Shelby  County,  Indiana
Biographies

Margaret  Gray



The  Shelby  Republican
Thursday, September 6, 1877
Page 3, column 5
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IN  MEMORIAM
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          Mrs. Margaret Gray, who died at Waldron, August 21st, 1877, was born in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1790.  She married  Robert Gray in 1814, and three years thereafter removed to Preble County, Ohio, from whence they emigrated in 1839 to St. Clair County, Tilinois.
          There last move was in 1857, to Waldron, where they enjoyed in the main a quiet and happy life till death in October, 1876, took from her side the husband of her youth.  Her married life of sixty-two years, mostly so peaceful and pleasurable, had also its sorrows.  Three of her six children preceded her over "death's cold sullen stream."  Three are among the most esteemed of Shelby County citizens.
          Her greatest grief, however, was her last - the loss of her companion.  With him, Mother Gray, buried all earthly joys.  Her heart beat on but yearned for dying.  Her once beautiful home was left to her desolate.  She longed to depart and be with Christ which is far better.  The "strength" of her remaining days were "labor and sorrow.  Anxiously did she await all the days of her appointed time till her change came; and then it was peaceful.  She suffered the most intense pain during her last illness, but in her dying moments, she closed her eyes and lips and literally fell asleep in Jesus.  With the patriarch of the sky, she said, - "Thou shall call and I will answer thee."
          Her funeral sermon - a fueling one by Rev. G. W. Winchester was from a text which she chose for the occasion months before:  namely I Peter 1:24, 25,  "For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.  The grass withereth away but the word of the Lord endureth forever."
          Her delight was in the law of the Lord; sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.  Often we have sat down with her and been refreshed in spirit.  She is ours no more, however, "till the shadows flee away-and we rest in him."
J.W. Dashiell    
Fairland, August 29, 1877
Contributed by Barb Huff for Carolyn Hoffman

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