Mr.
George Gray, of Lynedoch, passed away on the evening of Monday last, after
a brief illness. His disease was a relapse of la grippe. His
daughter, Mrs. John Charlton and her husband, had been summoned from
Ottawa, and his daughters Mrs. James Fulton, of Illinois, and Mrs. Agnes
G. Louks, of Michigan, had also been summoned and all were at his bedside
at the time of his death.
Mr.
Gray's death removes one of the best known and highly respected of the old
settlers of Norfolk County. He was born in Gorham, New York, March
29th, 1811. His parents, George Gray and Agnes Gray, came to the
United States from Northumberland County, England, in 1801. They
formed part of a little colony of ten Northumbrian families that came out
together and settled in central New York.
In 1814 the family removed
from Gorham to Caledonia, N.Y., where George grew up to manhood. They were connected with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Congregation
of that place, when a young man Mr. Gray became a communicant of that
Church. In 1833 he moved to Cattaraugus County, N.Y., and settled on
a new farm three miles from Ellicottville.
He had been recently
married and this was his first essay at managing a farm for himself. Six years later he moved to Portage, N.Y., and subsequently he moved back
to Caledonia and took charge of the old homestead.
He moved to
Canada in May, 1848, and purchased a farm near Lynedoch in the North West
corner of Charlotteville.
The Big Creek region was then
newly settled and the chief industry was lumbering. The inhabitants
were mostly of the rough, careless class usually found in lumbering
sections. The influence started by Mr. Gray and by his intelligent
and pious wife was and ever continued to be a salutary one.
He found
three Presbyterian families in the section and soon succeeded in enlisting
the sympathy and aid of Rev. Geo. Bell, of St. Andrews Church, Simcoe, who
took up an appointment once in four weeks at the old log school house on
the Bostwick Road East of Big Creek, which was burned down some years
since. From this humble beginning the present Lynedoch Presbyterian
Congregation has grown, of which Mr. Gray may be said to have been in a
practical sense, the father.
In 1853 Mr. Gray in company with John Charlton, then a young man just
commencing in life, started a store at Lynedoch. The name of the
firm was Gray & Charlton. Their business had a humble beginning
but Lynedoch proved a good point for trade and soon became the centre of
extensive lumbering operations, and the firm prospered and were soon doing
an extensive business.
In 1859 Mr. Charlton retired from the
business and Mr. Gray continued to run it alone for a time. In 1864
he sold out his interest to Geo. G. Charlton and moved to his farm in
North Walsingham. A few years ago, after his children had all
married and left he and his wife accepted an invitation to make the house
of their son-in-law John Charlton, their home. Mrs. Gray died there
in January, 1887.
Mr.
Gray at the time of his death was one of the oldest settlers in Norfolk
County and his descendants to the third generation are residents of the
section where for some reason that he could never satisfactorily explain
to himself, he cast his lot forty four years ago. Most of his
descendants however, in obedience to the law that controls the Canadian
exodus, are living in the United States, than are to be found in Canada.
Mr.
Gray was a man of great probity of character. His moral worth was
recognized by all who knew him. In the years of his prime he
possessed in a marked degree the spirit of business enterprise, and he
always lived a consistent christian life, and commanded the sincere
respect and esteem of his fellow citizens.
For thirty-four years he
was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, and he was at all times devoted
to his duties and anxious to promote the interests of his church, and the
cause of Christ. About the year 1856 he organized the first Sunday
School ever established at Lynedoch and for several years he served as its
Superintendent. He was a delegate to the First General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and viewed with great satisfaction the
union of the several Presbyterian bodies in the Dominion.
In
view of Mr. Gray's happy, peaceful, and useful life his calm unquestioning
trust in the Saviour [sic] of man, his patience in sickness and, when
entering the valley of the shadow of death, his serene unclouded faith in
a glorious immorality, through the redemption purchased for his people by
Christ, one is lead involuntarily to exclaim with Balaam of old: "Let
me die the death of the righteous, and let me last end be like
him." He leaves the savor of a good name and his memory will be
cherished by a wide circle of friends.
