{Please contact us with suggestions, comments, or corrections at: fww@umich.edu }

Henry Gray was born in Georgia in September 21, 1814 in Georgia.  The precise place is unknown and despite diligent searches, we have been unable to identify his parents.  It is quite likely that he moved to Alabama before 1839, perhaps coming several years  earlier, and he may have made the journey with his parents.  We do know that he was living in Alabama in 1839 for there, in Talladega County,  he was married to Eliza Taylor, oldest child of Robert and Sarah Trice Taylor.  Henry Gray and his wife, Eliza Taylor Gray seem to be the first of Ann�s ancestors to come to Arkansas.  They were married December 29, 1839 and within a year or so they became the parents of one child, Thomas Jefferson Gray.  A few months after the birth of Thomas, the Grays began the move to what was then Clark County, Arkansas to the area that would later become Princeton.

 Although we do not know the specific date that Henry and Eliza moved to Arkansas, we do know that it was after the birth of Thomas and before the birth of Mary Elizabeth Gray who was born in March 1843 in Arkansas.  We believe that Henry and Eliza did not make the move to Arkansas alone because Eliza�s aunt and uncle, Amelia Taylor and Presley Watts, were apparently also members of the traveling party.   Presley Watts and Amelia were listed on the 1840 Census for Talladega County, Alabama as was Eliza's father, Robert.  We have been unable to find Henry and Eliza, however..  Eliza�s brother, Robert Jefferson Taylor, probably came a few years later.    It seems likely that there were others in the traveling party and we know from subsequent Census records that a number of individuals came to the Dallas County area from Alabama.

 The reasons why these Alabama couples and their families came to Arkansas are not known but the opportunity to acquire fresh land played a part.  More specifically, we do not know why they settled in Smith Township or how they might have learned about the area.  There were no telephones, telegraphs, or other means of communication.  Although there was mail service, the delivery schedules were infrequent and uncertain.  So one wonders how the Gray and Taylor families would have learned about land availability in Arkansas and why they would have come in the 1840�s when land was still in plentiful supply in Alabama.

 Henry obtained 160 acres of land in Section 9, Township 8S, Range 15W describe more particularly in the following table.  The actual title change from the United States to Henry through a Land Patent occurred on November 1, 1848 but it was the common practice for individuals to live on the land for a period of time before actual title transfer.  The tract lay along Tulip Creek about three and one half miles North of the intersection of the present day Hwy 8 and Hwy 9 in the town of Princeton and approximately one half mile west of Hwy 9.  Although there may have been others living nearby, there is no record to show that to be the case.  It was 1860 before Samuel Smith acquired acreage in the same section and by that time the Gray family had moved to Calhoun County. 

Presley and Amelia Watts settled about four miles south of the Gray tract and a very short distance from Princeton although that municipality was not then existing.  The Watts property was about one half mile north of the point where the current Hwy 8 intersects with Hwy 9.  In 1850 Census, Presley and Amelia were listed as inhabitants of the Princeton Boarding House and they were listed first which would indicate that they were the owner/operator, but Presley said that his occupation was Clerk of the County Court.  Other inhabitants of the boarding house included a "William J. Taylor age 28 and a Geo. W, Taylor, age 26" both born in Alabama.  We have not been able to determine whether these two were related to Amelia but they seem to be.  For example, 20 years later we found Amelia running a hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana and one of the inhabitants was a Geo. W. Taylor, age 46.  In 1860, Presley and Amelia were living at Princeton and reported that he was a merchant.  It appears that the Watts spent the remainder of their days either on or very near their farm.  They were buried in the Princeton Cemetery; Presley in 1865 and Amelia in 1871.  Some researchers assert that they were the parents of three children but we have never been able to find any evidence of that on any Census record. 

Henry and Eliza were not the first settlers in the area but they surely were among the earlier ones.  The town of Tulip had been established in 1803, almost 40 years before the Grays arrived, and there were several families living in that area.  Some sources assert that Squire Ramsey was already living in the soon to be formed Princeton area when the Grays arrived and there were a few others.  But there are other sources that show that Henry Gray and Presley Watts were already living there when Squire Ramsay came.  When the Grays came to Arkansas, Clark County extended eastward to the Bradley County line and Dallas, Cleveland, and Calhoun Counties did not exist.

 In 1844, the citizens of eastern Clark County petitioned the Arkansas Legislature for the creation of Dallas County.  On January 1, 1845, the new county was formed by taking parts of eastern Clark County and western Bradley County.  Princeton was chosen as the as the County seat although Princeton was not an organized municipality at the time.   The first Court was held in the home of Presley and Amelia Taylor Watts; indeed, the seat of government for the County was in the Watts home for more than a year while the frist Court House was built.    At the first regular term of Court, Henry Gray was a Petit Juror.  Presley Watts was elected County Clerk, a position he would occupy from 1845 until December 1852.  After a hiatus of two years, he became County Judge and he served in that capacity from 1854 until 1860.

Albert Phillips and Hawkes Coleman had been commissioned to choose the site. Joe Gray surveyed the area for a public square and Squire Ramsey, the only carpenter in the fledgling county, cleared the land. In 1846, a log courthouse was built on the east side of the public square and remained in service until 1852. Princeton had become a bustling small town prior to the Civil War; however, the arrival of the railroad in the southeastern corner of the county contributed to the rise of Fordyce and Princeton�s loss of county seat status.

In 1908, the county seat was moved to Fordyce, which was located in the extreme southeast corner of Dallas County, and was fast becoming the agriculture and commerce center for the tri-county area. The town, incorporated in July 1884, was named for Colonel Samuel Wesley Fordyce, a Union Officer in the Civil War. The present courthouse, with its cupola and beautiful lavender-faced clock, was constructed in 1908, and the county government has, since that time, been conducted from there.

 Henry and Eliza were listed on the 1850 Census for Dallas County in Smith Township.  Their family had grown to include Thomas and Mary Elizabeth who were noted above but also James Monroe Gray (1845), George Washington Gray (1846), and Benjamin Franklin Gray (1849).  We do not know how long they remained on their farm near Princeton but we do know that they moved south to Calhoun County after 1850 and before 1858.  Calhoun County had been formed in 1850 and the Township of Moro adjoined Dallas County. 

 Henry acquired a 40 acre tract of land of land in Section 4, Township 11S, Range 13W in Moro Township, Calhoun County in 1859.  Once again we are left without knowledge of the reasons for the relocation some 20 plus miles to the south from Princeton.  Perhaps he thought the land was better and since he farmed at both places, better land would be a compelling reason to move. 

In 1858 and perhaps not long after the move to Calhoun County, Eliza died and was buried in the Brawner Cemetery located on the farm of Tilmon and Sarah Brawner and adjoining the Gray�s farm.  She was 38 years of age and the mother of 7 children.  Although the Cemetery at Chambersville had been established in 1853 and was to become the principal place for interment of the North Calhoun County residents, for some reason, Henry chose to bury Eliza at the Brawner Cemetery.  That Cemetery is no longer in use and has not been used for burials since soon after the Civil War.  In fact, Tilmon Brawner�s burial there in 1867 may well have been the last one.

 Eliza�s death left Henry a widower with seven children ranging in ages from 17 to 1 with four of the seven under ten years of age.  In October 1858, six months from the date of Eliza�s death, Henry was remarried to Nancy Vaughan, daughter of David and Matilda Vaughan, natives of South Carolina.  Henry was 44 and Nancy was 26, an age difference of 18 years that was not altogether unusual in that period.  The Vaughan family had settled in Jackson Township in Dallas County, a very short distance from the Gray farm in Calhoun County.  In the 1860 Census, Nancy and Henry are shown in Moro Township, Calhoun County, Arkansas, with all seven of Henry�s children still at home.  Henry reported that the value of his real property was $2820 and that his personal property was valued at $6550.  He listed four slaves on the slave schedules and reported that he had one dwelling for them.  Like the overwhelming majority of his neighbors, he was a farmer by occupation and relied upon himself to provide for himself and his family.  Cotton was the principal cash crop and each farmer raised corn and other vegetables in sufficient quantities to feed the family and the working stock.  By the standards of that day, Henry was probably about as successful as his neighbors and worked much as they did.

During the decade of the 1860's, the most cataclysmic event in American history occurred when the Civil War began in April 1861.  The forces that led to that conflict, the carnage and destruction of human beings both under arms and in the general citizenry, as well as the horrendous reconstruction that followed are all beyond the scope of this writing but they certainly did not spare the gentle folks in Moro Township.  Although the sons of Henry Gray volunteered for the Confederate Army and saw action, none were killed or seriously injured.  And even under the most trying of circumstances, life did, indeed, go on.  The Gray children began to leave home, marry, and begin families of their own.  

• The marriage of Mary Elizabeth, the oldest daughter of Henry and Eliza, to Elias Andrew Acruman May 29, 1862 marked the beginning of the maturation of the Gray children into adulthood.   Acruman was a native of Alabama and had come to Arkansas on his own, perhaps around 1860.  Acruman was living in Chambers County, Alabama in 1850 with his parents but by 1860, his mother had died and his father had remarried.   He was the eldest of four children, a sister a twin brothers.  Interestingly, each of the four chose to spell their names differently.  One brother remained in Alabama and spelled his name Achimon, his twin moved to Texas and spelled his name, Ackerman. 

• On February 23, 1864, Thomas Jefferson Gray, the only one of the Gray children born in Alabama, married Ann Isabella Bull, a native of St. Clair County, Alabama, daughter of Jacob Bull and Eliza Means.  The Bull family came to Arkansas after 1850 but before 1860 from St. Clair County, Alabama and settled in Dallas Township of Calhoun County, Arkansas.  

• George Washington Gray, Henry and Eliza's fourth child, married Mary Olivia Tomlinson on January 10, 1867.  We have seen her name as Mary and as Martha but she was and is referred to as "Ollie".  Ollie was the daughter of Perry Tomlinson and Emalina Gaither, both natives of North Carolina but residing in Chambers County, Alabama in 1850 from whence they migrated to Calhoun County.  Ollie was born in Chambers County, Alabama.

• On September 25, 1867, James Monroe Gray was married to Martha Jane Mitchell in Calhoun County.  Martha was the daughter of James H. Mitchell and Mary E. Neel, he a native of Georgia and she a native of Alabama.  The Mitchell family arrived in Arkansas a short time before 1850 and settled in Ouachita County, Lafayette Township.  There Martha Jane was born in 1850.

• Benjamin Franklin Gray, the fifth child of Henry and Eliza, married Martha W. Bledsoe on October 15, 1868 in Dallas County, Arkansas.  Martha, a native of Dallas County, was the daughter of  Tracy and Mary Julia Bledsoe, he a native of Virginia and she a native of Georgia.  The Bledsoe family came to Dallas County from Georgia about 1847 and settled in Jackson Township.

  And so the decade of the 1860's brought many dramatic and significant changes to the Henry Gray family.  Five of the seven children of Henry and Eliza married and the four sons managed to get through the Civil War without disabling injuries.  Times were hard.  The four years of the War had bled the South both literally and figuratively.  With the exception of the Battles of Marks Mills, Jenkins Ferry, and Poison Springs, most of the hot fighting missed the Dallas and Calhoun County region.  But shortages of food, pillage by both sides and by some on neither side,  and poverty were major problems that the Gray family and their neighbors dealt with regularly.  After 1865, Federal troops and Reconstruction brought as many hardships, albeit different ones, as had the War.  But the decade ended with all the children alive and well with the exception of the youngest, Sarah, whose date and place of death remain a mystery.

When the 1870 Census was taken, Henry Gray and Nancy Ann Vaughan Gray were enumerated in Moro Township, Calhoun County, Arkansas along with their children: Henry David Gray (1861), Lewis D. Gray (1864), Samuel Gray (1866-67).  Henry was 56 years of age, still active as a farmer although the value of his homestead had dropped by two-thirds and the value of his personal property was only $900.00 where it had been more the $6500 just 10 years earlier.

• Thomas Jefferson and Ann Isabella Bull Gray, James Monroe and Martha Jane Mitchell Gray, and Benjamin Franklin and Martha Bledsoe Gray were living in Jackson Township in Dallas County only a few miles from their father's farm.  James and Benjamin were on adjoining farms and Thomas lived one farm away.  Thomas had three young children in his household, James, Annie, and Thomas, while the other two brothers had no children in their households.  One puzzling aspect of this absence of children concerns Mary Florence Gray.  The records we have show that she was born February 22, 1869 and if that date is accurate, she should have been listed on the Census.  Her absence leads us to think that her actual date of birth may have been later.  Moreover, the date of birth for Henry Ed Gray, the second child of James Monroe and Martha Jane, has been reported as 1870.  We do not have a satisfactory explanation for these discrepancies.  

• Mary Elizabeth Gray Acruman and her husband, Elias, were living in Moro Township near the present day community of Chambersville.  Albert, Ida, and Louis, age 7, 3, 1, respectively were in the household.  Elias Acruman owned and operated a dry goods store in Chambersville.  Samuel Neel was working in the store as a clerk.  Samuel Neel was the uncle of Martha Jane Mitchell who married James Monroe Gray.   

• George Washington and Ollie Tomlinson Gray were living in Moro Township not far from the farm of Henry and Nancy.  They had no children.

• Martha Jane Gray was a 15 year old living, not with her father, Henry, but rather with her older sister, Mary Elizabeth Gray Acruman.

• Sarah Gray, who would have been 13 years of age, was not listed and we presume that she had died.  We acknowledge that we have been unable to find her grave.

The community of Chambersville was thriving during the period following the Civil War.  There were stores, a post office, and other economic activity consistent with an agricultural community.  Fordyce was not incorporated until 1884 and the railroads that spurred the rise of Fordyce did not arrive until after 1880.  The area was beginning to recover from the terrible effects of the War and there was a period of generally good economic times.  

Henry Gray was 65 years of age when the 1880 Census was taken in Calhoun County.  Nancy was 47 and by now had given birth to five children, the last one when she was 42 and Henry was 60.  Henry was still active in farming and his sons were engaged in the family farm as well.  All of the children from the marriage to Nancy were still at home and included Henry David, Louis, Samuel, Alice, and John, age 18, 16, 13, 7, and 5, respectively.  Henry, at age 65, was still responsible for a reasonably young family and it is not likely that he had been able to acquire sufficient wealth to be able to look forward to his declining years with any measure of "taking it a bit easier".  He had fathered 12 children and all were still living except for Thomas, the oldest, and Sarah, the youngest,  about whom we have previously commented.  He had been blessed with 29 grandchildren, all but 3 were living in 1880.   

At the time of the 1880 Census, we found the following children of Henry and his first wife, Eliza Taylor,  most living very near each other and near the farm of their father and step mother.

• Thomas Jefferson Gray died sometime after 1872 and before 1880.  Ann Isabella Bull Gray was living next door to Jacob Bull, her father,  in Dallas Township near the present day community of Tinsman.  She reported that she was a widow, age 33.  James (14), Anna (13), Elbert (9), and Lester (8) were living at home.  One son, Thomas J. Gray, who would have been 10 was not listed and presumed dead.  

• Mary Elizabeth Gray Acruman was 33 years of age and her husband, Elias, was 40.  There were six children living at home, Albert, Ida, Louis, Ruth, Bettie, and Laura, ranging in age from 17, 12, 11, 9, 6, and 1, respectively.  Elias owned and operated a dry goods store in Chambersville and Samuel Neel, who had listed his occupation in 1870 as a clerk in a dry goods store now reported that he owned and operated one.  We cannot determine whether Acruman and Neel were partners in one store or if they were competitors.  The two lived next door to each other. 

• James Monroe and Martha Jane Mitchell Gray were living in Moro Township within a few miles of his father.  Florence, about whom we wrote earlier, was listed as an 11 year old.  Henry, James, Joseph, Frank and Walter rounded out the family.  Six children, five of them male, had been born in the 12 plus years of their marriage and Martha Jane was pregnant with her seventh child who would be born in October and named, George Cecil "Pick" Gray.  Martha Jane's mother, Mary Neel Mitchell, was living a short distance away in the household of Mary's brother, Samuel Neel, mentioned above.  Martha's two sisters and brother were also in the Neel household. 

• George Washington and Mary Olivia Tomlinson Gray were farming in Moro Township and Ollie had given birth to four children.  Ada was 8, Henry (6), Robert (3), and Horace was six months. 

• Benjamin Franklin and Martha Bledsoe Gray were living on their farm in Jackson Township, Dallas County.  Living a few houses away was Matilda Vaughan, the mother of Nancy Vaughan Gray, Benjamin Franklin's step-mother.  Benjamin and Martha were now the parents of five children. Three were living and at home,  George Travis (10), Mary Agnes Daisey (7), and Flora (2 months).  Sallie and Arra had died and were buried at Chambersville Cemetery.  We think these two were the first Grays buried at Chambersville.

• Martha Jane Gray married Samuel Crawford Abernethy January 22, 1874 and they settled in Jackson Township, Calhoun County not distant his relatives.  Like everyone else, they were farmers.  Three children, James Albert (5), Laura (3), and Mollie (2months) had been born.

• Sarah did not appear on the 1880 Census and we believe that she had died before 1870.

Nancy Ann Vaughan Gray died November 21, 1882 and was buried at the Chambersville Cemetery.  She was 50 years of age.    Henry was left once again a widower with young children still at home.  Henry David Gray, the oldest child of Nancy and Henry, was 21 when his mother died.  Because we have been unable to located the death date or place for Lewis and Samuel, we are unable to determine their status at the death of their mother.  Alice, however, was a child of 11 and John was a lad of 8.  Two years later, Henry, now age 70,  was again remarried, this time to Cynthia Turner, a widow of 55 years of age.  Cynthia, nee Pennington,  was born in Suimter County, Georgia and there she married William W. Turner before 1850.  She and William had several children and continued to live and farm in Sumter County.  Before 1870, William died and soon after that Cynthia moved to Arkansas where she had relatives.  She lived with her older sons for several years before her marriage to Henry Gray in 1884. 

Henry's marriage to Cynthia Turner was a short one because Henry died in March 1885 less than a year after their marriage.  Henry was buried in the Chambersville Cemetery alongside his second wife, Nancy Ann Vaughan.  We are unable to explain why he was buried beside Nancy rather than beside his first wife, Eliza.  Perhaps the Brawner Cemetery where Eliza was buried had already fallen into disuse.  We just don't know.  Cynthia Pennington Turner Gray, now only 56, remained a widow for the remainder of her days and she died in Dallas County at age 90.  She was buried in the Bucksnort Cemetery, Stony Point, and her marker gives her name as Turner.

One interesting footnote to the Henry Gray and Cynthia Pennington Turner marriage is that Cynthia's younger sister, Letha, married Green Berry Talbot in 1888.  Green Berry Talbot had officiated at the wedding of Henry Gray and Nancy Vaughan in 1858.  Accordingly, the step grandmothers of Ann were sisters.

And now the Henry Gray story comes to an end.  He died when he was 70 years of age, the father of 12 children with two ladies.  His grandchildren numbered 49 and would reach 67 when those born after his death were counted.  His was a simple life filled with hard work and struggle but also filled with the joys of seeing a large family grow to maturity and thrive.  He endured a cruel Civil War but persevered and left a legacy that his descendants are proud to claim.    

The children of Henry Gray spent their lives in the Dallas and Calhoun County area, primarily in the vicinity of Chambersville.

• Thomas Jefferson Gray died between 1872 and 1880 at about 32 years of age.  He was the father of 5 children.  His widow, Ann, lived for a few years near her father  not far from Tinsman then remarried and relocated to Texas.  She married L. G. Caddell in 1888.  The 1890 Census is unavailable but she was listed on the 1900 Census in Denton County, Texas near the town of Sherman.  Caddell died in 1905 and Ann Isabella was living in Grayson County, Texas by 1910.  Her daughter, Annie, had died and the children were living with Ann Isabella.  She died in 1927 and was buried in the West Hill Cemetery.  Only two of the five children of Thomas Jefferson Gray were living in 1910.

• Mary Elizabeth Gray died June 16, 1897 in Dallas County .was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Fordyce.  She was 54 and had given birth to 10 children.  Her husband, Elias Acruman, was remarried to Rosa Douglas and fathered 5 children with her.  Elias continued his aggressive business skills and developed a pharmaceutical business in Fordyce with several successful products including Acruman's Purgative Peas.  Elias died April 18, 1919 at the age of 79.  He was buried alongside Mary Elizabeth in the Oakland Cemetery.

• James Monroe Gray died April 21, 1916 and was buried in Chambersville Cemetery.  He had fathered 10 children.  Martha Jane Mitchell Gray died January 27, 1920 and was buried alongside her husband at Chambersville.  Her mother, Mary E. Neel Mitchell, was also buried at Chambersville.  There are other members of her family interred at Chambersville.

• George Washington Gray died January 1, 1931 and was buried at Chambersville Cemetery.   He was 91.  He had fathered 10 children.  Mary Olivia "Ollie" Tomlinson Gray March 12, 1938 was buried at Chambersville Cemetery.  She was 86.

• Benjamin Franklin Gray died July 1, 1910 in Dallas County and he was buried at Chambersville Cemetery.  He was 61 and had fathered 9 children.  He was married three times, first to Martha Bledsoe who died May 9, 1891 and was buried at Chambersville Cemetery.  He was married a second time to a lady whom we know only by her initials, G. E. and he was married a third time to a lady named, Beulah.  The second wife is also buried at Chambersville but we do not know the burial place for Beulah

• Martha Jane Gray died March 21, 1940 and was buried beside her husband in Oakland Cemetery at Fordyce.  She was 85 and the mother of 8 children.  Her husband, Samuel Crawford Abernethy, had died July 19, 1926 and was buried in Oakland Cemetery.

• Sarah Gray died before 1870 when she was not more than 13.  We have not found her burial place but it is likely at either Chambersville or at Brawner.

• THE SEVEN CHILDREN LISTED ABOVE WERE FROM THE MARRIAGE TO ELIZA TAYLOR AND THE FIVE CHILDREN WHO FOLLOW WERE FROM THE MARRIAGE TO NANCY ANN VAUGHAN.

• Henry David Gray died May 21, 1908 at the age of 46.  He was buried at Chambersville Cemetery.  He had father 9 children.  His wife, Laura Jamison Samuel lived another 32 years and died June 22, 1940.  She was buried alongside Henry David at Chambersville.

• Lewis Gray - We have been unable to locate details of his life,

• Samuel Gray - We have been unable to locate details of his life.

• Alice M. Gray was born in 1871 and was only a 14 year old teenager when her fathered died leaving her an orphan.  We do not know with whom she lived until her marriage in 1894 to Howell Sidney Easterling.  She died December 4, 1950 at the age of 79, the mother of 5 children.  She was buried at Chambersville Cemetery and Howell died in 1955 and was buried beside her.

• John Gray was born in 1874 and, like his sister, Alice, was left an orphan of 11 years of age when his father died.  He married Rosa Hodnett in 1896 and father two children, Fred and Oma.  He died September 4, 1902 at the age of 28 and was buried at Chambersville.  We do not know where Rosa was buried.

With the death of Alice in 1950, the immediate family of Henry Gray ended but the family was by no measure extinct.  Literally hundreds of Henry Gray descendants continue to live in the area and others have spread throughout the nation.  Henry Gray, like so many of his contemporaries, made a great nation but received so little recognition for it.  Perhaps this small tribute begins to recognize that contribution to progress. 

 Click on the link at the end of this sentence to see the entire Gray database on the web at Rootsweb : Gray

Spiegel Coupon Codes