Woman of the Century/Rachel Beasley Ray

RAY, Mrs. Rachel Beasley, poet and author, born in Anderson county, Kentucky, 31st January, 1849. She is known to the literary world as "Mattie M'Intosh." She is the fifth daughter of Judge Elisha Beasley and Almeda Penney, who reared eight girls, of whom "Kate Carrington" is the youngest. When she was an infant, her parents moved to Hickman county and settled in the town of Clinton. Judge Beasley gave his children every educational advantage within his reach, and the consequence was that the eight daughters became teachers. RACHEL BEASLEY RAY. At the age of sixteen years Mrs. Ray was left an orphan by the death of her mother, her father having died two years before. A few months later she entered Clinton Seminary, Ky., as both student and teacher. For fourteen years she was almost constantly employed in educational work, either as teacher or student, and often as both. She spent every spare moment during that time in writing stories, poems and practical articles. Her last school work was done in Clinton College, where she acted in the capacity of both student and teacher. She became the wife of E. R. Ray, of Hickman county, Ky., on 10th October, 1878. In the summer of 1880 Mrs. Ray had an attack of rheumatic lever, from which her recovery was so slow that a change of climate became necessary, and her husband took her to Eureka Springs, a health resort in Arkansas. There she improved sufficiently in a short time to resume her usual duties, and the family settled there permanently. For many years she has indulged her fondness for the pen by contributing largely to different weeklies and periodicals. "The Ruined Home," a continued story, published in 1889, in a St. Louis weekly, gives her views on the use of alcoholic drinks. She is a member of the Baptist Church. Her husband is a Baptist and fills the office of deacon in that church. The " Leaves from the Deacon's Wife's Scrap Book," from her pen. which have been so well received by the public, are original and humorously written sketches from her daily life. She strongly favors woman's advancement and is a stanch advocate of temperance. Judge Ray is a lawyer and real estate agent with extensive business, and Mrs. Ray is his secretary. She writes daily at a desk in his office, and in his absence has entire charge of his business. In addition to her usual literary engagements, office work and superintending her home, she edits three Woman's Christian Temperance Union columns each week in the papers of her own city.