Fayette County PA Archives Biographies.....Cray, James R. March 8, 1860 - ????
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marta Burns marta43@juno.com September 1, 2024, 10:12 am

Source: Gresham and Wiley, 1889: Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia, Fayette Co, PA, pg 427
Author: John H. Gresham & Samuel T. Wiley

    James R Cray, one of the stirring young businessmen of 
Dunbar, was born at Darlington, Beaver county, Penna, March 
8, 1860, and is a son of James Cray and Margaret Meehan 
Cray, both born in Ireland.
    The name Cray or Creagh, as it was originally spelled, 
is a common and well known one in the counties of Cork and 
Limerick, southern Ireland.  In the early part of the 
present century, the male members of the Cray family were 
among the largest and finest physically developed and most 
muscular men of that region.  The trans-Atlantic Crays have 
held many positions of trust and profit and their native 
country.  One of this family, Captain Cray, recently filled 
the office of Mayor of the City of Cork.
    Peter Cray, the grandfather of James R Cray, was born in 
the county of Cork, and was the youngest of six sons and 
married Bridget Brown in 1817. They had seven sons and three 
daughters, of whom four are living.  James Cray, the father 
of James R Cray, emigrated from Ireland in 1852 to Brady's 
Bend, Armstrong county, Penna, where four years later he 
married Margaret Meehan, a daughter of Patrick Meehan and 
Ellen Noonan Meehan.  
    Her parents were married about 1820 in Fenah Parish, 
County Limerick, Ireland.  Born to them were one son and 
three daughters: James, Margaret, Honora and Ellen.  
    James Cray and Margaret Meehan Cray had born to them 
five children: James R Cray; Peter P M Cray, now a 
bookkeeper in Pittsburgh; Bridget Cray and Ellen Cray.  All 
living except Peter.
    James R Cray was principally educated in the thirty 
sixth ward and Central High School, Pittsburgh.  After 
learning the harness making trade at Pittsburgh, he located 
in the oil regions of Pennsylvania but soon removed to 
Dunbar where in 1878 he opened in business and by his skill 
and industry soon became one of the foremost businessmen of 
the place.  He secured an appointment as postal clerk in the 
railway mail service on the recommendation of Hon C E Boyle. 
 This position he did not like, which he soon resigned in 
order to devote all his attention to his rapidly increasing 
business at Dunbar.
    In 1888 he passed a very creditable preliminary 
examination for the law, and was registered as a law student 
under the preceptorship of the firm of Boyle, Mestrezat & 
Boyle.  He has done as much and probably more to promote the 
interests and develop the resources of the progressive 
little borough of Dunbar than any other young man.  

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2000.

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