Knox-Lincoln-Kennebec County ME Archives News.....Far Back Campus Memory: GRAY HALL, Commemorating a Great Man February 1968 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/me/mefiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Bill boggess william-boggess@webtv.net April 12, 2006, 3:04 pm FLASHBACK, (WCHS) February 1968 (transcribed w/notations; 04/12/06) SOURCE: Washington County (Arkansas) Historical Society, courtesy of the Grays great,granddaughter Wint (Gray) Bones. F L A S H B A C K    February 1968       page 35                             Far Back Campus Memory; G R A Y   H A L L, Commemorating a Great Man            By Deane G Carter       Gray Hall, once a dormitory, later an academic building on the University campus, was named for Oliver Crosby Gray. I worked in Gray Hall for nineteen years, and still a quarter century later I knew nothing more about the name it bore except that "Gray was an old professor here who taught mathematics." To my mind   that is a gross understatement for O C Gray was one of the great men of the early faculty of the University of Arkansas. Here is what the historians say of him:       Oliver Crosby Gray was born in Maine 1832. He was graduated from Colby College [1855] and attended Dartmouth [no record of such] for a short time. He went west in 1856 [1855] and for one year was superintendent of public schools in Minneapolis. He came to Arkansas in 1858 [1860, after a year near Holly Springs, Mississippi] and was principal of the Monticello Academy [school name correct, location Wright county, Minnesota]; Princeton [Female] Academy until the start of the Civil War. He enlisted as a private in [what became] 3rd Arkansas Cavalry, and came out a captain [after being captured 16 Nov 1864, imprisoned on Ship Island, MS exhanged 2 Mar 1865] (Confederate).       After the war, Gray returned to Princeton [Female] Academy for a year, then was professor of mathematics at St John's [Johns'] College, Little Rock, later becoming its president, and serving until 1875 [arming his students during The Brooks-Baxter War, protecting the sitting Governor after beng ejected from his office, while at St Johns' College]. In that year   [6 July 1874 retained as 1st head of Civil Engineering (1874-1879) and established Mathematics at AIU]   he came to the Arkansas Industrial University and was on faculty from 1875 [1874] to 1895, except for one [three] year when he was principal [Ella Carnall his assistant] of the Fayetteville [Washington] public schools [and 1-1/2 year as Mayor of Fayetteville]. (that [those] was the year the whole faculty was fired [9 Jun 1885, Gray one of 3 asked to return in 1888].       Professor Gray was elected superintendent of the State School for the Blind [their first brick building built in 1869, had been dedicated to "Colonel Gray"], which position he held until his death, again except for one [two] year as principal of another school --- the Speer-Langford Institute at Searcy. Campbell's History says of Gray, "He was an active home owner here, mayor of the town, principal of the schools, and gave high tone to all he did."       The "high tone" of this family did not end with O C Gray [wife, Virginia, - "Vergie", was 1st chair of Drawing & Painting 1874-1881, as it was then called, in 1877 she presented the board her painting of the new "University Hall (Old Main) and its grounds", givng in turn to Gov Miller to hang in his office, now missing, her 1863-65 diary was published in 1983 Arkansas Historical Quarterly, its original and other of her materials are; MC1618, at Special Collection, University of Arkansas]. His [their] son, Carl R Gray, who grew up and was educated in Fayetteville and the university, worked his way up in railroading from messenger boy and telegrapher [14 y/o Carl paid McNair $5/mo to learn telegraphy in 1882/3], to the presidency [56+ years] of four railroad systems in succession, finally becoming president of the Union Pacific [1920, in 1937 ending as vice-chairman of the board of directors, also recipient of University of Arkansas' honorary LL D degree in 1929, (three others from like institutions), trustee of his father's, Colby College, Waterville, Maine, in Vol 1, "Who was Who in America", with two of three sons in Vol 27 & 29 "Who's Who in America"].                                        ~ ~ ~ ~ Author's Note: This sketch of O C Gray was prompted by 1966 demolition of Gray Hall, and the removal of Gray's portrait from the old building to the University museum. Except for Hill Hall, Gray was the last of three men's dormitories to come down. It served for 60 years, from 1906 to 1966. In later years, from the early 1920s, the building served a number of departments: Horticulture, Ag Chemistry, Entomology, Plant Pathology, Agr Economics, Agr Education, and Agricultural Engineering. It was in the Agricultural Engineering department that I worked from 1922 to 1941. The sketch of O C Gray is from a brief history of the department in its first 20 years --- 1921-1941.            ----------<>---------- Additional Comments: Colonel Gray served many differnet areas of responsiblility at the University as well as the city, his church and the masonic order. His 1st wife, mother of his children, also unselfishly dedicated to educating the youth of Arkansas, as were their son Carl and his three sons General Carl R Gray, Jr, Russell Davis Gray and Dr Howard Kramer Gray. Their daughter Ethel Davis (Gray) Kramer married , lost one child then died in 1910. Her husband, LeRoy Kramer, went on in life to become president of world wide GATX Corporation died in 1953/4 in Chicago. For those interested see:             "OUR NEIGHBORS --- THE GRAYS" (WCHS)       GRAY (Davis),Virginia L          GRAY,O C          GRAY, C R          GRAY(Flora), H A         KRAMER(Gray), Ethel Davis File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/me/knox/newspapers/farbackc8nw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/mefiles/ File size: 7.7 Kb