Shaver, F. A., Arthur P. Rose, R. F. Steele, and A. E. Adams, compilers.  "An
Illustrated History of Central Oregon." ("Embracing Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam,
Wheeler, Crook, Lake, & Klamath Counties")  Spokane, WA: Western Historical
Publishing Co., 1905.  p. 468.
 
GEORGE W. RAMEY

     dealer in hardware and a blacksmith, resides at Rufus, Sherman county. He
was born in St. Louis county, Missouri, the son of William H. and Virginia
(Ball) Ramey, both natives of Missouri. The ancestry of William Ramey were an
old and prominent southern family of Holland descent. His father was a pioneer
settler in Missouri and California. Virginia Ball was born in Boone county, a
descendant of the old Ball family, the members of which were distinguished
soldiers in the wars of the Revolution and 1812. Their ancestry were English.
Ephraim Ball, born at Greentown, Ohio, August 12, 1812, dying at Canton, Ohio,
January 1, 1872, was an inventor and manufacturer of plows, mowers (the Buckeye
machine), and harvesters.  Thomas Ball, a native of Massachusetts, born July 3,
1819, was a distinguished American sculptor. Among his works are a statue of
Daniel Webster (New York), "Emancipation," (Washington), statue and busts of
Everett, Choate, etc.
     Until he was eleven years of age our subject remained in Missouri. He then,
with his parents, went to Tulare county, California. This was in 1870. Here he
attended the district schools and worked on the farm. His family left California
in 1882 and came to Sherman county, where he and his father took up land on the
hill overlooking the Columbia river. They disposed of these claims later and
purchased other land. Our subject at present owns forty acres of fine fruit and
vegetable land near the town of Rufus. It was in 1903 that he engaged in his
present business. His parents own a section of land on the hill four miles from
town.
     Mr. Ramey is a single man, living with his parents in Rufus. They rent the
land on the "hill." Politically, Mr. Ramey is independent. He has one brother
and two sisters; Charles T., a stock-raiser in Yolo county, California; Cora,
wife of Frank Bartholomew, who rents the ranch on the "hill;" and Agnes, wife of
Benjamin L. Andrews, a farmer residing four and one-half miles from Rufus.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in November 2010 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.