Gaston, Joseph.  "The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811-1912."  Vol. 3. 
Chicago, Clarke Publishing Co., 1912. p. 45.
 
FREDERICK L. GRAY

   is the owner of a well improved ranch of three hundred acres located seven
miles northeast of Springfield, where he has resided for more than fifty years
and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was born in Washington county,
Pennsylvania, on February 2, 1831, and is a son of Alexander and Lydia
(Lutanner) Gray. The father was of Irish extraction and the mother of German
descent, but they were born, reared and married in the Keystone state and there
passed the early years of their domestic life. In 1831, they removed to Ohio,
but five years later the family was called upon to mourn the loss of the mother,
who was buried in the vicinity of Wooster, and the father and children
subsequently returned to Pennsylvania. He located in Washington county,
continuing to reside there for several years, and during that period he was
married again, his second wife having been Miss Mary Andrews. The attraction of
the west again proving irresistible, in 1844 he crossed the prairies to Indiana,
settling in the vicinity of Greencastle, where both he and his wife passed the
remainder of their lives. He died on the 26th of December, 1866, but she
survived for several years thereafter. Mr. Gray was a miller, and while he
followed his trade at various periods, his energies were devoted to agricultural
pursuits during the greater part of his life. To him and his first wife there
were born four sons, of whom our subject, the third in order of birth, is the
only one now living. The others are as follows; John, who passed away in Texas
at the age of eighty years; Alexander, whose death occurred in Los Angeles at
the age of eighty-three; and Jacob S., who was seventy-live and a resident of
Nebraska at the time of his death. Five children were born of the second
marriage: Samuel R., now deceased, who engaged in the practice of medicine in
Illinois; Robert, who is a resident of Nebraska; Sarah M., who is deceased;
Nancy Jane, the deceased wife of Albert Hurt; and William J., who was
accidentally killed in Idaho.
     Born in a family of moderate means, Frederick L. Gray received but a
limited education in the district schools of his native state. Having been
reared in the country, he was early trained to agricultural pursuits, so upon
leaving home at the age of seventeen years he sought and obtained employment as
a farm land. He continued to follow this occupation in Pennsylvania for three
years. At the expiration of that time he decided to go west, so he joined an
emigrant train and crossed the plains to Oregon in 1851. During the first three
years of his residence in the west he worked in the gold fields of the Rogue
River country and also in California, but in 1855 he gave up prospecting and
came to Lane county. For a year he worked in the Deadwood mines, and in 1853 he
participated in the Indian war, guarding Jacksonville, Oregon. After engaging in
various activities he filed on a claim of one hundred and sixty acres and went
into the stock business. He followed this with very good success until he
received the deed to his land four years later. At the end of that time he
disposed of his claim and went to the Willow Springs mines and prospected for
two years. In 1861, he returned to Lane county and bought his present ranch,
which at that time contained three hundred and twenty acres of land. This is
located on section 35, Range south, 2 west, township 17, on the old stage road
between Springfield and Walterville. Soon after acquiring this property he
joined a party and started for the Salmon river mines. It was a perilous journey
and fraught with many hardships and privations. The snow was deep and the cold
extreme and several of their number perished from cold and exposure as they
walked the entire distance. Upon reaching their destination they found the snow
eight feet deep on a level at the mines, which made it practically impossible to
work. The scarcity of food and the exorbitant prices --- they paid two hundred
and twenty-five dollars for two hundred pounds of flour upon their arrival ---
caused Mr. Gray to leave soon after his arrival for the Piatt Valley mines.
There he found practically the same conditions the season too far advanced to
work, and the food supply very low so he returned to his ranch and has ever
since been a resident of Lane county. He applied himself energetically and
intelligently to the development of his land and the direction of his
undertakings, meeting with a corresponding degree of success. He now owns three
hundred acres of well improved land, one hundred acres of this being under high
cultivation. All of the improvements upon his place are in good condition, it is
well stocked and thoroughly equipped with everything needful to the modern
agriculturist. In addition to his home place, Mr. Gray owns one hundred and
twelve acres of fertile land near Thurston, Oregon.
     In 1864, Mr. Gray was married to Mrs. Olive Looney, the widow of James C.
Looney, who filed upon a donation claim in Lane county in 1852, that included
the present Gray ranch. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Gray, as
follows: Alexander, who was born on the 9th of November, 1864, now a resident of
Springfield, Oregon; Charles, whose natal day was the 3d of September, 1866, a
resident of Klamath Falls, this state; Mary Jane, whose birth occurred on
October 23, 1868, the wife of Albert Mathews, of Lane county; Frederick, who was
born on April 14, 1871, living on a portion of the old homestead in this county;
Ira, whose birth occurred on June 24, 1873, also of Lane county; John, who was
born in 1876 and died ill infancy; and Nellie, whose natal day was September 20,
1879, and had attained the age of eleven years when she died. Margaret Ann, who
is the sixth in order of birth, was born on the 7th of June, 1875, and married
Frank Campbell, who died October 27, 1900. Mrs. Campbell and her son Frank, who
was born on November 19, 1900, are living with Mr. Gray on the old homestead.
Mrs. Gray had four children by her first husband. The three eldest, Isaac D.,
William M. and Sarah A., are all deceased, but the youngest, Martha E., is the
wife of William McKinney, of Independence, Oregon. All of the children were
given the advantages of a good practical education.
     Mr. Gray is a socialist in his political views, but twice cast his ballot
for Abraham Lincoln. He has never actively participated in public affairs, not
being an aspirant to public honors. Mr. Gray who has lived far beyond the
Psalmist's allotted span, having attained the venerable age of eighty-one years,
is widely known in the county and enjoy a the confidence and esteem of a large
circle of friends.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2010 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.