OVERTON BRAY
Overton Bray is the junior partner in the firm of Wood
& Bray, automobile dealers at Ashton, and is taking an active part
in the development of a business that has now reached large and
gratifying proportions. Mr. Bray is a native of Missouri; his birth
having occurred in Christian county, near Springfield, on the 7th of
September, 1883. He is a son of Aaron and Ann (Wrightsman) Bray, the
former a native of Chatham county, North Carolina, and the latter of
West Virginia. In early life the father followed the milling
business and about 1846 removed to Christian county, Missouri, where
he operated a flour mill for several years. During the period of the
Civil war he went to Illinois, where he engaged in the manufacture
of flour. Later he returned to Missouri and purchased a part of the
old homestead property there, which his father had entered as a
claim from the government in pioneer times. Aaron Bray also
homesteaded in that locality and improved his property, continuing
its cultivation until he had attained the age of sixty-five years,
when he retired from active business life and removed to Ozark,
Missouri, where he resided for several years. He next came to Idaho
and made his home with his children until his death on the 2d of
May, 1916, he having then reached the advanced age of seventy-nine
years. The mother survives and is now living at Ashton, Idaho, at
the age of seventy-five.
Overton Bray spent the days of his boyhood and youth in
his parents' home in Christian county, Missouri, but at the age of
thirteen began earning his own living. He learned the business of
steam engineering and followed that pursuit for about eleven years
in Missouri, after which he came to Idaho. On the 23d of December,
1910, he arrived in Teton county, then a part of Fremont county, and
took up land which he improved and cultivated for four years, after
which he sold out and bought an interest in a billiard and pool hall
at Ashton. He conducted this for two years and in 1915 he entered
into partnership with B.M. Wood for the conduct of an automobile
business. They handle the Dodge, Nash and Hudson cars and have built
up a business of extensive proportions, now conducted under the firm
style of Wood & Bray. In the spring of 1919 they erected one of the
most modern garages in the state at a cost of twenty thousand
dollars. Mr. Bray is well qualified to speak concerning mechanical
devices and the operation of anything along mechanical lines. There
are few indeed who are better informed concerning steam engines, for
Mr. Bray has even built such. He has been very successful in
everything that he has undertaken and his entire career has been
characterized by a steady progress.
On the 24th of January, 1904, Mr. Bray was married to
Miss Goldie Boyd. He and his wife are well known in Ashton, where
they have many friends. Politically Mr. Bray is a republican and his
religious faith is that of the Baptist church. His entire life has
been actuated by a spirit of progress that has led him continuously
forward. Step by step he has advanced, each forward step bringing
him a broader outlook and wider opportunities. Not only is he now at
the head of an excellent garage business but is also a stockholder
and director of the American Asbestos Mining & Milling Company, of
which he was formerly the treasurer. He never allows obstacles or
difficulties to bar his path if they can be overcome by renewed and
persistent effort and his perseverance has ever been one of his
marked characteristics.
History of Idaho The Gem of the Mountains 1920
Vol. 3
©S. Williams |