Oct 2007: I FOUND THE WILL OF THOMAS GRAY AND IT DOES NOT MENTION WM. GRAY. THIS IS APPEARS TO BE A DEAD END IN TERMS OF AN ANCESTOR OF WM. GRAY. I KEEP THE INFO POSTED THAT IT MAY BE OF HELP TO SOME OTHER RESEARCHERS.
.....In the winter of 1818, Murrell, his wife and six children left Carthage, TN with a few household goods, cooking utensils, a pack horse, two dogs and a rifle and traveled by barge down the Cumberland, Ohio, Mississippi, and Red Rivers, seven years before Louisiana became the eighteenth state to join the Union.....
During the first two years, several families settled in the Flat Lick Community. They were Martin and James Allen, Obadiah Driskill, Abraham Crownover, Jessie Williams, Thomas Gray, Dr. Hugh Walker (a self trained doctor), Adam and Nedham Reynolds, Joseph Edwards or Edmonds, John and James McCarty, William M. Gryder (first blacksmith in area), Daniel Moore, Mr. Holcom, and Mr. Brazil. McCrady raised the first significant cotton crop in 1826, about the time the first slaves appeared in the area.
-"Father of Claiborne Parish" John Murrell arrived in August of 1819.
by Susan T. Herring, Editor, The Guardian-Journal, published April 29, 1999
.... Stevenson and those who moved along with him settled in what is now the eastern part of Claiborne Parish From here he carried on a widespread ministry in Northern Louisana. There were a few Methodists in the area as early as 1819 Thomas Gray settled about that time near John Merrell.
- from Riding Preacher by Walter N. Vernon, Southern Methodist University Press 1964,
Ch 7. "Spreading Methodism in Louisana
....Thomas Gray, who settled three miles south, of Murrell. He was a most zealous Methodist and seemed to think, from the way, he talked, that Methodism was first and the Bible second. But religion was at a mighty low ebb in those days. Meat, bread and shelter were the main considerations.
In 1820 news came that some German emigrants had been left near Loggy Bayou in a destitute and helpless condition. Mr. A.J. Alden, Thomas Gray and Murrell went to see if the could be of any assistance to them. Finding them in a truly bad conditioon, each contracted with a family to live with him two years in consideration of a support and being taught the use of our implements in making a living in a new country. Mr. Alden brought home with him Jacob, a peddler; Mr. Gray, Adam Miller (father of Jake and Cody), and Murrell, Frederick Miller and his father, father and grandfather of Long John Miller. The old man Miller died the second year after he was brought among us, and for his body was dug the first grave, in Murrell's grave yard, and we believe he was the first man to die in Claiborne Parish. That grave used to look lonely out there in the woods, but it is in a little city of the dead now shaded by the cedar and forest growth. These people worked out their contracts, then settled near by on homes of their own and raised large and respectable families. There are many of these true Millers in a different parts of the parish.
- The History of Claiborne Parish, Louisiana by D.W. Harris and B.M. Hulse 1886 Chapter 5
Early Days in North Louisiana, by an old settler wild appearance of the Country forest firessettlements, etc.
-Webster Parish History 1890