Contra Costa County Biography

ABSALOM FRANCIS BRAY

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, December, 2006.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


                  One of the most able, progressive, and enterprising young 
attorneys of Contra Costa County is Absalom Francis Bray. He was born January 
21, 1889, in Butte, Montana. His education was acquired in the public schools of 
that city. He afterward entered the Military Academy at San Rafael, graduating 
with the class of 1906. He entered the law department at the University of 
California, graduating from that department in 1910. He began the practice of 
law in San Francisco and remained in that city until 1912, when he removed to 
Martinez. Politically, Mr. Bray is a Republican and stands high in the councils 
of his party. He is president of the Martinez Republican Club, secretary of the 
Contra Costa Republican Club, and a member of the county Republican Central 
Committee. On March 1, 1917, he was appointed city attorney of Martinez. Mr. 
Bray has always used his power and influence toward promoting the good of the 
city of Martinez and Contra Costa County. He was united in marriage on September 
17, 1913, to Miss Leila Elizabeth Veale, a daughter of Sheriff R. R. Veale, one 
of Contra Costa's most prominent and distinguished citizens. Fraternally, he is 
affiliated with the Masonic lodge of Martinez. He is a member of the Sigma Chi, 
the Phi Delta Phi, and the Theta Nu Epsilon fraternities of the University of 
California. Mr. Bray's father, Absalom Francis, was a native of England. He came 
to America, settling first in Texas and later in Montana, where he was 
identified with the mercantile and wholesale interests of both States. He died 
in 1906. Mr. Bray's mother, Nelia (Copenharve) Bray, was a native of Indiana. 
The subject of this sketch deserves great credit for what he has accomplished 
along professional lines, and through his own energy and perseverance has worked 
his way upward to success, and is now numbered among the representative men of 
the legal profession of the Bay counties.
 
Source: "The History of Contra Costa County, California," Elms Publ. Co., 1917, 
pp. 598-599.