There are two graves located here, with newer wooden markers in place, and someone has taken the care to keep the area mowed.
The two markers read:
Georgiania Starr Bray
Monroe, OR
Nov 7, 1860- Oct 19, 1909
and
Katie Myrtl Bray
Born in sight of this beach
Dec 17, 1889 - Oct 16, 1892
HISTORY of the family and the city of Monroe:
While no historical information is located at the site of the wooden grave markers, I have been able to locate some information about the family online. The location of the gravesite is called Stonefield Beach and is located in Benton County, ans was formerly called Starrs Point, after pioneer George Starr, who started a postoffice and general store nearby in 1852-53, to serve those who took the old pack trail around the side of the hill from the Bellfountain area, which is bordered by Muddy Creek just west of Monroe. George Starr had first been postmaster at Ocean View in Lincoln County.
The city of Monroe is a very small town, first formed near a small sawmill owned by Joseph White in 1852 when the area was dubbed White's Mill. At about the same time as the mill was stared, Roland Hinton of the nearby Belknap settlement started a small town, which became known as Starr Point (north of White's Mill). The area was known for Paddle boat traffic, and grew to include 5 gas stations, 4 grocers, 3 auto dealers, several restaurants, a hotel and pool hall (it was one of the larger cities in Oregon for several years). Following the construction of I-5, when major traffic was re-routed away from Highway 101, the city has dwindled and returned to it's farming roots. It is currently the location of the only steam powered sawmill operating in the United States: Hull Oaks Lumber Mill. Somtime around 1872, the town was renamed Monroe in honor of President Monroe) Source: (
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According to the 1870 United States Census,
Georgiana Starr was the daughter of George McWilliams Starr (a "tinner" born about 1817 in Ohio) and Elizabeth Dimmick Starr (born about 1837 in Illinois), and the sibling to: Heman Chapin Starr (1854-1862,) Edwin Nevin Starr (1856-1914),Sarah Matilda Starr (1861-1966), Oscar Nat Starr (1864-1955), Geniva Starr (1865-1865), Clarence McWilliam Starr (1867-1959), Ebb Burgess Starr (1871-1962), and Samuel Ward Starr (1873-1963). (The Starr family names are found in the family trees of many of the families who settled the Oregon Coast and Willamette Valley).
Georgiania married Ira Irabell Bray who was born about 1855-1856 in Indiana. His parents were Nathan and Nancy Bray. Ira is listed in the 1880 United States Census as a farmer, living at Starr Point, Benton County, Oregon.
Starrs Point was formerly called Brays Point, after Ira Bray, who had been an Indian Agent for the area (Alsea-Sub Agency for the Siletz Indian Reservation) and moved with new wife Georgeanna to this site, from Ocean View.
Much of the history of the Brays and Starrs are intertwined, as they were both pioneer settler families during the Land Grant history of Oregon.
According to the 1900 United States Census, Ira and Georgiania had
5 children and 1 adopted daughter:
Attie Irena Bray (Levins) (Aug 31, 1881- June 20,1967)
Rosa Alice Bray (1883-1960)
John Berry Bray (1891-1956)
Joseph Templeton Bray (1893-1967)
Katie Myrtle Bray (1889-1892)
Adopted: Lucy Fanno (born about 1896)
While little can be found online regarding most of Georgiania's children, I did find some interesting information about her eldest child, Attie who is said to be the first white child whose birth was recorded in the settlement of Ocean View. Attie has been associated with a "cult" called the HolyRollers, and she is a key character in a book and movie called "Brides of Eden" (the book is authored by Linda Crew). The story is told that Ira was a very harsh father with all of his children, and possibly a severe minamalist, requiring his boys to be very frugal with shells when hunting, belittling the children and even eating candy in front of them. Their cabin in Ocean View has been called "squallor" but possibly only because it had few creature comforts.
Attie is said to have had a religious mental breakdown, and was committed by the state and locked up in the Oregon Mental Assylum in Salem due to her behavioral actions, which included letting her hair hang loose and walking about with her dress pulled up above her pataloons, her face looking upward and her eyes rolled back, chanting (although she insisted she was praying). At come point she must have been "cured" because she was not buried at the Oregon Mental Hospital; her grave in Yachats Memorial Park Cemetery lists her as Attie Irena Levens.
The story of Ira Bray also has some interesting twists to it. From his birth Indiana, he traveled to Oregon, became an Indian Agent in the Ocean View area, possibly married more than once (there is a gravestone in Ocean View that is hard to read but includes the words "wife of Ira Bray", and another stone that lists a "child of Ira Bray). We can follow his trail to Monroe, where he and Georgiania lived with their children for a while, but when Ira died on June 25, 1934 he was living in Marion county at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem Oregon, where he was cremated and his remains still remain as they have never been claimed.
Sources:
Ira's ashes not claimed: (
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History of Monroe: (
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History of Starrs Point and Monroe: (
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More history of Starrs Point and Monroe: (
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Links to the Holly Rollers/Brides of Eden: (
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