Hosea Clark Gray and Aggie Ann Paramore
(c1836 - c1862 and c1835 - aft 1880)
Descendant List and Notes
The Gray family of Millville, Florida, near Panama City, is buried at the Millville Cemetery on East Avenue and Third Street. They arrived in that area around the turn of the 20th century, just about the time a large sawmill was being built there.
I spoke with one of their descendants, Carl Gray, in about 1980 shortly after I began genealogy research. At the time, I was still working on the premise that we shared a common ancestor, a premise based on statements my grandmother had made but which have so far proved unverifiable. Carl's story was a little jumbled, but he did state that his great-grandparents were Hosea Clark Gray and Anna Parramore; they had sons John and Martin around Early County, Georgia; and Corine Gray Lindley was his first cousin.
As I continued research and accounted for all the siblings of my known Gray ancestor's family, it appeared less and less likely that there was any connection between the two families. However, there is still a lingering question prompted by the fact that Hosea's widow was in Dale County, Alabama in 1880 at the same time as my Joseph Gray ancestor (who should have been in Geneva) and by the fact that the brother-in-law of one of the Millville Grays was only a few entries away from the Geneva John C Gray in 1900 in Bagdad, Santa Rosa County, Florida. Coincidence, perhaps, but a lot remains to be discovered. Eliminating a connection can be just as important as finding one.
Notes from Along the Bay by Marlene Womack, 1994 (a pictorial history of Bay County, Florida):
p. 113 Picture of Randall H Gray, age 6, and brother Carl R Gray, age 8, in 1922. Sons of R H Gray who operated a large general store in Millville at NE corner of Center Ave and Third St. -- canned goods, dry goods, fertilizer, clothing, produce, etc. Gray's sons, including John H Gray, worked with him in the store.
p. 142 Picture of W B Gray Lumber Company. In 1898, W B Gray journeyed to Millville with his father, JC Gray, from the Blackwater River area. The Gray family travelled with a 6-wagon caravan, moving their carts and logging equipment along with them. The elder Gray came to Millville to clear land for a sawmill, which in a few years became the famous German American Lumber Company. W B Gray went on to operate this lumber company.
Note by WRM: Blackwater River is in Santa Rosa County. The village of Bagdad, where John C Gray of Geneva County lived, is on the banks of the Blackwater River, near Milton. The sawmill there was center of the local economy. How many J C Grays were there in the area in 1898? According to an article in the Tallahassee Democrat 22 Mar 2003, Bagdad was once known as Blackwater. It said that the town “does date back at least 168 years, when the Bagdad Lumber Company was shipping logs around the world.”
A little local history:
[excerpt]
The area's reawakening began in Millville when Henry Bovis, a French Canadian with lumber interests in Bagdad, Florida, surveyed the bay and seemingly inexhaustible surrounding forests. Bovis constructed a mill at the head of Watson Bayou and called it the St. Andrews Lumber Co. Those seeking work flocked to the mill town. The Millville post office opened on September 20, 1899.
In 1904, service at the Harrison post office was discontinued and moved to Millville. . .
. . .In 1910, Henry Bovis sold the St. Andrews Lumber Co. to a foreign syndicate and it became known as the German-American Lumber Co. Hundreds moved to Millville to work at this huge mill. By 1910, Millville ranked as the bay's largest community, one that went on to produce many of this area's most influential sons and daughters.
[end excerpt]
