My Genealogy Hound

GRAY, J. HOWARD, druggist, Greenfield. The subject of this sketch first beheld the light of day in Halifax County, N. C., on Christmas day, 1828. Is the son of J. J. Gray; his mother’s maiden name was Lizzie Hubbard. They are of Scotch and Dutch descent. At an early day the family emigrated to this State, and bought a farm near Greenfield, in Macoupin County, where the father of J. Howard still resides; he is now seventy-five years of age; has in his time officiated in different pastorates, being a regularly ordained minister of the Presbyterian faith. In 1837, he went to Monmouth, where he accepted a call, and supplied that pulpit until his failing health compelled him to return home. In the early part of J. Howard’s life, he received his education at a private, school, in which he had all the advantages in the way of the courses, that is now taught in our colleges, he having taken a classical course. In Oct. 9, 1855, he was united in marriage to Sarah Allen, daughter of George W. Allen, who is an old and well known resident in this county, and is the original proprietor of the town. Mrs. Gray was born in this county, Aug. 14, 1831. No issue. While they have never had any children of their own, yet they have always had in their family more or less children who have been unfortunate in losing their parents, and were left without a home, yet Mr. Gray and wife have taken care of them as if they were their own offspring, and have lavished the same kindness and good counsel upon them as if they were really their own. Mr. Gray, like all men who appreciate their wives, is justly proud of his, and twenty-three years of married life has not been sufficient to make him regret the choice he made, and thinks, if he had it to do over, he would choose as before. Many people are “married,” yet not mated. In the year 1857 Mr. Gray embarked in the business in which he is now engaged, and it is said “if any man in the town has a gilt-edge credit, J. Howard Gray has,” and he is of the few, who began business at the time he did, that have sustained themselves, and made their business a steady growth and the enterprise a financial success. Mr. Gray has been a member of the M. E. Church for the last thirty years, and is also a Royal Arch Mason, and is a man that has preserved unsullied the family prestige, and is well deserving of the high character that he sustains in the circle of his acquaintances, and in the community in which he resides.