Happy Birthday, Paw!!

On June 30, Paw celebrated another birthday. He turned 78. The people in the video, besides Paw, is Crystal, my daughter, her friend, Jeff, my friend, Debbie, and me. We had a great time.

Short video of Paw's birthday, last June 30. Happy 78th, Paw.

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Hans

Grandpa and Grandma Gray

This photo is one of two that I have that shows Paw's dad, William Sargent Gray. In the picture you also have Paw's mother, Missouri Faye Gray. Standing next to Grandpa Gray is Louise. Emmett is squatting down holding Marie. Next to him is Billie and in front of Billie is Larry (left) and Robbie (Robert Charles).

In the short video, Paw mentions that there were ten children, but he only names eight. Two of the children died while still babies and their graves are at Ten Island.

Later, I will get Paw to tell us a little more about Grandpa and Grandma Gray. I know that Grandma Gray’s maiden name was Phillips.

This picture of Grandma Gray was taken in Gadsden in the early ’60. You can date the picture by the car behind her. I think Paw bought that Ford new in 1960.

Click here to launch a short video of Paw telling about Missouri and William Gray.

Larry Joe Nichols

Larry Joe Nichols is my cousin. He is the son of Lois, Paw's sister. He was a year or two older than me. I kind of looked up to him and always enjoyed visiting with him in Anniston.

I remember one time he came to stay with us for a while (for about a week I think) in Rainbow City. He was helping Paw cut pulpwood. Paw would work a shift at the steel plant and then go out and cut and haul pulpwood for the rest of the day.

Behind the house and down the hill from where we lived there were a series of ponds in which I sometimes went fishing. One day while Larry was waiting for Paw to finish work at the steel plant, he caught a lizard, took his fishing pole, and went down to the lake. When I got home from school, I saw the biggest fish (a bass) I had ever seen flopping around in the sink. Paw and Larry had already gone off to cut pulpwood and Mama was getting ready to clean Larry's fish for supper.


I remember Larry was real proud of that ’57 Ford Fairlane he owned. Now this picture is not Larry and this is not his Ford, but this is what it looked like.

I also remember that Larry had a hard time getting into the Army. He had a problem with a kidney if I remember right. He first joined the Navy reserve and then requested a transfer to the regular Army. His first duty station was Hawaii. From there he went to Vietnam. We wrote each other regularly and I kept his letters for many years, but somewhere during my divorce and moving, I lost them.

One story I remember from his letters concerned an incident while on patrol. Larry was a machine gunner on an armored personnel carrier. In the letter he wrote that they were taking a break and were sitting outside the vehicle when a sniper started shooting at them. Larry jumped up and crawled up to the machine gun turret to send some rounds off in the direction of the sniper’s fire. When he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. Larry learned later that his squad leader had unloaded his machine gun for some reason.

Larry was killed in Vietnam. His death and funeral were memorable to me for the following reason. Aunt Lois called Paw one day saying she was worried about Larry because he had not written is several days or weeks. Larry had always been good about writing regularly. Then a few days later, Aunt Lois called again and told Paw to come to Anniston as quickly as he could.

When we got there, she showed us a copy of a Grit Newspaper (Grit was a national paper, somewhat like USA Today. It is still in publication.). On the front page was a color photo of a GI on a stretcher being carried across a rice paddy. Aunt Lois swore that the GI on the stretcher looked like Larry. I think is was the next day, or a couple of days later that the officer from Fort McClellan came to Aunt Lois’s house to tell her that Larry had been killed in action. That was really strange!


The following is from Judy Goode, sister of Larry.

That is pretty much the way I remember it too. Mother was really upset. She said she had dreamed that he was in trouble and she wanted to go over there. She told Benny too. Then we got the news that he was wounded. While the men from the fort were at the house talking to her, Deanie carried Lisa, Tommy, and me out on the back porch. We walked to Jimmy Gallager’s house and Deanie told them what was going on. That was on March 31. Then they came back and said that he had died. I think that was on April 3. We had the copy of the news mag. until the house burned. I think it was lost in the house fire. Do you remember that they had run out of enbalming fluid and that is why his body was swollen and the casket had to be sealed. Someone had to sit with the body while it was at the house because there could not be any jarring. Mother kept the body at home over on Pelham Street until the day of the funeral. The funeral was at Ten Island. Brother Howard and the preacher from Moore Avenue Baptist Church did the funeral. He had a 21 gun salute. That is about all I remember I think he was the first in Calhoun County to be killed in the war. There's a monument on Quintard Ave. and his name is on the Vietnam Wall in the new park on Quintard.

Comments from Ronald Gray

(The following post comes from Ronald Gray. Ron went to Etowah County High School with Rob and I. Robby and I graduated in 1966, and Ron graduated in 1967. Ron presently lives in Pensacola, Florida, and is a professor at the University of West Florida. We have always wondered if our families were related. There are several possible connections – the names Theodore and William occur in his family too, and both Gray families, his and ours, come from the Carolinas. Ron's picture was scanned from our 1966 yearbook. You can reach Ron at rgray@uwf.edu.)

My Great-grandfather was Memory Theodore Gray born 1867 and died 1947. He was known as "Mem." However, Mem was the son of William Gray born 1828 in SC who in turn was the son of yet another William Gray born 1792 in SC and died 1857 in DeKalb County, AL--his probated will is in the county courthouse at Ft. Payne. My family "entered" or homesteaded Cherokee Cession Land in 1838 (this after the forced removal of the Cherokees from northeast AL as part of the Trail of Tears) at the federal land office located in Lebanon, DeKalb County (Lebanon then being the DeKalb county seat--it subsequently moved to Ft. Payne when the railroad line was constructed). I have no reliable information as to exactly where this family of Grays originated in SC. Some years ago, I researched SC US Census records and I discovered that there were numerous William Grays who "went West." It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so I became frustrated and quite. Evidently, a very large percentage of the SC population chose to move West in the 1830s to new lands--"Gone to Texas" was common term used in SC to describe families who moved westward.

I discovered a Gray family in SC that might be related to mine. This family was descended from Frederick Grau (Gray) who was known as the "Old Hessian" who settled near Newberry, SC in 1757. This man received a land grant from King George II ("German George, House of Hanover, father of King George III). Frederick was reportedly from Potsdam and served in Frederick William I's army--father of Frederick the Great. Frederick Grau had a son George Gray who in turn had a son Frederick Gray who served in the Revolutionary War and subsequently the SC state legislature. This Frederick Gray was born 1758 in SC and buried at Calhoun Falls, SC located on the SC/GA border. When Frederick Gray died in 1837 his son William Gray was named in his will as executor. This William was born at the right time and moved west at the right time. So, it maybe he was the William Gray who appeared for the first time in the 1840 US Census in DeKalb County, AL--indicating he was born in SC in 1792. But, I have no conclusive proof to support this speculation.

Now, where your SC family ties in to this history, I have no clue. The US Census records are replete with SC Grays. But, I wager, we are cousins at a great distance.

More on Jesse Berry Gray?

(This information comes from Judy (Nichols) Goode. Judy is the daughter of Lois (Gray)Frazier. Judy lives in Anniston, Alabama. )

I was told that he (Jesse Berry Gray?) sold Mohawk mountain for around $800.00 after donating the land for the church and the cemetary. He sold out because of the boweavel in the crops. He then moved to Sand Mountain where his brother was living. It would be interesting to do a study of the land in the area. I also have several pictures that would add to this.

Jesse Berry Gray and Theodore S. Gray

During the Civil War, Jesse Berry Gray was severely wounded in the leg. At some point in the war he was imprisoned in a Union prisoner of war camp. Somewhere during this time, he met Sargent Griffin. The photo is of Jesse Berry Gray and his wife, Ann Griffin Gray, the daughter of Sargent Griffin. The photos are courtesy of Robert Gray who lives in Southside, Alabama.

After the war, Jesse Berry Gray, accompanied by his first cousin, Theodore S. Gray (Paw is named after him) left the Carolinas headed for Texas. In passing through Alabama, the cousins decided to stop off in Ohatchee to visit with Sargent Griffin. That was as far as they got. Jesse Berry Gray “fell in love with Sargent Griffin’s daughter”, as Paw tells it.

They were married and eventually moved to Sand Mountain. Theodore S. Gray settled around the Gadsden/Anniston area. Jesse Berry Gray is buried on Sand Mountain somewhere around Boaz. Paw says he has a cousin still living on Sand Mountain who knows where the cemetery is located and we plan to seek it out soon.

This photo is the daughter of Jesse Berry Gray and Ann Griffin Gray. This is Paw's aunt, Cora Alice Gray Dickey and her husband.

One note of interest is that there is a Theodore S. Gray buried in Ten Island Cemetery according to the list of “permanent residents”. You can view the list which is located at the end of the posting about the Ten Island Baptist Church. The list indicates that Theodore S. Gray died on June 30, 1905. What caught my eye about this listing was that Paw’s birthday is on June 30, but in 1928 – not 1905. Paw and I both do not recall ever having seen this grave marker.

Paw said he was not 100% sure about this part of the history, but Theodore S. Gray had a daughter who was the mother of Dr. Thomas Brothers. Dr. Brothers used to have a practice in Ohatchee. That was back in the days when doctors still made house calls. Paw says that Dr. Brothers is still practicing in Anniston, Alabama. Dr. Brothers was Grandma Gray’s doctor. Also, she was the sister to Dr. Hugh Gray who practiced in Anniston. Dr. Hugh Gray was the Gray in Gray and Brown’s Funeral Home in Anniston.

The morning after: Counting blessings, counting the damage

This story appeared in the Anniston Star on 03-28-1994.

OHATCHEE – Ken Ingram sifted through the rubble of Ten Island Baptist Church this morning, constantly shaking his head in amazement.
The clock on a rear wall was frozen at 11:06 a.m. That's when 60 parishioners, who were about to sing their first hymn of the morning Sunday, heard the roar.
``It sounded like a freight train coming,'' said Ingram, relating the words of his wife.
The parishioners scrambled down a pair of stairways into the basement seconds before a tornado rumbled across Alabama 77, wiping out a pine forest and shredding the church. According to Ingram, aside from a few cuts and bruises, no one was hurt.
``We're just thankful,'' he said. ``If they had been singing, they would have never heard it.''
The parishioners of Ten Island were fortunate. Deadly twisters and violent thunderstorms battered churches, hundreds of houses and a nursing home on Palm Sunday, claiming 23 lives in northeast Alabama, 16 in Georgia, two in North Carolina and one in Tennessee.

This is a picture of the actual twister that struck the area (Anniston Star archives).

I came across this story while searching for infomation about Ten Island Baptist Church and cemetery. According to Paw, the tornado did a lot of damage to the church and cemetery.

To view the video below, you will need Windows Media Player. To download a free copy of the media player, use the link in the right panel.

Click here to launch a short video of Paw telling about the cemetery and church.

Go to the following site for a list of the permanent residents of Ten Island Baptist Church Cemetery.

List of Cemetery Residents

In the Beginning

My name is Hans Gray, son of Theodore S. Gray. My sister, Rose, and I, and all of our kids, call him Paw. Paw is the last living member of the Gray family brothers and sisters. My goal in establishing this blog is to document the history of the Gray family as told by Paw and other members of the family, including the Nichols, Christopher, Tyler, and other branches of the family. The stories that I will post to this blog were told to me by Paw. I hope to supplement the text with audio clips, video clips, and photographs.

If any member of the Gray family wishes to post pictures or add commentary, especially about members of their immediate family, I will provide you with instructions on how to so. Just contact me by email (hans.gray@yahoo.com) or phone (251-978-4042). Please help in making this history as complete as possible. If we do not make an effort now to preserve what is known about our family, it will be lost to our children and grandchildren.

The Gray family history starts with Sargent Griffin. Sargent Griffin is Paw’s great grandfather. Sargent Griffin rests in the Ten Island Baptist cemetery on Highway 77, just south of Southside/Gadsden. Next to him lies his wife, Rebecca Putman (1828-1860). Sargent Griffin was born in 1816, probably in the Ohatchee area. He died in 1897. During his life time, he accumulated several thousand acres of land in the Ohatchee area. He donated the land on which Ten Island Baptist Church is located along with the land for the cemetery. At one point, his land holdings extended from the area around the church, over the mountain to the banks of the Coosa River. This included the area called Mohawk Valley.

Not much is known about Sargent Griffin. Paw stated that as a young boy, his grandfather and mother and father often spoke about him, but he often was too busy playing or doing other things and that he did not pay enough attention and thus only remembers a small portion of what was told.

Click here to hear Paw tell about Sargent Griffin.

At the time that Sargent Griffin was born in 1816, Alabama was still a wild frontier area. To understand better the historical setting into which he was born and lived, consider the following. The area around Ohatchee was populated by the members of the Cherokee Indian Nation. Two years before Sargent Griffin was born, Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Indians at The Battle of Horseshoe Bend in March of 1814. This broke the power of the Creek Indians in middle and lower Alabama. Jackson then went on to New Orleans and in December of 1814, and defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans. In November of 1816, James Monroe is elected as the 5th preident of the United States. When Alabama became a state in 1819, Sargent Griffin was only a young boy of 3.

Click here to learn more about the Battle of New Orleans

Click here to learn more about the Battle of Horseshoe Bend


In 1838, when Sargent Griffin was 22 years old, President Andrew Jackson ordered that all Indians in the southeast (Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas) were to be removed to what is today Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died. The Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Indians in Alabama were included in this forced removal.

Click here to learn more about the Trail of Tears

Sargent Griffin served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Sometime during his service in the war, he met Paw’s grandfather, Jesse Berry Gray. I will continue with the story at this point in the next posting.