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Note: John Harrison Gray and Hannah R. (Bird) Gray adopted a boy named John Franklin Gray (who was called "Frank").
John Harrison Gray lived in Wesley and Baring, Maine.
His death place: Baring, Maine [L. Austin Gray, Junior notes]; or, Portland, Maine [Ellery C. Gray family Bible, photocopy reproduction in a report by Lane Pendleton].
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- According to John Harrison Gray's grandson, Henry Lancey Gray,
"Grandfather John" had a timber and logging crew at age 16, and he also had a dog named 'Bony' or 'Boney.' He used to tell his grandson, Henry Lancey Gray, about how the wolves used to follow him home at night as he carried the lantern through the woods after logging all day. He would say to Boney: 'Take 'em, Boney; and Boney took 'em.'
"Another story was about John's refusal to buy into the forest lands at 50 cents an acre. He was offered this because he was one of the best timber cruisers around, and his would-be partner offered to put up the money for him. John said: 'No, I don't think I'll buy.' This land (300,000 acres) became the holdings of one of the large paper companies.
" 'Grandapa John,' well up in years, was said to have run the last hundred yards up the street to get out of the rain and vaulted the front porch steps to attend his birthday party."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------- John H. Gray's daughter, Mary L. Gray, married Frederick Munson in 1878. Frederick Munson was appointed to a three-year term as a Game Warden, on 01 April 1885. But poachers in and around Wesley, Maine, who did not like his enforcement of the state's new strict game laws, burned down Frederick Munson's house and barn on 17 July 1885. When Frederick and Mary (Gray) Munson then went to live with Mary's father, John H. Gray, the poachers made several written threats to John H. Gray to burn him out also. [For details of this incident, see: Edward D. Ives. George Magoon and the Down East Game War : History, Folklore, and the Law. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c1988. pp. 71, 209-220, 232 notes, 301.]
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