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Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. Walter Joseph Gray: Birth: 19 Oct 1898 in Sprague, WA, USA. Death: 6 Mar 1977 in Long Beach, CA


Notes
a. Note:   Walter J. Gray, one of Adams county's foremost citizens, died of heart failure at his farm home on Saturday afternoon. Mr. Gray's death followed a series of illnesses which had sapped his strength during the last two months. An attack of phlebitis was followed by pleurisy and when he seemed on the road to recovery he was stricken with influenza and a new attack of pleursiy. The members of his family had been gravely concerned about his condition for some time and they were all at his bedside at the time of his death. Walter John Gray was born Sept. 21, 1858, in Devonshire, England, where his father operated a large farm. He came to the United States in 1884. He spent about a year in the middle west, going to Larned, Kansas, when Larned was one of the wild and wooly spots on America's frontier, the shipping point at the end of a long cattle trail from Texas. When he came west he chose the town of Sprague as his future home and the scene of his successful commerical career. Mr. Gray was an adventurous and ambitious young man with his way to make in a new world far from home and he turned to many things in his pioneering days. Many of his friendships with the older residents of Adams county were formed at that time when he traveled through this country shearing sheep. Later he returned to England where he familiarized himself with the meat business and upon his return to Sprague he formed a partnership with Mr. Amory and Mr. Stooke. In time the three partners controlled most of Sprague's thriving commerce, having a general merchandise store, a grocery store and meat market, a hardware store, feed mill and various other enterprises. In 1910 they sold their interests at Sprague and all moved to Alberta, Canada, where they engaged in the cattle business. Mr. Gray and his family came to Adams county in 1913 and settled on the large wheat ranch which has since been their home. There he transformed a rundown place which had been rather sketchily farmed into one of the show places in the county, with handsome, substantial buildings, modern conveniences and fields in the highest state of cultivation. Always alert and progressive, Mr. Gray brought to his farm the same keen management that had earned his success in his commercial life. He maintained small bands of sheep and cattle, his livestock flourished and his wheat yields were above average. And every day, until his last illness, he rode his saddle horse out through his fields. Mr. Gray's daughter, Eva, has long been her father's devoted companion. His sons, when they had completed their education at W. S. C. returned to make their own homes with their families on the home ranch. They all made several trips to England to visit with the relatives of Mr. and Mrs. Gray, who was also a native of England. Besides his own family, Mr. Gray for a long time cared for three nieces and nephews of Mrs. Gray's and on two of their trips across the ocean they were accompanied by the six children. Walter J. Gray had always a lively interest in public affairs and an intellectual grasp of economic and political questions beyond the reach of more casual thinkers. A severe nervous impediment in his speech caused him to think himself unsuited to hold public office, thereby contributing, no doubt, to a peaceful and contented life. For otherwise, he surely would have been swept along to a wider field where his life would have been dominated by the strife and the cares of official leadership. An untiring letter writer, a host of Mr. Gray's friends can testify to his remarkable fluency, his persuasive logic and his thorough-going understanding of any subject to which he devoted his attention. He did serve, however, as commissioner for this county for two terms ending in 1924. More recently he was one of the initiators of the Adams county tax payers' association of which he was the president and a very active leader. Mr. Gray was initiated into the rites of Masonry in an old English lodge in his native land, later taking membership in the Sprague lodge. He was also a member of the Sprague chapter of the Eastern Star, and a member of Rimrock Grange. He was a directing elder and one of the chief supporters of the United Presbyterian church of Washtucna. Mr. Gray was vice president of the Ritzville State Bank and a director of the First National Bank of Sprague. In the immediate family surviving Mr. Gray are his widow, Ellen Chandler Gray, two sons, John and Joe Gray, and his daughter, Miss Eva Gray, all living on the home farm. There are also four granddaughters. Five sisters and two brothers living in England also survive him. The funeral services were held at the Washtucna church at 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning attended by neighbors and friends, business associates and family connections from every part of eastern Washington who gathered to pay the tribute of their respect and to mourn the passing of a sturdy partner, a loyal friend, a valued citizen and a respected leader. The service was one of simple solemnity with no lavish display of flowers owing to an expressed wish of Mr. Gray's family. The funeral was an epitome of Mr. Gray himself, and his life. Everything was beautiful and perfect in its way without any touch of ostentation. The Rev. D. A. Russell of Spokane, conducted the services for his friend, with the assistance of Rev. W. H. Gordon, who occupies Mr. Russell's former pulpit in Washtucna. Miss Georgia Bassett, Mrs. W. H. Gordon and Mrs. Elmer Huff sang several sacred songs in a lovely trio arrangement. Miss Frances Hurst was the instrumentalist. The pallbearers were Alex McGregor and Maurice McGregor of Hooper, H. K. Burkhart and Max Sitton of Washtucna, V. A. Chargois of Ritzvile and Park Smalley of Sprague. Following the service here a cavalcade departed for Sprague where interment was in the Sprague cemetery.


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