lawyer, newspaperman, politician, b. Madison, N.Y. He moved with his parents to Wisconsin at an early age, and soon left home to become a miner at New Diggings. He read law, and became a member of a land company promoting Darlington as a town-site (1850). Gray was editor of the Shullsburg Pick and Gad (1854) and of its successor, the Shullsburg Lafayette County Herald (1855-1856). He also edited the Lafayette County Independent at Shullsburg (1861-1864). He served for several years as district attorney of Lafayette County and held other local offices, including the presidency of the Lafayette County Agricultural Society. A Democrat, he was state assemblyman (1856, 1858) and state senator (1869-1870). He was a regent of the Univ. of Wisconsin (1868-1874). In 1898 he sold his business interests in Wisconsin and moved to Minnesota. He later retired to California. U.S. Biog. Dict. . . . Wis. (Chicago, 1877); P. M. Reed, Bench and Bar of Wis. (Milwaukee, 1882); Darlington Republican-Journal, Oct. 31, 1902; WPA MS.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]