Chariton County, Missouri Biographical Sketch - OLIVER P. RAY
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by: Willard D. Smith

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The subject of this sketch is a prominent young lawyer of Keytesville,
Missouri, who by bard labor and perseverance has attained a high standing
in his community, and is well and favorably known throughout Chariton
county. He is the eldest son of a family of ten children, all of whom were
born and reared on Chariton county soil. Our subject was born Feb. 27,
1871, on a farm near Salisbury, where he lived with his parents, Lewis F.
and Sarilda A. Ray, who were born in Linn and Chariton counties
respectively. He received an average public school education while he
remained at home. In 1891-92 he attended the Normal school at Stanberry,
Missouri, and returned to Chariton county, where his time was occupied in
teaching, farming and reading law, at odd times, until 1895, when he
removed to Keytesville, and put in his full time reading law until April,
1896, when be was admitted to the Chariton county bar. He was soon elected
and is at present Keytesville's City Attorney. Mr. Ray was married August
23, 1893, to Miss Margaret E. White, who was born March 6, 1871, in the
old McLain house at Appomattox, Virginia, where Lee and Grant signed
recapitulation papers. She is the daughter of Capt. J. H. White, a
prominent farmer and stock -rower residing near Hamden who is widely known
by Chariton county citizens as a gentleman of true enterprise and personal
worth. The subject of this sketch is a member of Keytesville Lodge No.
477, I. 0. 0. F., also a Master Mason of Warren Lodge No. 74, A. F. & A.
M., of Keytesville, and a "dyed in the wool" Bryan democrat and is at-
present engaged in the practice of law.