Elder James Gray's Story
James Gray was born August 10, 1784, to Nehemiah and Olive (Goodwin) Gray, probably in Lyman (then known as Coxhall), Maine. He was the second youngest of six known children, the oldest of the siblings being Andrew Gray, who was born in Berwick, Maine, before the family's move to Lyman.
James Gray and Anna Woodward, the daughter of William and Mary (Johnson) Woodward of Waterborough, were married December 31, 1807, by Rev. Henry Smith, the minister at the First Baptist Church of Waterborough (aka Old Corner Church). James' mother Olive was a member of Old Corner Church at one time, strengthening the assumption that the Grays were not originally Free Will Baptists.
- Samuel, born July 15, 1810, married Sophia Carlisle.
- William, born January 26, 1812, married Maria Chase.
- Mary, born November 30, 1813, married James Mills Chadbourne.
- Joan, born June 11, 1816, died young on October 13, 1822.
- James Jr., born May 11, 1818, married Amelia Cole.
- Ichabod, born January 15, 1820, died young in September, 1824.
According to an entry in the family Bible, James and Anna Gray moved to Waterborough on March 31, 1813. They became neighbors of Anna's father and his new wife Anna Linscott. Anna's sisters Mary and Patience married neighborhood boys William Mills and Joseph Lewis. Their home was on what has alternately been called Bradeen's Ridge and Chadbourne's Ridge in North Waterboro. Only a cellar hole remains.
Earlier, in about 1804, James' older brother Andrew and his wife Elizabeth/Betty Sands also moved to Waterborough. Their home was on an opposite ridge in North Waterborough and still stands.
In an 1816 Waterborough tax list, James Gray's holdings were 50 acres and a dwelling house valued at $300 for taxation purposes. The tax was 71 cents. It is interesting to note that in 1816 he had not been granted tax exempt status as had two other clergymen in town, Rev. Henry Hobbs and Rev. Peletiah Tingley.
In 1825 James Gray was ordained as a Free Will Baptist Minister. He was at first affiliated with the Henry Hobbs Church on Ossipee Hill, Waterborough, and it is not known exactly when he started serving the Elder Grey Meeting House.
In 1832 the meeting house was moved from its location near the outlet of Little Ossipee Lake to the top of Chadbourne's Ridge, where it sits today. Oral history relates that it was moved closer to the Gray homestead to accommodate the aging minister, but Elder Gray was 48 years old at the time and did indeed live another 22 years.
In 1840 James Gray made a conditional deed to his son-in-law James Mills Chadbourne, granting his home farm in return for the care of him and Anna for the rest of their lives.
In 1841 James signed a deposition stating that he was 58 years old, and in 1851 Anna signed a deposition saying that she was present at the marriage of her sister Mary to William Mills in 1803.
In 1890 Samuel King Hamilton delivered a speech to the Sons of Waterborough in Boston in which he shares his recollections of Elder Gray:
Elder James Gray died June 17, 1854, and the circumstances of his death were written the following June 26th by Mary Lovina Chadbourn in a letter to her sister Joann Wells:
Elder Gray died very suddenly a week ago last Saturday. He was taken sick the Monday before. He was comfortably sick, went outdoors the day he died. He went into his room to lay down, in a few minutes his wife went in to the room and found him dead. It appeared that he died asleep but most of people think he died in a fit. The doct. said he had symptoms of apoplexy.
Anna lived another four years, dying on July 29, 1858. They are buried in the Elder Grey Cemetery across the road from the meeting house.
Sources:
- Letters of Mary Lovina Chadbourn
- Free Will Baptist Church Registers held by Ladd Library, Bates College, Lewiston
- Scrapbook of newspaper clippings kept by Margretta Mellen Webber
- James Gray Family Bible
- A General List of Lands and Lots of Ground With Their Improvements and Dwelling Houses…within the 8th Collection District of the State of Mass... Owned or Possessed …on the 1st Day of June 1816…
- Census records
- Early Families of Waterborough, Maine (2012) – Frederick R. Boyle
- York County Register of Deeds and Probate
- Records of the First Baptist Church of Waterborough held by the Maine Historical Society
- Waterborough Roots-Hill, Thing, Pitts, Hamilton, Mills, McLucas – manuscript by Philip Murphy
June 2021: Gray Descendents Visit
Three descendants of Nehemiah and Olive (Goodwin) Gray arrived to visit the Elder Grey Cemetery on a recent June 2021 day. Pictured at their two obelisk gravestones are Stacey Gray of Kennebunk, Maine, center - and her distant cousins Jenney Whittier of Vancouver, Washington, left – and Steve Nason of Cambridge, Massachusetts, right. Stacey is descended from Nehemiah Gray's son Andrew, and Jenney and Steve (first cousins) are descended from Nehemiah's daughter Mary who married Joseph Nason. They hope to attend a future pilgrimage service to honor their ancestral uncle Elder James Gray.
