Gray family papers
Scope and Content
This collection is composed of correspondence, bills and receipts, schoolwork, and printed materials regarding the Gray family. Correspondence includes that of Gilbert and Elizabeth as well as Gilbert's parents, Alson and Bethiah; his son William; and William's children, Alson, William, and Donnan. Others letters in this collection are written by Elizabeth's cousins, Pattie and Betty Claughton, and Albert "Berry" A. Crawley, her brother. Also included are letters to and from Donnan's friends, including his girlfriend, Eva Lovelace. There are bills and receipts from Gilbert Gray's medical practice: documents pertaining to the transportation and storage of tobacco; household bills; loans; and a bond certificate issued by the Confederate States of America. Most of the legal documents are handwritten and are land transactions, work contracts, taxes, and a marriage contract as well as a signed oath to rejoin the Union and an 1864 exemption from service because of his medical practice. Printed materials include clippings from newspapers and magazines, fliers on political matters in Virginia, documents about the pricing of tobacco, and Gilbert Gray's obituary.
Dates
- 1839-1917, undated
Creator
- Gray, Gilbert Robbins (Person)
- Gray, Alson (Person)
- Gray, Cecil Robbins (Person)
- Lovelace, Eva (Person)
- Gray, Alson W. (Person)
- Gray, William A. (Person)
- Gray, Donnan (Person)
- Gray, Elizabeth Crawley Irwin (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Unpublished manuscipts are protected by copyright. All requests to publish, quote, or reproduce must be submitted through the Kenan Research Center.
Administrative/Biographical History
Dr. Gilbert Robbins Gray (1822?-1891) was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, to Reverend Alson Gray (1799-1880) and his wife, Bethiah (1801-1872). He had two brothers, William F. Gray (b. 1826) and James A. Gray (b. 1840), and a sister, Martha L. Gray (b. 1837). Gilbert was a member of the Virginia legislature and Virginia state chairman of the Republican Party in the 1870s. He was a doctor before the Civil War, and then left the profession to become a farmer and tobacconist. Gilbert married Elizabeth (Crawley) Irvine (b.1829) in 1859. Elizabeth Crawley had two brothers, Albert "Berry" A. Crawley and Anderson "Banks" Crawley, and cousins, Pattie and Betty Claughton. Elizabeth and Gilbert had one son, William Alson Gray (1860-1948), who was also in the tobacco trade as a leaf tobacco dealer. William married Mary Elizabeth Willingham (1869-1949) and had three sons: Alson W. Gray (1889-1918), Cecil Robbins Gray (1890-1944), and Donnan Evans Gray (1893-1955).
Extent
0.84 linear ft. (2 document cases)
Language
English
System of Arrangement
This collection is arranged alphabetically according to titles supplied by staff.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift, undated
Separated Materials
All visual arts materials have been separated from the collection and are unprocessed. Please contact an archivist for access to these materials.
Description Control
This collection was reprocessed in 2012.
- Gray family -- Correspondence
- Gray, Alson
- Gray, Alson W.
- Gray, Cecil Robbins
- Gray, Donnan
- Gray, Elizabeth Crawley Irwin
- Gray, Gilbert Robbins
- Gray, William A.
- Guilford County (N.C.)
- Halifax County (Va.)
- Halifax County (Va.) -- Genealogy
- Hampden Sidney College
- Hotels -- Virginia -- RIchmond
- Invoices
- Marriage proposals -- Virginia
- Medicine -- Practice -- Accounting
- Mullins (S.C.)
- Physicians
- Physicians -- Virginia
- Political candidates -- Virginia
- Political clubs -- United States
- Political parties -- Virginia
- Tobacco -- United States
- Tobacco -- Virginia
- Tobacco workers -- United States -- History
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Laura Starratt
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center Repository