Georgia:  Coweta County:  Biography of HOSEA GRAY 

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HOSEA GRAY is the grandson of William and Sarah Gray, the grandfather an 
Englishman by birth, having served as captain during the war of the 
revolution. The parents of Hosea, Abraham and Jane (Wilson) Gray, were 
natives of South Carolina, in which state he too was born Aug. 31, 1817. His 
mother was of Irish parentage. In 1832, when Hosea was but a lad, his father 
moved his family from South Carolina to Fayette county, Ga., making the 
journey with a four-horse team. At Barnesville they struck an Indian trail 
which led them to their place of settlement. After a year in Fayette county 
they moved to Coweta county, which has since been their home. Here they 
cleared up a farm, experiencing the many hardships incident to pioneer life. 
For some time their main dependence for food was wild game, and they ground 
their own corn in a hand-mill. Later a mill was started on Lime creek, to 
which they carried their corn to be ground. In those days it was customary 
for each man to assist his neighbor in rolling his logs in the early spring, 
previous to putting in his crops, and one season Hosea Gray assisted in this 
work for eighteen days. His school advantages were only such as the limited 
accommodations of those days afforded. In 1843, he married Frances, the 
daughter of Henry Freeman, a native of Georgia, and a member of the M. E. 
church. To them were born four children, none of whom are living, and in 
October, 1851, the mother died. In 1856 Mr. Gray married Miss Susan E. 
Kempson, whose parents, Peter and Mary (Long) Kempson, in 1840 came from thei
r native state, South Carolina, to Georgia, and settled in Meriwether county. 
Mrs. Gray was born in 1830, in Newberry, S. C., and she and her husband are 
members of the Lutheran church. They have nine children now living: Rosina, 
Oscar, Leonidas, Mollie, Latimer, Hattie, Rebecca, Ida and Kate. Mr. Gray is 
a Mason of the royal arch degree. While he did not enlist in the late war he 
nevertheless rendered considerable service to the Confederacy during that 
struggle. He is a man widely known and everywhere respected for his 
uprightness of character.

Transcribed from MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA published by the Southern Historical 
Association, 1895.