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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lee County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Joseph O. Gray. Payton R. Gray, a prominent and wealthy planter of Bear Creek Township, was born in Livingston County. Ky., in 1818, being a son of Presley Gray, also a Kentuckian by birth and a tiller of the soil, as was his father, originally from Virginia. Presley Gray was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and lived until his seventy-second year. His wife, Maria (Hodge) Gray, was connected with the Baptist Church. She was the mother of seven children, all of whom are yet living, five residents of Kentucky, one of Iowa and our immediate subject, who has been a citizen of this State since 1847. He took charge of the old homestead at the age of twenty years, and two years later was married to Mrs. Eliza (Dunn) Thrailkill, who died a year after, leaving one child, which only lived nine months. He then married Miss Maria Woods. She died shortly after his removal to Mississippi, in 1844, leaving three children, all deceased. He was next married to Mrs. Margaret S. Bohanan (nee Dickson), a native of Paris, Ky., who died in 1883. They were the parents of two children: Blanche (widow of John E. Burke, living with her father) and Joseph O. (who was born in Coahoma County, Miss., in 1848.) His father having been drafted for the Confederate service in 1863, our subject went as a substitute, and served in Dobbin’s regiment of Confederate cavalry until the close of the war, operating in Eastern Arkansas and Missouri, and receiving his discharge in January, 1865. He was then employed in farming and clerking until 1872, when he entered into the mercantile business at Philips Bayou, in which he has since been engaged, with the exception of the years 1877-78. At that time farming occupied his attention. Mr. Gray married in March, 1875, Miss Mary C. Wilkins, a native of Lee County, Ark., and a daughter of Maj. Wilkins, an officer in the Confederate army, now deceased. They have had one son who is now deceased. Mr. Gray carries a stock of about $5,000, and his annual sales amount to over $40,000. He is also extensively occupied in farming, owning a half interest in 320 acres of fine land, besides some city property, and has the control of over 1,500 acres of land. Mr. Gray is also the postmaster of Philips Bayou, which position he has filled for the past eight years. In connection with his other interests he is engaged in cotton ginning, operating two steam gins and one horse-power cotton-gin. He is a member of the A. F. & A. M. His wife is a member of the Baptist Church.

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This family biography is one of 104 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Lee County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Lee County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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