Gray, William H. (of Clinton Co., IL)

Born: 1820-09-01 Sumner County, Tennessee

Flourished: Carlyle, Illinois

William H. Gray, a lawyer, lived on the family farm in his native Sumner County, Tennessee, until he was twenty years old. He received his education in Gallatin and Nashville, Tennessee. In 1840, Gray moved to Daviess County Kentucky, where he farmed and taught school. In January 1843, he married Lucinda Bell, who died in 1848. Gray moved to Carlyle, Illinois, in 1851, where he opened a law practice, which he maintained for twenty-five years. In April 1854, Gray married Mary C. Moore, with whom he had two children. Politically, Gray was a Whig until the party collapsed, and then he switched to the Republican Party. He represented Clinton County at the 1858 Illinois Republican State Convention. In 1860, Gray was practicing law in Carlyle and owned real property and personal property valued at $2,000.

History of White County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1883), 325-26; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Carlyle, Clinton County, IL, 4; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Clinton County, 24 April 1854, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Carlyle, Clinton County, IL, 176; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:3.