Mrs. Sarah Ann Gray

GRAY, MILLER, PENCE, SAFFORD, AYRES, JOHNSON

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 8/27/2005 at 10:49:58

September 14, 1898-Unknown newspaper published in Lee County, Iowa

CENTENARIAN DEAD

Mrs. Gray, of Hamilton, Passed the Hundred Year Station on Life's Journey

Mrs. Sarah Ann Gray, the oldest person in Hancock county, if not in the state, died in Hamilton Friday night of weakness incident to old age.
She was 101 years and six months old, and had resided in Hamilton for many years, making her home with Mrs. A.L. Miller, her daughter.
Mrs. Will Pence, of this city, Mrs. Owen Pence, Mrs. C.C. Safford are granddaughters, and J.L.Miller, of Hamilton is one of the grandsons. She left a number of descendants and many friends to mourn her loss.
She has one surviving son, Thaddeus Gray, of St. Louis, and the only surviving daughter is Mrs. Miller. There are fourteen grandchidren, fifteen great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
She was born March 1, 1797, the day that the term of George Washington as president expired, in Boston, her maiden name being Ayres, and her father a sea captain and a patriot.
After being educated in the public schools, she married a young sea captain named Johnson at the age of fifteen. They came west in 1816, living at Kaskaskia for awhile and later at Cairo. Captain Johnson took to steamboating. He died in 1825 of yellow fever down south.
In 1826 she married James Gray at Chester and in 1831 came to Hancock county and settled in Montebello township. Indians and wild beasts then abounded there. Mr. Gray died in 1855. Mrs. Gray remained rugged and in perfect health until after she celebrated her hundredth birthday. She was a lover of books, aht bible best of all, and kept posted on modern science.