Reverend Edward James Gray, D. D., clergyman and educator, who for thirty-one years preceding his decease was president of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, is a native of the state, born in Half Moon Valley, Centre county, near Bellefonte, July 27, 1832. From his sturdy Scotch-Irish ancestry, which has long made notable the valley of his birth, he derived those sterling elements of character and high-keyed principles that made him resolute in action and helped him to success in the difficult undertakings of his life.
Dr. Gray began his education in the ordinary country schools of that day, pursued advanced branches in Pine Grove Academy, and in 1856 entered Williamsport Dickinson Seminary, from which he was graduated in the Classical Course in 1858. In the following year he was ordained to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For fifteen years he occupied various important pulpits, displaying great powers as a preacher, and that skill in financial undertakings and that knowledge of men which made him a master when he came into his kingdom at Williamsport. In 1874 he was elected to the presidency of Williamsport Dickinson Seminary, and the remainder of his life was consecrated to the service of that institution. He took high rank as an educator, and his excellent traits of personal character, his sympathy with the young student and his deep fatherly interest gave him a power of influence which found its fruit in directing many into useful paths of life, and in affording them splendid equipment for important places, notable in the church and schoolroom. He moved among his students as an earnest Christian gentleman of a cultured mind and a tender heart.
His career as a teacher and the head of Dickinson Seminary covered the long period of nearly thirty-one years, ending only with his death at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, January 20, 1905. During Dr. Gray's administration the institution was steadily advanced in usefulness and the public favor, and developed into one of the best higher seminaries in the state. Over one hundred thousand dollars were
expended in new buildings, improvements and equipments in various de
partments, the money being largely obtained through Dr. Gray's per
sonal efforts. There was nothing perfunctory in his labors in connec
tion with the school. He regarded it as the best field before him for his
effort, and devoted himself to it with a rare degree of conscientiousness
and persistent endeavor. His vigorous constitution stood him well in
his ceaseless labors. He never lost sight of his pupils after their leaving
his immediate presence, but followed them with a parental interest, and in many instances procured their entrance upon important positions, his intimate personal acquaintance with them affording him knowledge of their capabilities along lines which they frequently did not themselves discern.
While Dr. Gray gave his principal effort to instructional work in connection with the institution of which he was the head, he was also a man of wide usefulness and potent influence in his church. He was ever a conspicuous figure in the Central Pennsylvania Conference, and for many years preceding his death was, perhaps, the most forceful member of the board of managers of its educational society. To secondary education he gave much attention. There was nothing new in educational matters that he did not investigate; nothing old that he would preserve if he thought it had lost its value. He was in constant demand for public occasions and in missionary efforts. As a dedicator of churches he was remarkably successful, both in preaching and in managing the finances. By this means he benefited many of his old students, and it is said that no man in the state was called to dedicate so many churches as was he. He had educated a very large number of the members of his conference, who showed their appreciation for him in various ways. Six times in succession he was chosen by his ministerial brethren to represent them in the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, the highest legislative body in that denomination in this country, meeting quadrennially. He was also twice elected to the Methodist Episcopal Ecumenical Conference, meeting once in ten years. The first of the last named sessions which he attended met in Washington City, in 1891, and the second in London, England, in 1901. In his attendance upon these he was accompanied by Mrs. Gray. From Dickinson College of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he received the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Divinity. As a citizen Doctor Gray showed great pride and interest in Williamsport. He believed in
the city of his choice, and was ready to give to the advancement of her interests both of his time and means.
He has left an impress upon Dickinson Seminary which will remain as long as the institution lasts. He lived only for it, and, dying, died as he wished, at the head of the school where he had been educated and to which he had devoted the best and greater portion of his life. Of him it may well be said:
" Servant of God, well done.
They serve Him well who serve His creatures;
For good is not a shapely mass of stone
Hewn by one's hands, and worked by him alone;
It is a seed God suffers him to sow;
Others will reap, and when the harvests grow,
He giveth increase through all coming years,
And lets men reap in joy seed that was sown in tears."
December 26, 1861, Doctor Gray married Miss Eva Vanderbilt Emery of Williamsport. To them were born three daughters and two sons. He was survived by Mrs. Gray and their two sons, William E. Gray, in business in the city, and Edward J. Gray, Jr., in school.
Eva Vanderbilt (Emery) Gray, who (lied suddenly, September 7, 1905, was the daughter of Joseph and Julia Emery. She was born in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1840. Much of her early life was spent in Williamsport, where she then resided. She was educated at Dickinson Seminary, from which she was graduated with the class of 1857. It was while attending the seminary that she met Edward James Gray, then a ministerial student there, and the friendship there formed grew into that riper affection, and on December 26, 1861, they were united in marriage.
For nearly thirteen years she resided with her husband in a number
of charges, he being a Methodist Episcopal minister, and in March, 1874, when Dr. Gray was elected president of the seminary they returned to Williamsport and took up their residence in that institution.
During the thirty-one years of Dr. Gray's presidency Mrs. Gray was his co-laborer in every field. Much of the success of the institution during those years was due to her influence, assistance and constant upholding of his hands. Countless little things that the public and the school never knew were her labor of love. Her husband's life work was hers and the success of the school was interwoven with her very being. At his death she was made chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors of the seminary for the balance of the school year.
About the middle of July, 1905, Mrs. Gray left the halls which had been her home and her pride for so many years and took up her residence with her son, William E. Gray, at 823 West Third street. She had laid down the cares of active life and prepared to spend her remaining days quietly, relinquishing all except an active interest in her church work and in the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Mulberry Street Methodist church, of which she was the founder and president.
She had lived an earnest, Christian life and, although no danger was anticipated from the operation, she frequently had expressed her readiness and willingness to go and join her husband in the home above. The hand of death found her prepared, a loving and useful Christian life well spent, her labors ended.
She was the organizer of the Seminary Branch of the Woman's Missionary Society, which has established the Eva Gray Scholarship and is educating a girl in Japan. She was one of the board of managers of the Home for the Friendless and also of the Y. W. C. A., of which latter she had also been a vice president. She was one of the original members of the Clio Club.
Source: Genealogical and Personal History of Lycoming County, John W. Jordan, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1906.
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