George W. Ray

George W. Ray, New York Congressman and Judge

George Washington Ray (February 3, 1844 – January 10, 1925) was a United States Representative from New York.

Born in Otselic, he attended the common schools and Norwich Academy. During the Civil War he was a private in Company B, Ninetieth New York Volunteers, and brigade clerk, First Brigade, First Division, Nineteenth Army Corps. He was discharged at the close of the war and studied law, gaining admission to the bar in November 1867. He was chairman of the Republican county committee of Chenango County and was a member of the Republican State committee in 1880.

Ray was elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth Congress, holding office from March 4, 1883 to March 3, 1885. He was a member of the board of education of Norwich Academy and Union Free School, and was then elected to the Fifty-second and to the five succeeding Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1891 to September 11, 1902; while in the House he was chairman of the Committee on Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River (Fifty-fourth Congress) and a member of the Committees on Invalid Pensions (Fifty-fifth Congress) and the Judiciary (Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses). He resigned from Congress to accept the judgeship of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, in which capacity he served until his death in Norwich in 1925. Interment was in Mount Hope Cemetery.

References

• George W. Ray at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2008-10-30

• George W. Ray at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.