William Fairfax Gray was born in Fairfax County, Virginia, on November 3, 1787, to William and Catherine Dick Gray. As a land agent for Thomas Green and Albert T. Burnley, Gray first visited Texas in 1835. He attended the 1836 convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos and kept a detailed diary of its proceedings. Gray left Texas during the Runaway Scrape but returned with his family in 1838, settling in Houston where he practiced law. Among Gray's titles were clerk of the Texas House of Representatives, secretary of the Texas Senate, district attorney in Texas, clerk of the Texas Supreme Court, and secretary of the Philosophical Society of Texas. He was a Mason and a devout Episcopalian. He and his wife, Millie Richards Stone Gray (1757-1851), married in 1817 and had 12 children six of whom lived to adulthood. Gray died in Houston on April 16, 1841.
Peter W. Gray, 1819-1874, son of William and Millie Gray, came to Houston, Texas with his family in 1838. He became a captain in the Republic of Texas army and second lieutenant of the Milam Guards. From 1841 to 1861 Gray served as district attorney of Houston. He married Abby Jane Avery in 1843. In 1846 he was elected to the first Texas state legislature, and there he authored the important Practice Act, regulating Texas court procedures. Gray was a founder of the Houston Lyceum, which later became the Houston Public Library. After Texas secession, Gray represented the Houston district in the first Confederate House of Representatives. He became a volunteer aide to General John Bankhead Magruder in 1863, and saw action in the battle of Galveston. In 1864 Jefferson Davis appointed Gray his fiscal agent for the Trans-Mississippi Department. After the war Gray started a Houston law practice and was the first president of the Houston Bar Association. For a brief time prior to his death, he was appointed associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Like his father, Gray was an active Mason and Episopalian.
Edwin Fairfax Gray, 1829-1884, son of William and Millie Gray, served in both the Republic of Texas Navy and United States Navy, and while in the latter, sailed with Commodore Matthew Perry on his historic trip to Japan in 1853. After resigning from the Navy in 1858, Gray was appointed Texas state engineer, and secretary/treasurer of Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway Company in 1860. He joined the 3rd Texas Infantry during the Civil War and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war Gray returned to engineering and often acted as an inspector for railroad construction. Gray had three children with his wife, Rosalie Woodburn Taylor Gray, whom he married in 1857.
From the guide to the Gray family papers MC033. 47248938., 1826-1864, (Albert and Ethel Herzstein Library, )
