Anna Eliza Spray

From: Pioneer Ancestors of Frank Alva Turner:

The sage of Anna Newcomm really began that hot, humid day when James H. Spray, hitch-hiking to Ohio, stopped for a bite to eat. On the dirt floor porch of her parent's home, Anna Newcomm, was washing clothes, there in Salina County, Missouri, when the travel-worn young stranger asked for a meal. He was graciously fed, invited to rest from his journey, and then and there James Spray abandoned his travels and never saw Ohio again.

James H. Spray was born in Ohio, February 24, 1819, the seventh of a brood of ten. He was a young man when he migrated to Texas with his family. There, his parents and five of their children were wiped out by that malignant disease Ague (malaria). After this tragedy, a grief-stricken James decided to return to Ohio. He set out alone on foot, which is how he happened to appear at the Newcomm home.

Anna Newcomm and James Spray were married January 8, 1851. Anna was 16 and James 21. They left Missouri in the latter fifties and went to Nebraska where they dug a well and named it Fremont. It was in the vicinity where the town of Fremont, Nebraska now stands.

Looking for a place away from those cold, bleak plains of Nebraska, the Spray family boarded a train at Omaha, and rode as far as Ogden, Utah. From there they took the Overland Stage to Alder Gulch. Their daughter, Martha Montana Spary, was born in the back of a covered wagon in Alder Gulch.. What a lot of fortitude she must have had, this Anna Newcomm Spray, a pioneer woman enduring hardships we can't even visualize. From Alder Gulch, they went to Madison Valley, Montana, where, in 1871-72 they wintered on the Simpson place. That spring they moved on to what is the present Spray ranch, built a log cabin and lived there for ten years.

In the summer of 1872 James Spray went by horseback to Idaho, where he bought fourteen head of cattle and drove them to Madison Valley. He then proceeded to sell steers on a small scale and was the first man in the valley to see money in steers. Anna Spray must have been a woman who aided and abetted her husband in all his endeavors, matter-of-factly putting her shoulder to the wheel, and managing in spite of all the work she must have had to do, keeping things at an even keel.

Anna Spray died May 15, 1885 at the age of 50. James Spray followed her in death 3 years later at the age of 59, on June 1, 1888. They were the first parents to be buried in a cemetery in Madison Valley, near Ennis, Montana. In 1899 their remains were moved by their sons Jack and Jim from the Evens cemetery to the Primrose cemetery on the S.R. Smith ranch.

And thus ends this brief saga of two of the many hard-working pioneers, who were forever seeking a better way of living and helped to make America the wonderful land it is. A special salute to Anna Newcomm Spray, who willingly followed her husband wherever he led, making a home for her family.

James Spray, son of James and Anna, with only a fourth grade education, wrote a history of the early days of Madison Valley, from which this bit of family history was taken. The manuscript Mr. Spray wrote is in the Special Collection Department of the Montana State University. Jim Spray was born in 1875 and died August 1, 1956. His book, "Early Days in the Madison Valley", is available through the Madison County Historical Society in Ennis Montana.

James and Anna's daughter, Emma Ellen Spray, married Frank Turner in Virginia City, Montana Territory in 1874. In the late 1870's they moved to the Boise Valley, Idaho Territory. From there to what is now Blaine County, where they raised livestock and grain. They also owned and operated a restaurant.