Caldwell County MO Archives History .....ANDREW McCRAY FAMILY IN THE COWGILL COMMUNITY 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 4:19 pm

THE ANDREW McCRAY FAMILY IN THE COWGILL COMMUNITY
	Narrator:  Frank Filson of Okla.

     Mr. Filson is a life long friend of Andrew Francis McCray and gave these 
facts after the recent death of Mr. McCray.  Mr. Filson lived in Caldwell 
county himself much of his earlier life.  A.F. McCray has contributed many 
interesting facts to our D.A.R. research on the county and we feel his loss 
deeply.
     Mr. McCray was born in Callaway county, Mo. 1843, the eldest of 11 
children born to Wm. Martin McCray and Nancy Carroll (gr. daughter of John 
Carroll of the Revolutionary War).  His parents soon after moved to Caldwell 
county near the present town of Cowgill where he experienced real pioneer life 
among the few pioneers of the county in the early forties.  He has written 
much of this down.
     He fought as a Union soldier in the Civil War and lost a leg at the 
battle of Lone Jack, one of his unceasing hobbies was a dream of a monument on 
the Long Jack battlefield for the Union soldiers who fell there.  Such appeals 
often appeared in the K.C. Star.  He was prominent in G.A.R. reunions.  The 
loss of a leg did not daunt him in life for when the stump healed, he re-
entered the army as a recruiting officer.
     In 1871, at Kingston, he was married to Hortentia Rhoades.  She died 4 
months before he did.  Two of his children had preceded him in death - Will 
McCray a millionaire oil man in Okla. who died as a result of a mysterious 
beating, and Fran McCray who died 1934 as a result of a car accident.  The 
remaining children are Merle McCray of Cowgill, Mrs. Alice Denton of Tulsa 
where the venerable couple died, H.B. McCray of Kansas City.
     Mr. McCray was an unswerving Republican and for more than 70 years, he 
was active in Caldwell county Republican work, but always clean and 
wholesome.  He was postmaster at Cowgill for 21 years and had been county 
assessor and recorder.  He was an excellent campaigner both for himself and 
his party, and his personality and ready laugh were strong assets to him.
     The original McCray family was a large one, hence by intermarriage, they 
were kin to much of Caldwell county.  At his death Jun 15 1935, he was 
survived by one brother C.C. McCray of Calif. and one sister, Mrs. G.B. Cowley 
of that original family.  While the early McCray family had their own burial 
plot, the old McCray graveyard near Cowgill, Mr. and Mrs. A.F. McCray were 
buried in the Cowgill city graveyard.
     Interview  1935.


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