There were several south Georgia families that shared a Ray City – Willacoochee connection.
After 1908, the route of the G&F was from Jacksonville, GA to Madison, FL and provided convenient transportation between Willacoochee and Ray City by way of Nashville, GA, a run of about 34 miles.
- Pleamon Sirmans (1892-1961) was born and raised in Willacoochee, before moving in 1915 to Ray City where he later served as Mayor; buried New Ramah Cemetery, Ray City, GA.
- Francis Arthur Shaw (1866-1933), born and raised at Ray City, later served as mayor of Willacoochee; operated turpentine stills at Willacoochee, Georgia with brother-in-law, William Clements; buried Willacoochee City Cemetery, Willacoochee, GA.
- The Harper family for a while called Willacoochee home; Wilma Harper (1909-2002) would later teach at the Ray City School.
- William Jackson Cook (1867-1951) and Annie Laura Mathis (1871-1910) in the early 1900s left the Watson Grade community near Ray City for Willacoochee where Mr. Cook worked as a sawmill supervisor; buried Empire Cemetery, Lanier County, GA
- Gideon D. Gaskins (1859-1916) was born and raised at Ray City; moved to Willacoochee about 1887 where he was a store owner and innkeeper; wife Lula Clements later returned to Ray City; buried Willacoochee City Cemetery, Willacoochee, GA.
- Thomas R. Cox (1887-1957), born and raised at Ray City, GA; became bookkeeper for the Bank of Willacoochee; later returned to Ray City; buried Beaver Dam Cemetery, Ray City, GA.
- Skidderman Henry Howard Thompson (1898-1982) and Rose Lee Drawdy Thompson (1900-1986), of Ray City, would make their home in Willacoochee in the 1920s.
- Cauley Shaw (1883-1961), who was the Ray City Police Chief in 1914, kept the law in Willacoochee in the 1920s.
- Dr. Bailey Fraser Julian, Jr. (1865-1907) made his practice as one of the Medical Men of Ray’s Mill (now Ray City) for a brief period in the late 1890s; Dr. Julian later served as railway surgeon on the Brunswick & Western RR which ran through Willacoochee.
- Rebecca J. Fox, an evangelist whose revival tent was burned at Ray City in 1909 held a revival at Willacoochee; her future husband, Manassah Henderson of Ray City, was a member of the Missionary Baptist Church at Willacoochee.
- Sankey Booth who was superintendent of the Willacoochee school in the early 1920s headed up the Ray City School in 1924.
- Wayne Putnal was a barber in Willacoochee in the 1920s, before opening a barbershop in Ray City.
- Jesse Bostick and Sarah Ann Knight, of the Rays Mill area, had been among the early settlers at Willacoochee.
