Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904,
pp 459-461 [Graves]

     LEVI N. GRAY, the successful farmer and dairyman residing about two
miles from Mayfield, is a native Kentuckian an has passed his entire
life in this state.  Mr. Gray is a sterling and honored man who began
life with disadvantages of a pecuniary nature, and who had to overcome
the obstacles in the road of progress one by one and without any aid
except providential care, and his own diligence and persistency.  His
early schooling was pretty well sandwiched between periods of hard work,
and he started for himself by working for wages on a farm.  His economy
and definite purpose to acquire a home and independence gave him a
substantial basis finally, and he has ever since been farming on his own
account.  Nine years ago he made a serious mistake, but has overcome the
blunder, and regained his independence, so that he is now one of the
prosperous and esteemed citizens of Graves county.
     Mr. Gray is of Irish and Scotch descent, his paternal grandfather,
Isaac Gray, being of Irish stock, and his maternal grandfather, James
Cunningham, being Scotch and a native of Trigg county.  William C. and
Penelope (Cunningham) Gray, his parents, were both born in Trigg county,
Kentucky, and the former was a farmer, making his home in Trigg county
till his death, which occurred in 1863, when he was thirty-five years
old.  He was a member of the Baptist church and a Democrat in politics. 
He and his wife had five children: James; Isaac M.; Levi N.; Sarah, now
Mrs. A. E. C. Birdsong and William C. who died at the age of two years. 
Penelope Gray married, in 1865, Mr. Mickens Cunningham, of Trigg county,
and of this union five children were born: Warren; Nellie, now Mrs. C.
Birdsong; Alpha, Mrs. William Finley; Daniel W.; Zilpha, Mrs. Herschel
Coulter.  The mother of these children died in 1894.
     Levi N. Gray was born in Trigg county, Kentucky, January 9, 1859. 
He lived in his native county until he was nineteen years old, and had
scarcely any education up to that time.  When he was only sixteen years
old he began work on a farm, with the year's stipend fixed at fifty five
dollars, and for nearly eight years after this was engaged in similar
work, finally receiving as much as thirty dollars a month and board.  He
had inherited some three hundred dollars, and this, with his savings,
enabled him at the end of eight years to buy a farm, for which he paid
one thousand dollars.  Three years out of the eight he lived with a
great uncle, as one of the family, and as a recompense (besides his
clothing) for two years of this service, he was sent to the public
school of his district about two and a half months each winter.  This
closed his schooling.  But instead of galloping over the neighborhood at
night and on Sundays, as the ordinary hireling does, he spent much of
this time in studying, reading and writing.
     For the last twenty years he has been a close student of the Bible,
and is a man of undaunted faith in God and the Christ of the Bible.  He
has taken a willing and ready interest in the Christian religion in his
community, and a great interest in the spread of the gospel. 
Considering his disadvantages and financial ability, he was perhaps the
time being)[sic].  He was elected the first Sunday-school
superintendent, most prominent figure in the erection of a house of
worship at Bethel, fourteen years ago, and was elected the first and
only elder (for the [sic] and holds this position at present.  It is
claimed that this congregation has the best school of any country church
in the county.  Their protracted meeting resulted in thirty-eight
additions last summer, and nineteen additions this summer.
     Mr. Gray is now the owner of a well improved, and, it is needless
to say, a well cultivated farm of one hundred and twenty acres, a mile
and a half from Mayfield.  This proximity to the town makes his place a
convenient location for a dairy, and in the spring of 1901 he
established one, and this branch of his farming is also running
successfully.
     Mr. Gray is an adherent of the Democratic party, and he and his
wife are members of the Christian church.  January 20, 1887, he was
married to Miss Isora Cloyes, who was born in Mayfield, May 30, 1864,
and is the daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Roxanna (Miller) Cloyes,
both born and reared in Tennessee, the former of French stock and the
latter of an old North Carolina family.  Mr. and Mrs. Cloyes came to
Mayfield before the war, and have resided there ever since.  He was a
merchant for many years, and is a blacksmith by trade.  He is
seventy-seven years old, and his wife sixty-nine, and both are members of
the Christian church.  Five of their nine children are living.  Mr. and
Mrs. Gray have been the parents of eight children: Cloyes William;
Lillian; Lena, who died in infancy; Herman Lee; Maurice Pryor; Alice;
Mary; Penelope.  Mr. Gray and his wife are highly esteemed in their
community, and the success which has followed his efforts has been
honorably won and is now merited. 

Gray Cunningham Birdsong Finley Coulter Cloyes Miller
=
Trigg-KY NC

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/graves/gray.ln.txt