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Gray Family History in Iowa
John W. Gray, says his mother, Abigail Ann Gray, was the daughter of John Blake Gray and he was the son of Henry Gray and his wife Eunice and that he was born in Barrington New Hampshire, but settled in Vermont at Sheffield when he was a young man. About the time he went there, a family by the name of Goodwin from Rye, New Hampshire went there also and one of the family was Eunice. Henry was the youngest son and child of a large family of children of Corporal William Gray and his wife Hannah Foss. Henry was born in 1772 and married Eunice Goodwin. The records of Newington New Hampshire show that William Gray was born in that town and was the son of James Gray and his wife Tamsen; also, that he had brothers George and James, both of whom appear later in the town of Barrington, N.H. In the Journal of the House, or Assembly, in the Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, July 28, 1714 is recorded that a committee of that body and the Council which had been appointed to determine the line between Newington and Greenland, decided that James Grays farm on the shore of Great Bay was in Newington, so that shows where he lived at that time. Deeds on record in the State Library at Concord, New Hampshire, show various transactions of buying and selling land by James Gray of Newington and Barrington, also of his son William Gray. January 22, 1731-32, James Gray bought a tract of land in Barrington , of John Shackford, of Portsmouth; March 4 of the same year he bought another tract of land in Barrington, of Captain Samuel Hart of Portsmouth. October, 17, 1732, he sold lands and buildings in Newington to Captain Samuel Hart of Portsmouth. After that date he always appears as James Gray of Barrington, which indicates that he removed to Barrington soon after he sold out to Captain Hart. In 1742 his name appears on the tax list of Barrington as one of the largest tax-payers, indicating that he was a wealthy man at that early day, and his accumulations increased as also his taxes until his name disappears about 1770, showing he had died. His father, James Gray of New Castle, or Portsmouth and possibly of both places, was a soldier in the Colonial war. The Gray family of Barrington was one of the most patriotic in that town. Not only William Gray served in the Revolutionary War, but also four of his sons. James, John, Alexander and Samuel. William served first as a private in Capt. Benjamin Titmans Dover Co., Colonel Enoch Povis regiment in 1776. This regiment remained in New Hampshire until after the Battle of Bunker Hill and was engaged in various ways in guarding Portsmouth and the seacoast as far as the Merrimack River. In 1776, William Gray was appointed Corporal by his neighbor, Capt. John Drew, to serve in a regiment raised for the relief of the expedition to Canada. They got as far as Ticonderoga where they met the Canadian Army on a retreat and suffering from small-pox and camp fever. In April 1777, William Gray enlisted in Capt. Frederick M. Bells Co of Dover, Col. Nathan Hales regiment under Gen. Bates and participated in the series of battles which led up to the surrender of Burgoynes army at Saratoga. This company was in the thickest of the fight and several were wounded. William Gray escaped unharmed although he died of disease later on. Hannah, his wife, was as patriotic as he. When the news reached home that William had died, his son John, a boy of seventeen years started to join the army to fill the place made vacant by his fathers death. Whereupon, the mother gave orders to two sons to go with their brother and take care of him. They went cheerfully and all served bravely to the end of the war. Henry Gray was born in Barrington, New Hampshire, in 1772 and Eunice Goodwin was born in Rye, New Hampshire in 1774. They were married at Sheffield, Vermont, on November 13, 1794. They had eleven children, one of whom was John Blake Gray. As a youngster, John Blake Gray had gone to Burlington, Vermont from his hometown of Sheffield. While in Burlington, John worked in a store. Before long he had decided to go west and soon found himself at what is now Chicago Illinois. At that time Chicago was a minor settlement along the shores of lake Michigan. While there John was given the opportunity to purchase some good local farmland for $1.25 per acre. As he had $600.00 he could have been the owner of a sizable portion of land; however, this was not what he wanted. This same land which John B. Gray decided not to purchase is today worth many thousands of times what he could have purchased it for in that day. In January, 1815, John Blake Gray crossed the Mississippi River on the Isaac N. Stephens ferry to Flint Hills, where he immediately made friends. The few men in Flint Hills wanted to reorganize and knowing that John B. Gray had experience working in a store, they offered that if he might stay at Flint Hills and work the in the local store, he might select a new name for the settlement. This offer was immediately accepted by John and on March 3, 1834, he chose the name Burlington for the communitys new name, presumably because the area reminded him of Burlington Vermont. At that time Gray chose as his partner, Fulton Stephens, the eldest brother of Eliza Jane Stephens. To back up a bit..... In 1815, April 23 to be exact, a girl, Eliza Jane Stephens was born to Isaac Newton and Mary Bowles Stephens at Blennerhasset Island, Virginia, (now a part of West Virginia). In 1818 Elizas parents decided to move their family of six children to Indianapolis, Indiana. Still later, in 1826, the family decided to move to Hancock County Illinois along the east bank of the Mississippi River. From a point not far from the town of Nauvoo, in Hancock County, Elizas father operated a ferry across the Mississippi River to what was then Indian territory. Eliza received most of her education in Hancock County. She had earlier attended school at Indianapolis where she had worked in a boarding house. During the early 1830's there existed a small settlement on the west bank of the Mississippi River then known to the Indians as " She-o-qua". This settlement was located in the Indian territory as the area had not yet been purchased by the U.S. Government. Settlers referred to this small community as Flint Hills, probably because of a local deposit of flint which was used in guns. Sometime about 1832 or 1833, Eliza was asked to come to Flint Hills to work in a boarding house at the settlement. At that time the settlement consisted of a ferry landing, a general store, two or three houses and a boarding house. About this time there arrived a young man from Burlington Vermont. This was John Blake Gray, born at Sheffield, Caldonia county, Vermont. On April 9, 1809 to Henry and Eunice Goodwin Gray. The first shipment of goods from the east came by river-boat to the store of Gray & Stephens. Before long John B. Gray became acquainted with Samuel Stephens sister, Eliza. In a very short time the couple were courting and soon decided to marry. However, the territory was still a part of Wisconsin and there was no one at Burlington with the authority to marry them. So, they and two other couples took row boats and went down the Mississippi River and crossed to Nauvoo, Ill., where they were married on May 15, 1834. This trip of twenty miles included much dangerous Indian territory. On March 3, 1835, John and Elizas first child, Abigail Ann Gray, was born. She was the first white child born in what is now Iowa. Two years later another daughter was welcomed into the family. In 1839 John B. Gray decided to move his family to Texas as times were financially difficult at Burlington. Since travel by water was most convenient in that region, it was decided that the family would load a flat boat with their worldly possessions. So it was that John and Eliza Gray and two small daughters traveled down the Mississippi River on this flatboat and crossed over to the Gulf of Mexico and from that point made their way to Texas. The family lived at the town of Gonzales, Texas where John worked as a horse dealer. While in Texas he owned several parcels of land in what is now Sequin and its environs and also served a tour of duty as a Texas Ranger and was later named Justice of the Peace in Gonzales County covering "Cap Smiths Beat" and was commissioned Aug. 17, 1839. In 1842, the Grays decided to return to Iowa. John drove his herd of horses and cattle with him, trading as he went in order supply the family with lifes necessities. Eliza drove a covered wagon with the familys possessions and necessities. While in Texas she had given birth to two other daughters, but only one, Lilleas Jane survived. The reason John gave for returning north was the hostilities in Texas and he didnt want to subject his family to the war between the United States and Mexico. Throughout their return journey to Iowa, John took the best routes for cattle grazing, while Eliza often took the best wagon route. Most of the time their respective routes were unknown to each other. Once back in Iowa, the Grays settled first at the town of Agency, which was an Indian settlement populated for the most part by the Sauk (Sac) and the Fox Indians. Elizas sister, Agnes and her husband, Harvey Sturdivant, lived at Agency at that time. Sturdivant kept busy as a gunsmith for the Indians. Eliza also had a sister, Margaret, who with her husband, William McIlvain, lived at Hard Fish (now Eddyville), Iowa, not far from Agency. Hard Fish was an Indian settlement of 70-80 teepees located along the banks of the Des Moines River. Just north of there was an area know as "the flats", and here the Indians allowed McIlvain to build a small cabin for his family. William McIlvain had, in turn, given John and Eliza permission to move their family into the dwelling, which they did on Nov. 1, 1842. Some Iowa histories give a McBeth as the owner of this cabin, but this has been refuted by Eunice Gray French, John and Elizas daughter. Thus John and Eliza were also the first settlers in Mahaska County, Iowa. Across the Des Moines River from here was a vast region which had been purchased from the Indians by the U.S.Government. This land was to be vacated by May 1, 1843 and opened for settlement by U.S. citizens. John B. Gray had selected a piece of land for his homestead which was located about 2 ½ to 3 miles inland from the river. On May 1, 1843, with the help of some Indian friends, John crossed the Des Moines River to become the first settler in what later became Monroe County, Iowa. Eliza had learned to talk to the Indians while living at Burlington and this knowledge was handy at the time the couple settled in Monroe County. John and Eliza eventually became acquainted with some legendary Indian Chiefs, such as: Black Hawk; Wapello; Keokuk; Pashipiho and others. The winter of 1843-44 proved to be unusually severe and it has been remembered that the snow that fell the early fall of that year remained until the early spring. Children born to John Blake and Eliza Jane Gray were Abigail Ann, who was born Mar. 3, 1835 and Mary Francis, born 19, April, 1837, both in Burlington, Des Moines Co. Iowa. Then Lillieas Jane, born June 27, 1840 and an un-named baby were both born in Texas. The un-named girl did not live and was buried in Texas. John Stephens , born Sept. 19, 1843, Eunice Eliza Alice, born April 6, 1846, William Henry Fulton, born June 19 1849, and James Anson, born 1852, all in Monroe County, Iowa. They also adopted a girl, Grace Gertrude, born in March 1863. John Blake Gray was the first settler to file entrance on 360 acres of land, paying $1.25 per acre. This was on what is now called Grays Creek. John and Eliza continued to live in Monroe County, Iowa with the exception of two short stays at Albia, Iowa for the remainder of their lives. John was one of the commissioners to the Territorial Legislature, thus John Blake Grays family were among the very first pioneers of Iowa and his son John, was the first child born in Monroe county, although this was proven false by three days. During one of the stays at Albia, John opened a general store and during the other stay he built a fine house which he called Steamboat House. John Blake Gray died in Monroe Co. Iowa on Dec. 9, 1886 and is buried on a hilltop in Highland Cemetery, Eddyville, Iowa. Eliza Jane Gray followed her husband in death in Monroe, Co., Iowa on April 17, 1887 and is buried beside him at Highland Cemetery, Eddyville, Iowa. John and Eliza Gray remained staunch Baptists throughout their lives, but any denomination was welcome to hold services in his large commodious barn. The Grays flag flew constantly throughout the Civil War, a testimony of their deep patriotism and loyalty to the Union.
Addendum: The John Gray, son of William Gray was the last survivor of the Revolutionary War. It took two terms of congress to get him a pension as the first time it was considered there were 2 survivors, both named John Gray (no relation) When the subject of pensions came up thenext time the other John Gray had died, so the powers that be felt they could afford a $50.00 pension for our John. Also, William Abraham Gray, my great grandfather who married Abigail Ann Gray served in Civil War and left a journal covering his units participation in the campain through Alabama. He is also mentioned in other material as W.A.Gray appointed Captain in an Iowa unit during the fracas when Missouri raiders invaded (Honey Wars) , or tried to invade southern Iowa. He was a the supply sergeant for Co. L, 3rd Regiment of Cavalry, Iowa Veteran Volunteers, Capt. John D. Brown commanding John W. Gray III -
This was submitted to us here at iowa-counties.com by John W. Gray III 03/1997 |
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