#16 The Children of John Hall Parsons Catherine Grace (Parsons) Gray

The second daughter of John Hall and Caroline H. W. (Martin) Parsons was Elizabeth M. Parsons who married Franklin A. Adams, son of Alexander and Mary Jane Adams. We have discussed their history in a previous posting, so let us now move on to Catherine Grace Katie Parsons, the daughter of Charles Hall and Phebi E. (Crist) Parsons.

Katie Parsons was an April Fools package, arriving on April 1, 1870 at Taylorville, Christian County, Illinois. Little Katie made the trip from Illinois to Missouri, Kansas and Colorado with her family in the early 1870s. The entire trip was made by horse-drawn covered wagon according to her grandnephew, Warner Adams. After her father tried dry land farming and was unsuccessful, the family moved to Osage County, Kansas where they again took up farming. Here, her mother, Phebia E. (Crist) Parsons died, although I have not been able to find the date of place of her burial.

John Hall Parsons then moved to a farm in Newbury Township, Wabaunsee County, Kansas, which was watered by Spring Creek, which emptied into Snokomo Creek. At the head of Spring Creek was a free flowing spring that provided the water for a new home, spring house and barn built by John Parsons. He was already approaching 60-years-of-age and an 80-acre farm was about as large as he could work.

John Parsons also married a third time, to a lady named Mary. We do not know her maiden name, the date or place of the marriage, but when the 1880 US Census was taken, the family was living on their Newbury Township farm and Mary Parsons was a part of that family. She was also listed on the 1885 Kansas Census. I have not been able to find a date for her death or a location, although I have checked all Wabaunsee County, Kansas cemeteries and also Florida Cemeteries, since John H. Parsons moved to Florida in the early 1890s when his health began to deteriorate.

Catherine Katie Parsons lived on the farm and went to District #65 (known as the Field School since the Fields donated the property where it was built) which was about 1.5 miles north of the Parsons farm. Young ladies and gentlemen could teach if they completed 8th grade and were 16 years of age. Katie Parsons took the Teaching Examination and taught at several country schools before her marriage.

I do not know how they met, but Katie Parsons married well, to an up and coming young man named Alfred James Gray. He was the son of a prominent Kansan, Alfred Gray, who was a state representative and the first Secretary of Agriculture for the State of Kansas. Here is a little background history for Alfred Gray, Sr. from Wikipedia:

Alfred Gray was born December 5, 1830 and died January 23, 1880. He was an American politician who lived at Quindaro, Kansas. He was a Free Stater and served in the first state legislator and thereafter until he was chosen and as the first Secretary of the state Board of Agriculture in 1872. He was also Kansas Commissioner to the United States Bi-Centennial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Gray was born parents of English ancestry in Evans, New York. His father died when he was 14, after which he worked to support his mother. She died when he was 19, he then enrolled in law school. He attended Albany College Law School, Albany, New York earning a degree in 1855. He then began practicing law.

In 1857, he moved to Quindaro, Kansas, took up farming and entered private law practice from his home. He was soon elected to the Kansas Legislature and served for a time. During the Civil War he served in the Union Army, and returned to Kansas politics, holding a series of high-profile agricultural posts.
He was a director in the Kansas State Agricultural Society from 1866 until it was merged into the Kansas State Board of Agriculture. He later sold his farm and moved to Topeka to serve as Secretary of the Board of Agriculture from 1873 until his death from tuberculosis in 1880. He is buried in Topeka Cemetery, where there was a monument erected by the People of Kansas dedicated to his service.

Gray County became a separate Kansas county west of Dodge City, Kansas in 1881. The Kansas Legislature named the county in honor of Alfred Gray, who had long served the state in several roles.

Alfred James Gray, son of Alfred Gray, was born September 19, 1858 at Quindaro, Kansas to Alfred and Sarah (Bryce) Gray. He had one sister, Mary E. Gray born the year before.
He was well educated and graduated from Kansas University, which had been founded in Lawrence, Kansas in 1854. I have not been able to learn how many years he actually attended, but the school was founded by Abolitionists and his father, Alfred Gray, served as a trustee for several years. This begins a long tradition of Kansas University graduates within the Gray Family, as we shall later learn.

Katie Parsons was twelve years younger than Alfred James Gray when they married at the Parsons home in Newbury Township in 1888. It is unfortunate that the 1890 census was destroyed in a tragic fire. I would have been interested in knowing if Katie Gray was attending Washburn University and met her future husband at some Topeka social event, but since there are no family descendants it isnt likely we will ever learn how they met.
When the US Census was taken in 1880, Alfred James Fred Gray was living with his mother in Topeka, Kansas where his occupation was listed as cattle dealer. With his father serving as State Secretary of Agriculture, it is little wonder that he was involved in some kind of agrarian pursuit. Perhaps that is also how he met Katie Parsons, since there were many beautiful Flint Hills pastures filled with fine cattle surrounding the Parsons farm.
We just dont know.

After Katie and Fred Gray were married in 1888, they seem to take residence at the John Parsons farm in Newbury Township. They are listed there on the 1895 and the 1900 US Census. We do know that John Parsons left his farm about 1890 when his health began to deteriorate, moving to Florida. When he returned, literally to die, he took residence with his daughter Sophia and her husband Fred Raymond, where he died in 1895.
Fred and Katie (Parsons) Gray were the parents of three children: Clara Sarah Gray, who was born in 1888 and died in 1891, Alfred James Gray III born on June 30, 1892 at the Newbury Township farm, and finally finally Helen Emily Gray, born April 3, 1869. The surviving children all attended District 65 School for their elementary education, but then transferred to Topeka, where they lived with their grandmother, (Sarah (Bryce) Gray and attended high school. I have found both Alfred and Helen Gray on US Census reports living with their grandmother and identified as students or attending school.

Meanwhile, their father, Fred Gray, continued to deal in cattle and to increase his own land holdings. The 1902 Wabaunsee County Atlas shows that Fred and Katie Gray were the owners of a total of 600 acres, the original 80-acre John Parsons farm, 320-acres of pastureland and 240-acres of farmland. It is known that Fred Gray also rented additional pastureland from time to time.
The Grays lived in the original John Parsons house, but enlarged it to accommodate their family and for comfort. The house is still standing and occupied by members of the Bloomfield family. I was inside the house several times visiting, Alfred Gray III and his wife Eloise (Evans) Gray. I thought it one of the prettiest country houses with large windows to bring the beautiful scenery inside, a parlor with fireplace, and the most delicious, cold spring water piped inside the house.

Fred Gray continued the tradition of educating the family at Kansas University. He and Katie Gray sent both of their children to Kansas University, and both were to become distinguished in their chosen careers.

Alfred James Gray III, was born on the Newbury Township farm of his parents, Fred and Katie (Parsons) Gray. He was educated at District #65 or Fields School nearby, and attended Topeka High School. He went to the University of Kansas where he studied geology with a specialty in the use of sonic devices to discover petroleum. After graduation, Alfred went to Maracaibo, Venezuela where he worked several years for Standard Oil in discovering and mapping new oil fields. Alfred Gray was a pioneer in the use of using explosives to determine the depth, size and quantity in a particular oil field. After his service there, he returned to the United States working for the Atlantic Production and Refining Company headquartered in Houston, Texas but traveled extensively all over the world where the company explored for oil.

Alfred Gray was married to Eloise Evans in 1932. Eloise (Evans) Gray was the daughter of Charles I and Clara (Hammond) Evans and was born on August 7, 1902 in Dallas, Texas. They lived in many different places but called Dallas, Texas home. They were the parents of a son, Alfred James Gray, IV, born in Dallas, Texas on October 22, 1939. Eloise Gray was an accomplished pianist and taught piano in her home after she and Alfred settled in Dallas. She inspired a love of music in her son, Alfred, who enjoyed playing several instruments in school bands and orchestras as well as the piano. His interest in music continued throughout his life.

I always enjoyed my visits with Alfred and Eloise Gray when they returned to the Gray Farm in Newbury Township. They sold the farm to the Bloomfield Family near the ends of their lives but always held the beautiful pasture and farmland near and dear to their hearts.

On June 7, 1965, Dr. W. Clark Wescoe, Chancellor of the University of Kansas, presented Alfred Gray with a KU Gold Medal for his meritorious services to Kansas University. He said that Gray had served as the president of the KU Alumni Association in 1922 and that he had been active in recruiting many students from Dallas to attend KU. He also thanked Gray for his several gifts to the university.

Eloise (Evans) Gray died on March 5, 1968 and Alfred James Gray, III, passed away on April 10, 1973. Both are buried in the Gray Family Plot at Topeka Cemetery, Topeka, Kansas.
IN MEMORY OF ALFRED GRAY, Professor of Mathematics
Professor Alfred Gray died suddenly in Bilbao (Spain) on October 27, 1998, at the age of 59. As new:, of his death spread rapidly, there was deep sorrow at the University of the Basque Country. where he was spending part of his sabbatical leave.

He is also mourned at the University of Maryland, at the American University in Washington (USA), where his wife Mary is Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and at many other universities all over the world, where he was very well known and highly regarded. Mary Gray arrived in Bilbao on the morning of October 28, and attended the religious service in memory of her husband held at noon on October 30 at the Faculty of Science of the University of the Basque Country. Friends from Spanish universities and elsewhere in Europe joined her for this sad event. Many others of the Professors friends and colleagues expressed their condolences by telephone, letter, telegram and electronic mail.

Alfred Gray was born in Dallas (Texas) on October 22. 1939, and graduated from the University of Kansas in 1961, working under the direction of Prof. S.N. Shah. He then moved to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he received his doctorate in mathematics in 1964 under the direction Prof. Barrett ONeill. In Fall 1964 he removed to the University of California in Berkeley, where he remained until 1968 working as an Instructor, NFS Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor.

In 1968 he married Mary, who received her doctorate in mathematics in 1964 from University of Kansas, and joined the faculty at the University of Maryland at College Park as Associated Professor.

In 1970, at the age of 30, Dr. Gray was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the University of Maryland, a job which he held until his unexpected death. Until the 1990s Prof. Grays research interests centered on complex function theory, differential equations and, above all, differential geometry. His first paper was written in collaboration with Prof. S.N. Shah, who initiated him into complex function theory, appeared in the Bulletin of the AMS 1963, and was concerned with an ErdGs conjecture. Gray and Shah published nine joint papers on complex function theory. ermitian manifolds, and c- pecially of Kahlerian, nearly Kahlerian, symplectic and complex manifolds. His contributions to OLII hnowledge of these manifolds were so many and so significant that some of his papers are now regarded ai seminal and as obliged reference points for all those working on these topics. Making use of the new technologies for computation and visualization were a priority. Computers and the available software. mainly Mathrmatica, were his main tools in this work. Prof. Gray published more than 100 research papers and wrote three books. His first monograph has the title Tubes (Addison-Wesley 1990, Russian transl. 1993).

In the spring of 1994 Helaman Ferguson, a sculptor and mathematician living in the State of Maryland, informed Prof. Gray that he had a commission from the Maryland Science Museum to make a sculpture of Costas minimal surface, and asked him for the equations defining the surface, since they were not written down in the literature. Prof. Gray found a nice formula in terms of the Weierstrass zeta function that could be used with Mathematics to plot the surface. This formula is described in the paper Costas minimal surface via Mathematics (Mathematics in Research and Education 1996) by A. Gray, H. Ferguson and S. Markvorsen.

In the 1970s, he devoted a great deal of effort to helping geometers from Eastern European countries, particularly Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Russia, to establish personal contacts with his colleagues in the United States. Special mention must be made of his frequent trips to Italy and Spain over the last twenty years. His influence can be clearly seen in the work of many mathematicians in these two countries. In particular his collaboration with Luis A. Cordero, Marisa Fernandez and other Spanish mathematicians is reflected in the fact that almost a quarter of his mathematical output was produced jointly with them.

While in Bilbao, Prof. Gray was preparing a four week course on Graphics with Mathematics, due to start on November 4, 1998. This course was part of a new book that he was writing. He was also planning to prepare a new textbook on Lie groups. He died during a productive, active period of his interesting career: he was exploring new and different ideas, and the vestiges which he has left are a challenge to us all.

Besides mathematics he also loved classical music, and was a great enthusiast for and expert in opera in particular. He was also a fine pianist: his mother Eloise, was a piano teacher. The picture which we will retain of Don Alfredo-as we affectionately called him-is that of a good man who was unassuming, sensitive, and had a great sense of humor. He was enthusiastic, highly intelligent, hardworking, respectful with his colleagues, generous with those who needed help and, above all, a good friend and teacher. Our grief at losing him is tempered by our fond memory of the many pleasant times we had the good fortune to share with him.

Alfred Gray was married to Mary Lee Wheat, daughter of Neil C. and Lillie (Alves) Wheat in 1968. Mary Lee was born in Hastings Nebraska on April 8, 1938. Dr. Mary Gray is currently Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Department of Arts and Sciences, American University, Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska and obtained her PhD. in Mathematics from the University of Kansas. Dr. Gray has studied in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar and also has a Juris Doctorate Degree from Washington University School of Law and is a member of both the District of Columbia and the United States Supreme Court Bars.

She is the author of numerous books and papers in the fields of mathematics, mathematics education, computer science, applied statistics, economic equity, discrimination law, and academic freedom. She has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Her current research interests include applications of statistics in litigation, ethical issues in statistics, intellectual property and academic freedom, and language and gender issues in mathematics. Dr. Gray has served as a consultant and expert witness on a wide variety of issues regarding statistics and the use of statistics, language and gender issues in mathematics, and computer technology. She has a visiting appointment at the Kings College (London) School of Medicine.

She has worked with various agencies in Iraq and has served as consultant on issues in higher education, human rights, technology, and the conduct of a population census. She worked with the USAID project on the revitalization of Iraqi Schools focusing on an inventory of the secondary schools of Iraq.

Dr. Gray was the first president of the Association for Women in Mathematics, past president of the Women Equity Action League, and is president elect of the Caucus for Women in Statistics. Dr. Gray has served on the boards and committees of Amnesty International, The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Middle East Education Foundation, the Universal Educational Foundation, the American Middle East Education Foundation, the Universal Education Foundation and the American Association of University Professors. President George W. Bush presented her the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Mentoring.
Dr. Gray has previously taught at the University of Kansas, the University of California, Berkeley and California State University, Hayward, and has worked at the National Bureau of Standards. She has served several terms as chair of her department and as Director of the Womens Gender Studies Program at American University. She has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Nebraska and Hastings College, Nebraska.
I am currently in contact with Dr. Mary (Wheat) Gray, and Im waiting to hear if she has any Gray family pictures to share. Im hopeful!

Helen Emily Gray was the second child of Fred and Katie (Parsons) Gray and was born on their farm in Newbury Township on September 23, 1896. She attended District #65 School and followed the same pattern as her brother Alfred, living with her Grandmother Gray in Topeka and attending Topeka High School where she graduated in 1917. She then attended Kansas University choosing a very difficult curriculum: medicine. As of 1920, only 24 women had finished the coursework necessary to become a Doctor of Medicine at the newly formed Kansas University School of Medicine. Dr. Helen E. Gray graduated in 1922 and was the 27th woman receiving her degree from Kansas University.

Her first position was as head physician at the Bailey Sanatorium in Lincoln, Nebraska. However, Dr. Gray moved to Dallas, Texas where her brother Alfred was living and began working in area hospitals. There she met her future husband, Auva Windom Auvie Browning, whose family owned farming and ranching interests in Junction, Kimble County, Texas.

The family moved to San Antonio, Texas where their first child, Sarah Clara Browning was still born in 1930. Within the year, they moved to Junction, Texas where Auvie opened a real estate office and continued farming and ranching, and Dr. Helen Browning opened her own medical practice. They would remain in Junction, Texas the rest of their lives.

Their second child, Margaret Helen Browning was born November 18, 1932. She was raised in Junction, Texas. She was married to Jerry Wescott Bean on March 2, 1952 at McCullough, Texas. They were the parents of Ronnie Browning Bean, who was born in 1950 and died in 1951. Their second child, Marsha Bean, was born in 1957. Margaret Helen (Browning) Bean died on January 24, 1997. Her husband, Jerry W. Bean died October 7, 1986 and both are buried in the Camp San Saba Cemetery in McCullough County, Texas.
I have not been able to locate Marsha Bean.

Photo 1 – Alfred Gray, Sr., prominent Kansas politician and agrarian, and business man. Father of Alfred James Gray.
Photo 2 – The John H Parsons original 80-acre farm in Newbury
Township, Wabaunsee County.
Photo 3 – The Alfred J. Gray Farm and Ranch, which includes the
original Parsons farm. From the 1919 Wabaunsee County Atlas.
Photo 4 – The Alfred Gray Memorial, in Topeka Cemetery. This memorial was a gift from the Kansas Legislature to honor Alfred Gray. It also serves as a tombstone for he and his wife. Other members of the Gray family are buried in the large lot, including his grandson, Alfred J. Gray III and his wife Eloise Gray.
Photo 5 – A close up of the dedication lettering on the Alfred Gray Memorial Monument in Topeka Cemetery.
Photo 6 – A map of Gray County, Kansas, named to honor Alfred Gray, Kansas politician and first Secretary of Agriculture. The county seat is Cimarron.
Photo 7 – The tombstone of Alfred and Catherine (Parsons) Gray in the Old Stone Church at Maple Hill. Also buried in the plot is their infant daughter, Sarah Clara Gray.
Photo 8 – Dr. Alfred Gray, world-renowned mathematician and son of Alfred and Eloise (Evans) Gray.
Photo 9 – Dr. Mary Gray, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, American University and widow of Dr. Alfred Gray.