GRAY, Harlow

GRAY, MOORE, EATON, SCRIBNER, NIXON

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 7/9/2009 at 16:18:33

The next settlers to Osage township after the Harts were Harlow Gray and Dr. A. H. Moore. They came first in July, 1853, and selected land. The doctor selected 400 acres which laid south of, and in, the present city. Harlow Gray claimed about 480 acres. In the fall they brought their families. Dr. Moore is treated at length elsewhere in this volume.

Harlow Gray was born in Meadville, Crawford Co., Penn., Feb. 11,1816. He was a son of Jacob and Eleanor (Eaton) Gray, the father having been a soldier in the War of 1812, and his grandfather, Samuel Eaton, was a commissioned officer in the same war. Harlow's parents were natives of Vermont, where they were married.

Mr. Gray died when Harlow was three years of age, and Mrs. Gray afterwards married Samuel Scribner, by which union there were five children—Angeline, Harrison, Sarah, Jane and Ellen, deceased. Harlow was educated in the common schools of Ohio, where his parents had settled in 1823.

In 1835 they emigrated to St. Joseph Co., Mich., where Mr. and Mrs. Scribner died. Harlow was married in Michigan to Jane Nixon, Jan. 1, 1844. She was the daughter of Francis M. and Mary (McCurdy) Nixon, who had nine children, two sons and seven daughters. In 1850 Mr. Gray took a trip to California in company with Mr. Nixon, who died there.

Mr. Gray then returned to Michigan, and in June, 1853, came to Mitchell county in company with Dr. Moore. There being no public conveyances at that time, he and the doctor came on foot. As they came through Floyd Co., Iowa, the doctor's feet gave out, and he was obliged to lay over one day in Floyd, Mr. Gray coming on and arriving one day in advance. They immediately took up the claims on which they now reside, and where they have lived for more than thirty years.

In the fall of the same year their families came, landing on the 22d of October. They spent their first winter in a log cabin 12x16 feet, built by Mr. Hart, the first settler of the township. Soon afterwards, however, a new cabin was built, and Mr. Gray and his family began to enjoy comfort and prosperity. He hauled the first logs to the Cutler Mill. Mr. Gray has been identified with Mitchell county for thirty years, and has been a witness of its wonderful growth.

He has seen the wild prairies transformed into beautiful farms, and the rude log cabins gradually disappear and comfortable residences take their place. On his removal to Mitchell county, Mr. Gray's family consisted of his wife and one child — Albert H. Gray, born at Mottville, St. Joseph Co., Mich., July 29, 1848.

He is now living in Redfield, Spink Co., D. T., a pioneer of that county, as his father was of this.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1883, page 386.