Durham, N. N.  "Spokane and the Inland Empire: History of the City of Spokane
and Spokane County Washington."  Vol. 2.  S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912.

RAY M. HART

	Prominently associated with many of the business interests which have helped
to boom the commercial importance of the more recently developed portions of our
great northwest, Ray M. Hart has been a significant factor in the upbuilding of
Coeur d'AIene. Born in Ionia county, Michigan, June 20, 1873, he acquired his
education in the common schools of his native locality. When eighteen years of
age he began work, securing employment with the Frank Brothers Implement
Company, at Colfax, Washington, and after two years was engaged as bookkeeper
and cashier in the firm of Lippett Brothers, general merchants in Colfax. He
remained with them five years when he removed to Bozeman, Montana, where he
engaged in business in partnership with D. J. Morton, establishing a dry-goods
store. Two years later the firm dissolved partnership, the store was sold and
Mr. Morton returned to Ireland, while Mr. Hart secured a position as a traveling
salesman for a wholesale dry-goods company of St. Louis, Missouri, in which
capacity he continued to serve for ten years, until 1908, and during this period
became financially interested in a number of general merchandise stores
throughout Montana, mainly at Billings and Lewistown. He is still president of
the Hart Albin Company of Billings, Montana, and is also interested as
stockholder in a large number of banks situated in various parts of this western
country. On February 9, 1909, when the Blackwell Lumber Company was organized,
with headquarters at Coeur d'AIene, Mr. Hart became secretary and treasurer of
this concern and in consequence came to Coeur d'AIene, where he has remained in
the same capacity ever since. He is interested in many other enterprises, being
a director in the American Trust Company of Coeur d'AIene and in the Panhandle
Lumber Company of Spirit Lake, a director likewise in the Idaho and Northern
Washington Railroad Company and in the Railway Land and Improvement Company, and
a stockholder in the Portland Cement Company of Metaline Falls, Washington.
Always ready to help in any project that might aid in securing better
transportation facilities for the people living in the remoter localities and in
making the larger towns more easily accessible to the rural dwellers, Mr. Hart
was largely instrumental in securing the construction of the first electric
railroad in Montana, organizing the Gallatin Valley Electric Railway, a rural
line running from Bozeman, Montana, of which corporation he was president until
the road was sold to the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railroad Company.
Always alert for every chance to build up his commercial interests and to
enlarge the sphere of his activities, he has availed himself of every
opportunity held out to him and now is accounted one of the foremost business
men of Coeur d'Alene, enjoying an ample income from his investments and
possessing unlimited credit among his associates in the financial world. On
August 27, 1908, Mr. Hart was married to Miss Blanche Blackwell, a daughter of
F. A. Blackwell of Coeur d'Alene. They are the parents of one child. The Hart
home at No. 820 Sherman avenue, is one of the handsome residences in the town
and is frequently the scene of social gayety and mirth. Mr. Hart has been a
Mason since the year in which he attained his majority, having joined Hiram
Lodge, No. 21, F. & A. M., of Colfax, Washington, and he is also a member of
Lodge No. 463, B. P. O. E., of Bozeman, Montana. In his political affiliations
he is a republican. Always adhering to high standards of business ethics, Mr.
Hart has attained his success justly and by reason of his own efforts and keen
discrimination. Large in his view of a situation he is the type of man who has
supplied the leaven that has created the western spirit of indomitable
determination and ability to win.

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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in November 2016 by Diane
Wright. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family
mentioned above.