John Gray Jr with Henry Ford

John Gray Jr with Henry Ford (1st person on the left, John next to him)

A quote from a letter written by John Gray Jr to his son, Alexander; "I have been all over his [Henry Ford] Dearborn farm many times before he was born. I used to go to School with his Mother and play with her before we were of School age...I knew the whole Ford family. All told there were about one hundred of them...The boys could make anything from a fiddle to a sawmill."

John Gray Jr

John’s family lived close to the William Ford farm in Dearborn, Michigan [William Ford (1826-1905) was Henry Ford’s father]. John’s family moved to Claremont, Minnesota (a new settlement) from Dearborn, Michigan after the death of John’s mother, Bathia, in 1866. Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908, John must have went to visit Henry around this time (in 1908 John was 70 years old, Henry was 45). Possibly the automobile in the picture is John Gray Jr's.

Henry Ford ca 1919

The Model T was introduced on October 1, 1908… It was so cheap at $825 in 1908 that by the 1920’s, a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T... By 1916, as the price dropped to $360 for the basic touring car, sales reached 472,000… By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model T’s. All new cars were black; as Ford wrote in his autobiography, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” (the assembly line, which mandated black because of its quicker drying time). Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford

Margaret Ford Ruddiman, sister of Henry Ford

John's brother, Alexander, worked on the Ruddiman farm (1860 Census) as a laborer. The John Gray family were close neighbors to the Ruddiman's and Ford's. The Ruddiman and Ford families were neighbors in "what is now the Dearborn, Michigan, area and the children attended the Scotch Settlement School together. Henry Ford and Edsel Ruddiman became lifelong friends and Henry’s sister, Margaret (1867-1960), married Edsel’s brother, James (1860-1909)". http://www.dalnet.lib.mi.us/henryford/docs/RuddimanFamilyPapers_Accession1703.pdf

Map of Dearborn County Township in 1876

In the 1860 Michigan Census John Gray Jr is working on Frances Whitsey farm, Alexander Gray working on the Wm Ruddiman farm (180 acres). Ford lots are scattered all around the area. Note: in the upper right hand corner of this map.

About John Gray Jr, his father John Gray Sr, siblings: Grace, George R, and Bathia (Jr)

A turning point for John Gray Jr’s family came in 1865 when his mother, Bathia (Davison) Gray died; after the settling of her estate, John Gray Sr moved from Dearborn, Michigan to Claremont, Minnesota; his daughter, Grace, had moved there in 1857 after she married David Wm Kerr. It was a fairly new settlement and many there, like the Gray's, were of Scottish descent.

  When Bathia died, George R was 20 and Bathia Jr was 18; they were both considered minors who needed an assigned guardian to overseer their inheritance from their mother’s estate. John Jr was appointed petitioner of his mother's estate; he appointed his father, John Sr, guardian in charge of advertising and selling the estate valued at $400. George R and Bathia Jr followed their father to Minnesota.

George R Gray home in the Village of Claremont, Minnesota

Ann Reed Wait and George R Gray with grandson, Robert Lyn Gray 

  George R married Ann Reed Wait in 1868, she died in 1900; he married Amelia Henry in 1905. He bought this grand home [above photo] in the Village of Claremont and lived there until his death in 1923. In 1867, George was a member of the board of trustees formed when the community Presbyterians purchased land to build a church. Dr. John Edmond of London, England (an uncle of Tom Edmond) was the first to preach at the newly finished church (1870); he had been sent as a delegate to represent the Presbyterians of Great Britain at a convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In the spring of 1871, George was the director of the first school in Claremont; instruction began with the winter term 1871-72. 1877 was long remembered as the ‘Year of the Big Crop’ and harvesters were busy and all threshing outfits were taxed to their utmost, including a new twelve-horse rig operated by Jack Harmer and George Gray, under the company name of "Harmer and Gray". It was said that Claremont shipped the most grain that fall of any town on the whole Northwestern Railroad system. George was made County Commissioner in the fall of 1887, the first of several intermittent terms which amounted to 20 years of service before his death in 1923. [Source: A Chronicle of Claremont Township and Village].

Claremont and Ripley Township Boards: George R Gray and Timothy Lynch are present, the bridge over Zumbro is 3 to 4 miles east of the John Gray Sr homestead. Personal note: I recognize the bearded man on the far left as Timothy Lynch; George R is probably the man next to him [he was a tall and slender man and when "about town" always attired as a gentleman].

  Bathia married [about 1865, Rochester, MN] George Marshall; they were living in Mantorville, MN at the time of her death; she died 10 days after the birth of her stillborn daughter [she was only 24 yrs old]; survivors included her husband and son, George Marshall Jr [3 yrs old] -the 1880 Minnesota Census shows him [age 12] living with Robert R and Anne Gray; when John Sr died in 1892 his obituary shows George Jr [age 24] living in Claremont and working at the mill there.

  John Gray Jr married Martha Jane Ross in December of 1870 [Iowa marriage records, index card]. He shows up in the 1879 Iowa Census [Tama County] as a farmer: real estate value $500, personal property $300. Interesting to note that in the 1915 Iowa Census (age 77) his occupation is listed as Commercial Traveler (salesman), his 1914 earnings $800, he is mortgage-free with a real estate value of $4,000; he's listed as a member of the Congregational Church.

Letter from John Gray to son, Alexander

Note: John (b: abt 1838) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to his son, Dr. Alexander Gray in Savanna, Illinois. Dated 1909 (one) to 1927. Majority are 1924 and from Cedar Rapids. Most appear to be written in legible pencil, multiple pages. Only a few were opened and read but two of them, one in 1914 and one 1924, had content on Henry Ford family. Excerpts, spelling slightly corrected:

1914 “He [Henry Ford] is one of the really great men of the age… I have been all over his Dearborn farm many times before he was born. I used to go school with his mother and play with her before we were of school age… I knew the whole Ford family. All told there were about one hundred of them… Very bright in everything but books. The boys could make anything from a fiddle to a sawmill. They were all crack marksmen with the rifle. Any of them could outrun any young man in the neighborhood. When it came to wrestling they carried belt.”

1924 “Yes it's going some to swap photos with Henry Ford. It's one of the cases in history where the two ends meet. The rich and the poor. I hope you may have some opportunity of seeing the old homestead. If you do, just look across the street looking north and you will be looking at my father’s farm.”

  There’s possibly more content in the rest of the stack. John Gray was in his eighties when he wrote these and he appears to be doing a lot of reminiscing.