1891 Biography - W. B. Gray

W. B. GRAY, MORGAN CITY. -- W. B. Gray, Morgan City, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1842. He is the son of Wm. Howard and Mary Ann (Capen) Gray. Mr. Howard Gray was born in Andover, Massachusetts, 1824. Mary Ann Gray was born in Maine. They were married in Boston, Massachusetts, 1844. Two children were born to their marriage, W. B. and C. S.

Wm. H. Gray died in 1890, and his wife, Mary Ann, is still living in Maine, and is a remarkably stout person for her years. Wm. B. Gray lived for a period at Morgan City, where he became a successful physician, finally retiring and going to Maine, where he spent his last years.

The mother of our subject belongs to the Dustin Capen family, one member of which figured so prominently in the early New England Indian troubles.

Mr. W. B. Gray spent his school days at South Acton, Boston, Massachusetts. His education was limited, the last school he attended was a night school taught by John G. Whittier, the poet. Having his spirits all aroused by the breaking out of the civil war, on April 19, 1861, he got in a box car and rode to Boston, Massachusetts, where he climbed up a lightning-rod to get into a room to join Capt. Prescott's Company G, Concord Artillery, Fifth Regiment of Volunteers. During three months' service he and his regiment participated in the first battle of Bull Run. Subsequent to this he was for a short while engaged in the hospital service. November 3, 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, as duty sergeant. They went to Annapolis, Maryland, and joined General Burnside's expedition to the Carolinas. Mr. Gray was engaged in the following battles: Roanoke Island, Newburn, N. C., Planters' Creek, Kingston, White Hall, Goldsboro. He also took part in the siege of Fort Wagner and lead. the grand charge that captured the fort September 6, 1863. He was a commander of one of the boats that made the night attack on Fort Sumter September 8, 1863. He was afterward engaged in the battle of the Tog at Fort Darling under General Butler. July 4, 1864, he was commissioned first lieutenant in First N. S. C. C., and commanded the first squadron that went into Richmond on the north side upon the fall of that city. He served throughout the entire war and was mustered out of service in New Orleans. After the war until the year 1878 he was an actor.

Louisiana has been practically his home since the war. He has been engaged in the publishing business for a great many years. He founded the Morgan City Free Press, which he conducted till 1890. He is at present editor of the Commonwealth, a monthly journal, and is also doing printing for the State.

Mr. Gray was married in 1878 to Miss Marie Louise Markstein of New Orleans. They are the parents of three children, Wm. Howard, Leroy Capen and Leonard Wise.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, published in 1891, Biographical Section, pages 367-368.