Will County ILGenWeb Biographies..... 
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File contributed for use by:
Dori Leekly & Margie Glenn

Author: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.

Wesley P. RAY, (RAY & THOMPSON, dealers in grain, coal, live and dressed hogs), Wilmington; 
born in Monroe, Saratoga Co., N. Y., Dec. 28, 1825; removed to Western New York when about 
7 years of age, his parents locating in Chautauqua Co.; in 1840, he removed to the State of 
Michigan; thence to Illinois in 1844, locating at Lockport, this county, and four years 
later, came to Wilmington, his present home; in 1850, he went to California, by the way of 
the Isthmus, reaching San Francisco, then a city of tents, in November of that year, and 
engaged in mining operations, which he followed till 1855; then returned to the States; 
his second trip to the Pacific Slope was made in 1860, by the overland route; spent 
considerable time in prospecting in the mining districts of California, Arizona, Utah, 
New Mexico, Montana, and, in 1862, his exploring party (led by a Mr. GRIMES, who was 
killed in an encounter with the Indians) discovered the Boise mines of Idaho; he was 
also among the first at the Owyhee mines, and in 1863, he discovered the Poor Man's Mine, 
which proved to be one of the richest silver-mines of the Pacific Slope. Married Jan. 1, 
1850, to Miss Susan L. Tuttle, who was born near Portland, Me.; had five children by this 
union, four living - R. Belle, Joseph H., Georgie L. and Susie; Frank died in 1876 from 
injuries sustained while getting off the cars near Joliet.