Collection is open for research.
Acquired prior to 1971, including donations in 1905 and 1951 (RL2021-039-RETRO; RL2021-040-RETRO; RL2021-044-RETRO); as well as acquisitions most likely made in the late 19th or early 20th century (RL2021-045-RETRO).
Microfilm copies of letter to David Ambler and 1836-1837 diary are on Reel 2 of Mss 1200-Mss 1225 Microfilm, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Dr. William Henry Gray, a physician and lay missionary for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, was born on May 10, 1810. In 1836, he joined Marcus Whitman and Henry H. Spalding to travel overland and establish a mission to convert Indigenous people in what would become the Oregon Territory. In 1837, Gray traveled east in order to obtain more recruits for the missions. While in New York in the spring of 1838, he married Mary Augusta Dix; the couple would have eight children. That summer, the Grays traveled overland to the Pacific Northwest with missionaries Elkanah Walker and Cushing Eells. William H. Gray continued missionary work until 1842. In 1843, he was involved in the Wolf Meetings and meeting at Champoeg that established the Oregon Provisional Government; he subsequently served as a member of the Provisional Legislature.
From 1846 to 1855, Gray farmed on the Clatsop plains, and from 1855 to 1858 operated a sawmill. From 1858 to 1864, he lived in British Columbia, where he worked in the Fraser River mines and built a boat that he piloted along the Okanogan and Columbia Rivers to Celilo Falls. He subsequently lived in Astoria, Oregon, and wrote a history of Oregon that was published in 1870. He also served as secretary of the Pioneer and Historical Society of Oregon. Mary Augusta Dix Gray died in 1881; William H. Gray died in 1889. The couple were initially buried in Astoria, but in 1916 their bodies were reinterred at the site of the Whitman Mission near Walla Walla, Washington.
Original diary of Mary Augusta Dix Gray was in the possession of Mary A. Gray in August of 1951 when it was transcribed.
Original of letter from Elkanah Walker to William Gray, 1843, is held at the Washington State University Library.
William H. Gray's diary is described in "Overland passages: a guide to overland documents in the Oregon Historical Society," entry 87, and listed in "Platte River road narratives," entry 33. Mary Augusta Dix's diary is described in "Overland passages: a guide to overland documents in the Oregon Historical Society," entry 86.
William Henry Gray papers, Mss 1202, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The collection includes papers and correspondence relating to William H. Gray becoming a missionary, the overland journeys he took as a missionary, and his missionary work; a journal from Gray's 1837 overland journey to the East; materials relating to Gray's history of Oregon; and papers related to a land claim dispute with Josiah L. Parrish. Correspondents include fellow missionary Elkanah Walker and American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions secretary David Greene.
The manuscript journal of William Gray contains a record of his eastward journey in 1837 from Fort Vancouver to Utica, New York, to recruit additional missionaries for Henry H. Spalding's mission. In the journal, Gray describes his party's interactions with Indigenous peoples along the way, including an altercation with a band of Lakota (Sioux) on August 7, 1837 that, per his account, resulted in the deaths of several of his Indigenous guides and the loss of many of the party's horses and supplies. Also included is a typescript copy (1840-1842) of diary kept by Mary Augusta Dix Gray during her service at various missions, containing infrequent entries describing daily activities and life as a lay missionary.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.