Bio: Herman H. Pray (1835)
Contact: Susie
 

----Surnames: Pray, Austin, King, Wilson
----1891 History of Jackson Clark Counties Wisconsin

Herman H. Pray, of Jackson County, Wisonsin, was born in the State of New York, March 8, 1835, the son of William H. Pray, a native of the same State. In 1837 the father went to Kalamazoo County, Michigan, where he died at the age of sixty-nine years. He was a pumpmaker by trade and a Democrat politically. His father was also born in New York, where he spent his entire life. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Our subject's mother, Adeline (Austin) Pray, was born in New York and died in Michigan, at the age of thirty-five years. The parents had nine children, namely: William, Julia, Adeline, Horace, Mary, Louise, Benjamin, Herman H. and Emily. Of these now living: Adeline, Mary and Herman H.

Herman H., their eighth child, was reared and educated in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, where he also followed various pursuits. August 15, 1850, he came to Jackson County, Wisconsin, where he remained but a short time, and then went to Manchester, where he was a foreman in a saw-mill until 1856. In that year he went to St. Paul, from there on a raft to St. Louis, and in the fall of the same year returned to Jackson County, settling in Albion Township. He was engaged in a saw-mill until 1876, when he bought a mill of his own, in Fremont, Jackson County, and operated it until 1881, when he had the misfortune to be burned out, causing a loss of $10,000. He never rebuilt the mill, and in the spring of 1882 bought 160 acres of land on section 18, Albion Township, where he now resides and carries on general farming. In 1877 he was appointed Postmaster there, the office being named after him, and he held the position four years. Mr. Pray has risen to his present position by his own efforts, being now well off financially. Politically he is a democrat.

He was married December 13, 1857, to Anna J. King, who was born August 17, 1837, in the State of New Jersey, a daughter of John and Mary (Wilson) King, natives also of New Jersey. In the spring of 1856 the parents came to Jackson County, Wisconsin, where they died at an advanced age. The father was a miller by trade, and politically a democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Pray have had four children: Laura, John K., Alice A., and Berdine. All are living except Laura, who died when a small child.