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John David Gray (1808) was born in London to Elizabeth (Granger) and Thomas Gray. John immigrated to the United States as a child and later made a name for himself in the railroad industry, along with his brother William. He had four children with his first wife, Ann Amelia Gnech, and five more with his second wife, Mary Jane Moore, after Ann's death.
John and William entered the railroad business together in the 1820s and won the contract for the first railroad in the South, the South Carolina Railroad, in 1830. The brothers managed the construction of railroads all over the south, including Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas. In Florida, the Gray brothers constructed three out of four territorial railroads, although the economic hardships wrought by yellow fever caused John to remove the tracks near St. Joseph and repurpose them in Georgia.
John was also very involved in the manufacturing industry. He established Graysville, Georgia, a company town centered around mining that also featured a distillery and a furniture factory, among other businesses. During the Civil war, Gray reorganized his factories in Georgia and Alabama to produce guns, hand weapons, and tools for the war. However, Union forces destroyed those factories in 1863 and 1865. After the war, Gray rebuilt the demolished Graysville and continued his antebellum railroad work until his death in 1878.
Summary:
This collection contains an 1841 deed of trust between John D. Gray and his older brother, William, using John's St. Joseph properties and enslaved persons as collateral for a financial loan. Included in the deed are the names of several persons enslaved by John Gray: John, a 22-year-old "mulatto" engineer; Peter, a 25-year-old Black engineer; Sam, a 35-year-old Black blacksmith; Rubin, a 22-year-old Black man; Albert, a 23-year-old Black man; Abraham, a 22-year-old Black man; Pleasant, a 25-year-old Black man; Bill, a 22-year-old "mulatto" man, his wife Sally, and children Eliza, Caroline, and Emaline.
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For more information on John D. Gray, see FSU Special Collections 01.MSS 0-130
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Gray, John D., fl. 1841. Gray, William, fl. 1841.
Debtor and creditor Florida Deeds Florida. Slavery Florida
Saint Joseph (Fla.)
for detailed listing.