- CHARLES S. GRAY, now retired from the operations of active
farming, is passing the last years
- of a busy life in a well-earned freedom from toil in Brooklyn,
Green Co., Wis. He was born in the town of Warsaw, Genesee Co.,
N.Y., Jan. 25, 1828, son of Sylvester and Louisa B. (JUDD) GRAY,
the former a native of New York, and the latter of Vermont. They
were the parents of five children, two of whom are living: Charles
S. and Demetrius A., of Belleville, Wisconsin.
- Sylvester GRAY was a cooper in the East, and in September,
1845, he bought a farm in the town
- of Brooklyn. After a time he sold this farm and bought a
home in Brooklyn, where he lived until he entered into rest in
1874, at the age of seventy-two years. His widow survived his
departure many years, and died in 1898, at the age of ninety-one
years. Mr. GRAY was school director for several years, and was
also town supervisor. In early life he was a Whig, and in his
later years a Republican. Asahel GRAY, father of Sylvester GRAY,
was a native of England, and in his mature years was engaged
in the salt business at Syracuse, N.Y., where he died at an advanced
age. He was the father of a small family. The maternal grandfather
of Charles S. GRAY was a native of Vermont, where he was father
to a large family, and died in middle life.
- Charles S. GRAY was three years old when his parents moved
to Pennsylvania from New York.
- Four years later they moved to Lake county, Ohio. There our
subject went to school and helped his father in the cooper shop.
He was eighteen years old when his parents left Ohio, and he
accompanied them on their removal to Wisconsin, where he bought
a farm of eighty acres, to which he afterward added eighty acres.
He has sold and bought at different times, until his last farm
property, which he sold in September, 1900, consisted of 200
acres. This he rented in 1877 and moved into town to take the
position of manager for the Evansville Mercantile Association,
which position he held for eleven years. In 1894 Mr. GRAY and
his son Oscar C. started a general store, which they conducted
two years, and for the following two years Mr. GRAY was not in
business. For a time he was again in the store, and is now retired,
as noted above. After leaving his father's store, Oscar C. GRAY
purchased P. A. HAYNES' grocery, but at the end of a year sold
out the entire stock, and on April 1, 1900, bought a livery business
in Oregon, Wis., which he successfully conducted until his health
failed.
- Mr. Charles S. GRAY was married Oct. 6, 1850, to Emarilla
SMITH, the daughter of Stephen
- and Philura (LOVE) SMITH, becoming by this union the father
of four children: Oscar C., Emory Herbert, Isadora Eudelle, and
Luta. Oscar C. married Jennie PATTERSON, now deceased, and has
one child, who is also deceased; for his second wife he married
Ellen ZOOK, and they have one child, DeVer Dwight. Emory Herbert
is married to Nettie DOOLITTLE, and lives in Des Moines, Iowa,
where they have one daughter, Myrle. Isadora Eudelle died at
the age of four years. Luta married the late Wayland AXTELL,
and lives at Rochester, Wis., where he had established the local
Academy; he died in Denver, Colo., and she returned to Rochester,
with her three children, Wayne, Clarice and Caryl. Mr. GRAY is
a Republican, and for three terms was supervisor, town treasurer
for a number of terms, and school clerk for many years.
- Mrs. GRAY's father was a native of Massachusetts, and her
mother of New York. They were
- early settlers in Ohio, his people going there in 1811, and
her people about the same time, settling in the town of Dover,
about nine miles west of Cleveland. Her people came to Wisconsin
in 1843, and located in Hudson, which is known today as Springfield,
where they were engaged in farming for four years, after which
they moved to Brooklyn. Here they died, he in 1856, at the age
of fifty-eight, and she in 1877, at the age of seventy-three.
In early life they were Congregationalists, but later united
with the Spiritualists. They had nine children, and four of them
are now living: Jonathan, Emory, Euphrasia, and Emarilla. Mrs.
GRAY's paternal grandfather was Jonathan SMITH, of Massachusetts,
and a veteran of the entire Revolutionary war, never, however,
receiving a pension for his services, as his property exceeded
the limits. He fought on a war vessel and was in many battles.
He was owner of a large tract of land, and he died at an advanced
age, the father of a numerous family. Her maternal grandfather
was a Mr. LOVE, a native of New York, who was drowned. He was
the father of one child, a daughter.
- On Oct. 6, 1900, Mr. and Mrs. GRAY celebrated their Golden
Wedding, there being a company
- of forty-eight outside friends.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin,"
(c)1901 Union Publishing.
-
- Courtesy of Carol.
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