My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in The History of Dent County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Thomas H. Condray, superintendent of Hawkins Iron Bank for Midland Blast Furnace Company since the bank opened in 1880, and who had previously been the company’s blacksmith at Salem, was born in Claiborne County, Tenn., four miles from Cumberland Gap, in 1833. William H. and Elizabeth (Welch) Condray, his parents, were natives of Tennessee, where they still live, the father eighty-three and the mother eighty-one years of age. William H. Condray is of French extraction, and his wife of Irish. He was a farmer by occupation. The grandfather of our subject, William Condray, was a native of North Carolina, a Revolutionary soldier, and died in Claiborne County, Tenn., at the age of one hundred and two. The maternal grandfather, Joseph Welch, was a native of Virginia, of Irish descent, and served in the War of 1812, with Jackson. He was a wheelwright by trade, and died in Claiborne County, Tenn. Thomas H. Condray was the second of three children, one son and two daughters, born to his parents. He received but little schooling, and his education was received mainly at home by the light of the pine-knot fire. When young he learned the blacksmith trade, which he followed for many years in connection with farming. He was married in 1856 to Miss Sarah A., daughter of Lewis Chumbley, of Claiborne County, Tenn., and eleven children, ten now living, were born to this union. Two sons are engineers at the Hawkins Iron Bank, and one son is foreman in one department in the bank. Mr. Condray lived in Claiborne County, Tenn., until 1870, when he came to Crawford County, Mo., and lived there three years engaged in farming and blacksmithing. He then went from there to Benton Creek Iron Bank, and in 1876 to Salem, where he was blacksmith for the company by whom he is now employed. He has a farm of eighty-five acres in Norman Township, and the Condray Post-office at Hawkins Bank was established in 1885, and named for Mr. Condray. He is a Republican in politics, his first presidential vote being for Fillmore in 1856, and he and wife have been members of the Baptist Church for thirty years. He has served the company by whom he is employed faithfully and industriously since he has been under their employ.

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This family biography is one of 82 biographies included in The History of Dent County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Dent County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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