Absalom Gray entered eighty acres of land in the year 1826, about a mile west of the present Jericho Meeting-house, adjacent to the land of Benjamin Cox. Absalom Gray was the son of James Gray who came to America with his father, William, before the American Revolution. James Gray died in North Carolina in his 96th year. Absalom Gray was the ninth child by James' first marriage to Elizabeth Raper. Asalom Gray came to Randolph County as a young man. His marriage to Margery Cox, daughter of John and Patience (Piggott) Cox, was the second civil marriage in Randolph County and took place on June 11. 1819. Absalom and Margery had four sons who lived. These were John, James, Elias and Simon, born between 1821 and 1826. Margery Gray died possibly at the birth of the last child, on April 6.1826. She was buried at the White River burying-ground near her parents' home. The child Simon, and possibly his three brothers, were taken into the home of Simon Cox, brother to Margery (Cox) Gray. A little later Absalom married Mary Pickett, sister of William Pickett and daughter of John Pickett and Rebecca Woody of North Carolina. By this marriage there were ten children, names not known. Absalom Gray took his family by his second marriage to Salem Monthly Meeting in Iowa in the year 1843. The four boys by the first marriage seem to have remained* in Randolph County. Absalom Gray died in Iowa in 1875. Mary (Pickett) Gray was still living there in 1880. Whether or not he first lived in the place shown on the map or on 80 acres which he purchased from Jesse Roberts on September 10, 1825, (SE1/ 2 NE1/4 S25 T2ON R14E) is not entirely clear.
Jericho Friends Meeting And Its Community Randolph County, Indiana, 1846, page 15.
Submitted by Lora Radiches
*Absalom and some of his children are in Henry County, Iowa, per the 1860 census, including the four sons thought to have stayed in Indiana:
1860 Census
Jackson, Henry County, Iowa
Absalum Gray, age 65
Mary Gray, age 56, born about 1804 in North Carolina
John Gray, age 30
Simon Gray, age 28
James Gray, age 27
Elias Gray, age 25
Margaret Gray, age 23
Ruth Gray, age 21
Rebecca Gray, age 19
Elizabeth Gray, age 17
Malinda Gray, age 15
Areana Gray, age 13
Beulah Gray, age 12
Ellen Gray, age 9
Elva Gray, age 8
Contributed by Joanie Hanlon