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Citation:  [Identification of Item], Gray Family Papers, MC033, San Jacinto Museum of History, Houston, Texas.

Creator Sketch:

William Fairfax Gray was born in Fairfax County, Virginia, on November 3, 1787, to William and Catherine Dick Gray.  As a land agent for Thomas Green and Albert T. Burnley, Gray first visited Texas in 1835.  He attended the 1836 convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos and kept a detailed diary of its proceedings.  Gray left Texas during the “Runaway Scrape” but returned with his family in 1838, settling in Houston where he practiced law.  Among Gray’s titles were clerk of the Texas House of Representatives, secretary of the Texas Senate, district attorney in Texas, clerk of the Texas Supreme Court, and secretary of the Philosophical Society of Texas.  He was a Mason and a devout Episcopalian.  He and his wife, Millie Richards Stone Gray (1757 – 1851), married in 1817 and had 12 children, six of whom lived to adulthood.  Gray died in Houston on April 16, 1841.

Peter W. Gray, 1819 – 1874, son of William and Millie Gray, came to Houston, Texas with his family in 1838.  He became a captain in the Republic of Texas army and second lieutenant of the Milam Guards.  From 1841 to 1861 Gray served as district attorney of Houston.  He married Abby Jane Avery in 1843.  In 1846 he was elected to the first Texas state legislature, and there he authored the important Practice Act, regulating Texas court procedures.  Gray was a founder of the Houston Lyceum, which later became the Houston Public Library.  After Texas secession, Gray represented the Houston district in the first Confederate House of Representatives.  He became a volunteer aide to General John Bankhead Magruder in 1863, and saw action in the battle of Galveston.  In 1864 Jefferson Davis appointed Gray his fiscal agent for the Trans-Mississippi Department.  After the war Gray started a Houston law practice and was the first president of the Houston Bar Association.  For a brief time prior to his death, he was appointed associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court.  Like his father, Gray was an active Mason and Episcopalian.

Edwin Fairfax Gray, 1829 – 1884, son of William and Millie Gray, served in both the Republic of Texas Navy and United States Navy, and while in the latter, sailed with Commodore Matthew Perry on his historic trip to Japan in 1853.  After resigning from the Navy in 1858, Gray was appointed Texas state engineer, and secretary/treasurer of Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway Company in 1860.  He joined the 3^rd Texas Infantry during the Civil War and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.  After the war Gray returned to engineering and often acted as an inspector for railroad construction.  Gray had three children with his wife, Rosalie Woodburn Taylor Gray, whom he married in 1857.

Bibliography:

“Gray, William Fairfax.”  Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/fgr27.html

“Gray, Peter W.”  Handbook of Texas Online.

                http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/fgr25.html

“Gray, Edwin Fairfax.”  Handbook of Texas Online.

                http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/fgr20.html

Scope and Content Note:

Correspondence, diaries, legal documents and printed materials created by the Gray family or collected by them record events in Virginia and Texas from before the Texas Revolution to the Civil War.  Those documents created by a Gray family member are arranged by individual. Contained in the William Fairfax Gray series are a handwritten Constitution of the Philosophical Society of Texas, a letter from James Madison, and an oath of allegiance to Texas made before Gray.  A transcript of Millie Gray’s diary covers the time period of 1832 to 1840, and documents her life in Fredericksburg, Virginia, her husband’s move to and return from Texas, the family’s journey to Texas, and life in Houston.  In the Peter W. Gray series are correspondence with Nathan Fuller and Jefferson Davis in 1862, and a key to the writing of a Galveston secret society.  “Notes on the Occurrences of 1842” and the journal excerpt from the same year are believed to have been written by Peter W. Gray. 

Documents collected by the Gray family are arranged according to material type and function.  Seven letters written to Sam Houston and one written by him, document 1830s and 1840s Texas.  Other notable correspondence is by former president Andrew Jackson, covering the approach of Texas annexation in 1844; Confederate governor of Texas Francis R. Lubbock, concerning martial law in Texas; and early Texan jurist and diplomat George W. Terrell, writing to Ashbel Smith and Lord Aberdeen of Britain.  One of the 1000 printed copies of Col. Travis’ March 3, 1836 letter from the Alamo reveals his situation there.  A hand-drawn map documents the Texan defenses at Fort Defiance in Goliad in 1836.  “An Ordinance” covers the terms under which the government of Texas planned to dissolve its union with the United States in 1861. “General Orders,” written by General John Bankhead Magruder, is in regards to the exportation of cotton from Texas in 1863.

GRAY FAMILY PAPERS, 1826 – 1864

Manuscript Collection:  MC033

Size:  .4 linear feet

Boxes:  1

Inventory

     Series:  William Fairfax Gray

     Series:  Millie Richards Gray

Series:  Peter W. Gray

Series:  Edwin Fairfax Gray

Series:  Collected Papers:  Correspondence

Series:  Collected Papers:  Autograph

Series:  Collected Papers:  Legal

Series:  Collected Papers:  Printed Materials

Series:  Collected Papers:  Maps

Series:   Photostats