New York CemeteryWayne County, IowaJames W. Pray
1849-1910
American Legion marker
Row 14, #2
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James was born in 1849 in Jackson County, Indiana, the youngest of three sons of Hezekiah Pray and his second wife, Sarah Ann Smith. His siblings: Hezekiah Jr. and Robert Tigard. He had seven older half-siblings: Jane, Catherine, Samuel, John, Stephen, William M. and Matthew
James served as a Private in the Civil War enlisting 1 Jan 1869 for a period of 3 years. He served in the 2nd U.S. Infantry and was discharged at Chattanooga, Tennessee on January 2, 1872 at the expiration of his service. He applied for a pension in 1906.
Indiana marriage records show that on 24 Feb 1876 in Vigo County, James married Sarah Ella Bates. In 1880 he is found in Monroe township, Ringgold County, in southern Iowa with Ella and two children, a daughter Jessie, 3 and a son, Robert 1 month. In 1895, he is found in Wright township, Wayne Co., widowed and living with a nephew; and he is named in the 1897 Wayne County marriage record of his daughter to John W. Plotts.
Finally James is found living with his daughter Jessie in Russell, Washington township, Lucas Co., Iowa in the 1910 census, enumerated on April 19th. He died in 1910 at the age of 61.
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