Butte County
Biographies
JUDGE JOHN CARLETON GRAY
Among the professional men of Butte county who have attained distinction beyond the borders of
their home locality is Judge John Carleton Gray, known alike in the legal
fraternity and the legislative assembly of the state. Born in Dresden, Lincoln county, Me., February 2, 1837, he is the descendant of an
old New England family, both paternal and maternal ancestors having emigrated
from England to America prior to the Revolutionary war, in which historic
struggle both families were represented. Both father and mother, the Hon. John
L. and Lydia (Carleton) Gray, were natives of Maine, as were also the parents
of each. The mother died in 1874, when sixty-seven years old, the father
surviving until 1897, dying then at the age of ninety years. They were the
parents of nine children, of whom the judge is the only remaining son, two
dying young and the third at forty-two, after a sea-faring life of twenty-five
years, having become master of a ship when only twenty years old. This son, in
1877, as Captain Gray, was presented with a silver service by the Citizens of
Honolulu for carrying to them the official notice of the adoption of the
reciprocity treaty between the United States and Sandwich Islands.
When only three years of age John C.
Gray was taken by his parents to China, Me., where he was reared to young
manhood on the paternal farm, attending the common schools during the winter
months, and assisting through the summer in the home duties. He remained at
home until he was eighteen years old; purchasing then the remainder of his
minority he became a teacher in the schools of the state, in this manner
earning money to enable him to complete his education. In 1859 he entered Colby
University (then known as Waterville), where he remained two years, after which
he received instruction in the law office of Hon. A. Libbey,
of Augusta, Me., until he was admitted to practice in the highest court of the
state, June 16, 1863. The day following he started for California, upon his
arrival in the state securing employment as night clerk in the What Cheer Hotel
of Sacramento, where he remained for a year and a half. Coming to Butte county
January 1, 1865, he has since been actively identified with its best interests,
and to its general upbuilding and material advancement he has given the
strength of an earnest and forceful manhood. He began his career here as a
teacher in the public schools, for five of the seven years so occupied being
principal of the Oroville grammar schools. He was eminently successful in the
work and only put it aside to take up that for which he had equipped himself in
his eastern home, in June, 1872, opening an office in Oroville for the practice
of his profession. A year’s practice served to demonstrate his ability and to
bring him prominently before the public. He was then (in 1873) elected on the
Republican ticket to the state assembly, serving one term, during which time he
was chairman of the committee on public lands, and a member of the judiciary,
election and apportionment committees, the judiciary committee being presided
over by Judge Williams of Eldorado (sic) county, and numbering among its
members many men of note. Through the meeting of the code commission a splendid
legal training was given to the lawyers of the assembly, the practical benefits
visible in the later results. Upon returning to Oroville the judge resumed his
law practice, and at the same time became editor and part owner of the Oroville
Mercury, his management of the latter bringing it to rank with the first papers
of the county. In 1878 his constantly increasing practice demanded his entire
attention and he was therefore compelled to dispose of his interest in the
paper. In the past years he has been largely engaged in procuring government
titles to agricultural and mineral lands, many of the arguments used by him
before the commissioner of the general land office, and also before the
Secretary of the Interior, being among the best received by those officers, and
have been used by others in later considered cases.
Always a prominent and popular man in
public affairs he was the Republican nominee in 1885 for district attorney, and after a warm contest was elected for a term of
two years. He was re-elected and served a second term, but refused a third.
During his term of office a band of seven noted criminals was broken up, all of
whom were convicted and sentence to terms of imprisonment from one to sixty
years. In 1890 he received the nomination for superior judge, a position held
then by Judge P. O. Hundley, and was elected against a very popular man by a
large majority. He was re-elected in 1896 by the largest majority ever given to
a candidate in Butte county and was again re-elected
in 1902. His entire rule on the bench has been dominated by fairness and honesty
of purpose which have won for him the esteem and respect of all who have come
to know him, officially or otherwise. Sustaining a deep interest in the schools
of the county he has held the position of deputy superintendent for a period of
six years, and has been a member of the board of examiners for seven years,
besides which he has been connected several years with the board of trustees.
In fraternal orders Judge Gray has also taken an active interest ever
since his college days, having been a member during that time of the Delta
Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He is a Mason of the Knights Templar degree, having
been a presiding officer in each of the several divisions, and is also a member
of the Odd Fellows and Encampment. Socially he is a member of the Union League
Club of San Francisco.
Not the least among the interests of
Judge Gray have been those of an agricultural nature.
In 1886 he turned his attention to fruit-raising, being the first one to make
that venture in olives and figs in Butte county, in fact in northern
California, and during the past twenty years has developed a magnificent ranch
now known as the Mount Ida Olive Grove. This ranch is located in Butte county, six miles east of Oroville, and contains five
hundred and twenty acres of fine land, all in one body. Of this land one
hundred and eighty acres are devoted to the cultivation of fruit, a peach
orchard of three thousand trees, fifty acres of White Adriatic figs, and an
olive grove containing one hundred acres. This last-named crop is sent from the
ranch in the form of pickled fruit and olive oil, as the place is equipped with
an olive-oil mill, the best in California, and all machinery necessary for the
manufacture of the oil. Adjoining the mill building is the pickling works for
making olive pickles, consisting of ninety feet of building and a full set of
troughs, boiler and everything necessary in the business. The ranch is also
noted for the mineral springs, the waters of which have been so highly
appreciated by many prominent citizens of Oroville, where they have been sold
since 1890.
On the 6th of October, 1869, Judge Gray
was united in marriage with Miss Belle R. Clark, who had been one of his pupils
and for a time a teacher in the school where he was principal. They became the
parents of three children, namely: Helen, who died in infancy; Carleton, a
lawyer who lives in Oroville; and Ida B., who became the wife of Dr. J. W.
Wilson of Oroville. Mrs. Gray died November 14, 1897, in San Francisco, where
she had gone to attend the wedding of her son. The lady who became the second
wife of Judge Gray on July 3, 1902, was formerly Katherine (Jacoby) Hecker, widow of Fred Hecker, a
prosperous merchant of Oroville. They had two children born to them. Fred W. attending Santa Clara College, and Alice, attending the
Sacred Heart Convent at Oakland. For nine years after the death of her
husband Mrs. Hecker successfully carried on the boot
and shoe business that Mr. Hecker had established and
built up. She is acknowledged as a woman of unusual business ability, having
maintained her home, and carried on a business that required almost her entire
attention.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
405-406.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies