Mary A(u)gusta Dix Gray or Mrs. William H. Gray (January 2, 1810 – December 8, 1881) was an early American missionary to

Nez Perce people The Nez Perce (; Exonym and endonym, autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwes ...

in the

Oregon Territory The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Oreg ...

in 1838. She was one of the first six European American women to cross the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

on what would become the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...

Life

Gray was born in

Champlain, New York Champlain is a town in Clinton County, New York, United States. The population was 5,754 at the 2010 census. The town is located on the western shore of Lake Champlain, near the northern end of Lake Champlain and is on the U.S./Canadian border ...

in 1810 where she had a religious upbringing. In 1838 William H. Gray returned from near Walla Walla where he was a founding member of an

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...

mission. He had originally intended to pick up his fiancé but her parents found out that he had nearly been killed in an ambush and refused to let their daughter leave with him. Her future husband tried to find another potential wife and in time proposed to Mary at a Church social on Valentine's Day. He asked her to join the mission as his wife. After a brief engagement they were married and she was one of the first women to travel up what would become the

to the

Whitman mission Whitman Mission National Historic Site is a United States National Historic Site located just west of Walla Walla, Washington, at the site of the former Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu. On November 29, 1847, Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa ...

. Spalding and Whitman had been the first women to make the journey and Gray arrived with Mary Fairbanks Eells, Mary Richardson Walker, Sarah Gilbert White Smith and their husbands. It took them 129 days from

Independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

to the Spalding-Whitman Mission arriving 29 August 1838. After being welcomed by the Whitmans they were sent on to help

Henry H. Spalding Henry Harmon Spalding (1803–1874) and his wife Eliza Hart Spalding (1807–1851) were prominent Presbyterian missionaries and educators working primarily with the Nez Perce in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Spaldings and their fellow mission ...

and

Eliza Hart Spalding Eliza Hart Spalding (1807–1851) was an American missionary who joined an Oregon missionary party with her husband Henry H. Spalding and settled among the Nez Perce People called the nimiipuu in Lapwai, Idaho. She was a well-educated woman who ...

at their mission in

Lapwai Lapwai is a city in Nez Perce County, Idaho, Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States. Its population was 1,137 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, and it is the seat of government of the Nez Perce people#Nez Perce Indian Reservation, Ne ...

in what is now Idaho. There Mary taught a class of the

and she would lead singing on a Sunday. Her husband did not get on well with the other missionaries and none would agree to share accommodation. He had been originally employed as a mechanic and assistant, but he wanted to found his own mission. He eventually obtained permission, but the plan came to nothing. Her husband wrote letters of complaint and eventually tendered his resignation. At one point Mary had to journey through snow with an eight month old child because her husband required her to be with him. They left the mission in November 1842 with their son and two daughters. Their son was said to be one of the first European American boys to be born west of the Rockies. The mission lasted until 1849 when all of the missionaries were killed by the Cayuse. The Grays took on a long journey by boat and wagon and they had to be rescued by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

. Mary and Mary had nine children and seven survived their childhood. William and Mary were running a laundry when news came of the gold rush in California. William sold off two thirds of the laundry and left Mary to run it and look after their children whilst he went off to find gold. Gray died in Clatskanie on 8 December 1881. She and her husband were reburied at the Whitman Mission National Historic Site Cemetery at Walla Walla in Washington in 1916.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Mary Augusta Dix 1810 births 1881 deaths People from Champlain, New York American Christian missionaries