Benjamin De Graffenreid Gray, Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: 1999-2000




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Benjamin De Graffenreid Gray.  

One of the most honored families of Northwest Louisiana is that of Gray, 

represented by Benjamin de Graffenreid Gray, a Shreveport business man who 

for many years has been identified with the lumber industry.



He is a son of the late Dr. Robert Archibald Gray, who at his death in 1918, 

in his eighty-eighth year, was the oldest member of the medical profession, 

at Shreveport, and a man whose distinctions were as important as the length 

of his years.  Robert Archibald Gray was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, October 

11, 1830, son of Joseph Gray, and a descendant of Baron de Graffenreid, founder 

of the historic town of New Bern, North Carolina.  Robert Archibald Gray was 

educated in Sayre's Institute at Frankfort, Kentucky, and in the University 

of Louisville, where he graduated with his medical degree in 1853.  In December 

of the same year he came to Shreveport and was one of the pioneer physicians of 

Louisiana.  When the Civil war came on he entered the Confederate army as 

surgeon of Dreux's Battalion, and after the close of the war he practiced his 

profession for half a century.  His career was one of inestimable benefit to 

the city and community.  He served many years as president of the Health Board 

of Shreveport, was a member of the State Medical Society, and was widely known 

as an authority on epidemic diseases, including yellow fever.  In times when 

this scourge visited New Orleans repeatedly physicians from that city came to 

Doctor Gray to consult him for advice on handling the epidemic.  As a 

diagnostician he had no superiors, and even in late years he was complimented 

by the Mayo Brothers of Rochester, Minnesota, for exact diagnosis on patients 

sent there for surgery.  Doctor Gray observed the most rigid ethics in his 

profession, and the benefit of all his research, knowledge and experience in 

medical science was given freely to mankind.  The late Doctor Gray married, 

April 9, 1861, Miss Amanda Hollingsworth, who was born in Alabama.  Her brother, 

the late Colonel J. M. Hollingsworth, was in his time one of the most powerful 

and influential citizens of Louisiana, a leader in politics and general affairs.  

Doctor and Mrs. Gray had two sons, Robert H.. taking up a medical career, 

was associated with his father in the latter's declining years.  



Benjamin de Graffenreid Gray was born at Shreveport in 1886, and finished his 

education in the University of Virginia.  For several years he has been an expert 

timber estimator, and he maintains offices in the Ardis Building.  Mr. Gray is 

married and has one daughter, Mrs. J. D. Ewing.



NOTE:  The referenced source contains a black and white photograph of the subject 

with his/her autograph.



A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 59-60, by Henry E. Chambers.  

Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.