Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

WALTER S. GRAY, D.D.S.

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

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


 
Nineteen years ago Walter S. Gray became identified with the dental profession 
in Marysville, and in the meantime he has met with the success which his earnest 
efforts and thorough knowledge warrant.  His birth occurred in Yuba City on 
April 20, 1877, a son of James C. and Ellen A. (Plumb) Gray, natives of Illinois 
and Vermont, respectively.  Dr. Gray is of Scotch ancestry.  His grandfather, 
James Gray, was born and married in Scotland, and came to the United States in 
1929.  He became a pioneer farmer in Hancock County, Ill., where his son, James 
C. Gray, our subject�s father, was born.  In 1855, they crossed the plains to 
California and at the time of Grandfather James Gray�s death, in 1868, he had 
acquired 800 acres of land in Sutter County.  He married Mary Carr and they were 
the parents of seven children, James C. Gray being the fourth in order of birth. 
 He was born in Hancock County, Ill., January 8, 1842, and came with his parents 
to Sutter County in 1855.  He became the owner of 160 acres of land, which he 
transformed into a well-improved and valuable farm; he was a prime factor in the 
establishment of the Sutter Canning & Packing Company, which was afterwards sold 
to the California Canning Association.  He was married to Miss Ellen A. Plumb on 
May 6, 1868, and seven children were born to them: James Clarence, Rosabel, 
Walter S., Etta, widow of Dr. C. H. Stock, Blanche, Allen E., and Florence, 
deceased wife of Lou Warden, of Yuba City; she died with the flu in 1918, and 
left one child, Eldred.  James C. Gray always voted the Republican ticket, and 
fraternally belonged to Enterprise Lodge No. 70, F. & A.M., at Yuba City.
Walter S. Gray received his preliminary education in the Yuba City Grammar and 
High Schools, and was graduated from the College of Physicians and surgeons in 
San Francisco, in 1902, with the degree of D.D.S.  After graduation he went to 
Los Angeles, and there practiced his profession for one year; then he returned 
to San Francisco and practiced a year, and on January 15, 1904, opened his 
dental office in Marysville.
Mrs. Walter Gray is the present incumbent of the office of County Superintendent 
of Schools of Sutter County, and a sketch of her life is given on another page 
of this volume.  Dr. and Mrs. Gray have developed forty acres in Sutter County 
to peaches.  Dr. Gray is a member of the State and National Dental Associations; 
he belongs to Enterprise Lodge, No. 70, F. & A.M.; Marysville Lodge, No. 783, 
B.P.O.E.; Shamrock Camp, No. 360, W.O.W.; Fidelia Chapter, No. 56, O.E.S.  Mrs. 
Gray is a member of Yerba Buena Chapter, No. 228, O.E.S., in San Francisco.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 1230