livestock, and is one of the very substantial men of the county. He is affiliated with Logan Lodge of Masons and with Hill City Lodges of Odd Fellows and Modern Woodmen of America.

Sheriff Ray married in Graham County in 1901 Miss Myrtle M. Hooper. Her parents were Edward and Olive (Fishbeck) Hooper, who still live in the county. Her father was one of the earliest settlers there, coming when the Indians were as numerous as white people. Mr. and Mrs. Ray have five children: Isadore T., born April 30, 1903, a sophomore in the Hill City High School; Frances, born May 20, 1905; Alpha, born in 1907; Lu Ollie, born in 1909, all three in the public schools; and Tommie E., born in 1913, the youngest in Sheriff Ray's household.

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