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the wilds of Monroe county in 1827, where he was born. There being few inhabitants in that county for a number of years after settling there, schools during his boyhood days were but few and far between, hence his parents were unable to give him the advantage of a common school education.
After clearing up a farm in Monroe county, Ohio, his father sold out and moved to Jay county, Indiana, in the fall of 1848.
Mr. Gray went with his parents to that state and remained with them until after he was of age.
In the fall of  1851 he was married to Mary L. Lewis of the same county. They had four children born to them, three boys and one girl, the two youngest, a boy and girl, died in their infancy.
The two oldest, Alonzo P., was born November 29, 1853, he is married and lives at Battle Creek, Michigan, he is a conductor on the Grand Trunk railroad.
Arthur D., his second son, lives in Camden, Indiana, he was born June 2, 1858, he is unmarried and is in the plumbing business in the gas fields in Jay county, Indiana.
In the spring of 1860 Mr. Gray and family left Jay county and settled in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he worked at the carpenter and joiner's trade for a number of years.
In September, 1884 he left Battle Creek for the west, came to Lenora in October of the same year; he worked at his trade and ran the Lenora Monitor until January 1, 1890, when he settled in Norton, where he now lives.From 1850 to 1860 he was an active worker in the anti slavery movement. He was connected with the underground road in concealing and running off slaves from their masters to Canada. His wife died in May, 1882, in Battle Creek, Mich. He remained a widower until January 18, 1894, when he married Lucinda Dew, widow of Amos I. Dew; they settled in Norton county in the fall of 1879; Mr. Dew died April 8, 1891. Mr. Gray has been an active member of the Knights of Labor since June, 1882. He has been a commissioned organizer of that order since 1884, and has been district master workman for the past seven years. He is a member of the general assembly of the Knights of Labor. Politically he was formely (sic) a republican, but left the republican party in 1872 and joined the greenback party, and is now a populist. Religiously he is a liberalist; he has no sympathy for creeds and dogmas, he has full faith in a continuous life beyond the portals of death. He believes in the final salvation of all. In 1890, Mr. Gray was nominated as a Knight of Labor and elected probate judge of Norton county and in 1892 he was again nominated for that position by the peoples party, and elected for the second term. Peter McCrea was born in Galloway, in the south part of Scotland, August 1827, was raised on a large sheep farm; his brother's family still live on the same farm. He received an education at the Douglass academy. When a boy |
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