#14 - Anderson Gray Death Certificate

Two distant cousins shared digital images of Anderson Gray's death certificate with me. The front of the certificate is above, and the back of the certificate is below. From the certificate we learn, as another record had also stated, that Anderson's father, Michael, was born in Ireland. Also, the certificate gives Anderson's birth and death dates, age at death, occupation, etc. Note that the certificate inaccurately shows that the name of Anderson's mother is "Mary" instead of "Nancy".

#14 - Anderson Gray, Letters from Woodmere, Evansville, Indiana

     Anderson Gray spent an unknown number of the last weeks of his life in a hospital at that time called "The Southern Indiana Hospital for the Insane". His death certificate says that senility was one of the causes of his death, but these letters make it obvious that he was able to think and reason at the time they were written. Though the doctor released Anderson, and Anderson asked his son and daughter-in-law to take him home, he died at the hospital a few weeks after the letters were written. While it's heartbreaking to read the letters and find that he was apparently never brought home, we don't know all the circumstances of the situation. Thanks to a distant cousin our ours, at least we have a copy of a letter Anderson wrote, and we know somewhat more about him.

Transcription of the letter from Anderson to his son, Morton, and daughter-in-law: 


Woodmere, Evansville, Indiana
September 7, 1924


Dear Son & Daughter
The Doctor just told me this morning that you could take me out any time you would come after me. I hope to see you Soon. I am still better than I was. Hope this will find you both the same. From Dad

#15 - Matilda Hubbs, Headstone in Berea Cemetery (Morgan County, Illinois)

Matilda; Wife of A. Gray; Died July 26, 1872; Aged 24 Ys. 8M. 17 D.

Matilda Hubbs was the wife of Anderson Gray and the mother of one known child, Anna Gray. Anna Frances Green told me she was told that Anna Gray was "an orphan from Ohio". Research led me to the marriage record of Anna's father, Anderson, to Matilda Hubbs in Morgan County, Illinois, not Ohio. (Family stories are not always accurate, but that's the purpose of research. Anna lost her mother, not her father, and so she was not truly an orphan.) Matilda's family had lived in Indiana but moved to Illinois. Anderson most likely knew the family when they lived in Indiana, and then went to Illinois where he married Matilda. Anna was born in Illinois two and a half years after Anderson and Matilda were married. Matilda died just six years later. After Matilda's death, Anderson and Anna moved back to Martin County where Anderson remarried.