(14 Nov. 1852-15 Nov. 1949), artisan. Born at Martintown, GC. Parents: Donald Gray and his wife Janet Grant. T. W. Munro observed (Glengarry News 19 Aug. 1938) that “Duncan Gray, now one of Alexandria’s oldest citizens,” was one of the early inhabitants of Maxville, building “immediately across from” the MacDougall brothers’ sawmill, which was the founding business of Maxville. Martintown and Maxville are not places a later generation would have thought of as closely linked, but Munro also noted in the same article the important early trading links between Gray’s native Martintown and the Maxville area. Gray, who was a cabinet maker, settled in Alexandria in the 1890s or earlier, and worked there for the J. T. Schell enterprises, as lathe man, wood finisher, general craftsman and salesman. Alexandria was his home for the remainder of his life. Gray was married in Montreal on 12 Feb. 1878 to Jane Elizabeth Munro (1849-28 Sept. 1942), who like her husband was from Martintown. They lived to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary. He died at his home in Alexandria, aged 97. He had been bedridden for the last three years of his life. (eight children survived him) He and his wife are buried in the Protestant cemetery, Alexandria.
The Alexandria obituary of Gray, who was a noted craftsman, stated that his family and friends had “many intricate pieces of woodworking” from his hands. Various products of Gray’s skill were noticed in the press over the years. In Aug. 1892, J. T. Schell was preparing to send a picture frame made by Duncan Gray of every kind of GC wood to the next year’s World’s Fair at Chicago. In 1899, Gray presented a fine cane he had made of walnut and bird’s-eye maple to a Donald E. McMillan. In 1903, Gray completed a fine black oak hall rack for the Alexandria jeweller H. R. Cuddon. (for Cuddon, see J. H. Hyde) When Sir Wilfrid Laurier visited Alexandria in Oct. 1904, he was presented with a cane designed and made by Gray.
Standard Freeholder 16 & 18 Nov. 1949, Glengarry News 18 Nov. 1949 * gravestone * diamond wedding anniversary (portrait) GN 11 Feb. 1938 * obituary of his daughter, Mrs George Bradley, Alexandria, GN 21 Oct. 1976 * MacGillivray & Ross 490, 492 * craft objects as cited: GN 8 July 1992 (date sic 1992: historical article, not “old” issue), 19 May 1899, 23 Jan. 1903, 28 Oct. 1904 * praised as record-breaking workman in turning balusters, GN 29 Jan. 1897