An eMail from Dennis Gray

Dennis Gray and I have been comunicating for the last two weeks or so about this project. I received his permission to share his last message with everyone. Dennis has been involved with the family association for several years. So here it is:

From: Dennis L. Gray [mailto:dlgray@verizon.net]
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 3:39 PM
To: Bob PipesSubject: RE: Old Union Cemetery and Pipes - Harmon - Gray

Hi Bob

Good to hear from you and I have taken a look at Union Cemetery web site. It looks great and I am hopeful that it will be a hit with others. I am working on a list of names of person buried in this cemetery which most likely are beyond what you presently have. These names have been acquired from various sources. Some come from the now deceased Ethel McGraw who provided a list to me years ago. Some come from my personal visits over the years to the cemetery in which I wrote down names and dates. Some of these markers are now lost or damaged beyond recognition.. Also,over my years of research, I have gleaned from the old newspaper obituaries the names of individuals buried in this cemetery of which there is no other record, so these individuals would be in addition to what you presently have. It will be later this year before I can get this all pulled together and provided to you, as I have just accepted a new position with a company and will be leaving next Sunday for a three week training program in Miami, Florida. Please bear with me and I will get it all compiled as soon as possible and forward it to you. Also, I have found that my elder John Gray and Lucy Jones Gray, in 1821 purchased 232 acres of land from John Copeland and his wife, Sally which included one and one fourth acre of land that was being used as the Union Meeting house, and John Gray agreed to continue the grant in like manner be the same more or less. I have some pictures of the grave markers that are now missing or damaged beyond recognition and would like to post them to your web site. Again, I will have to pull these together and scan them into my computer for sharing.

I have attended the Pipes, Harmon and Gray reunion for numerous years and this will be the first time in a long time that I will not be able to attend, due to my three week training in Florida, but I will be mailing a donation to the Pipes, Harmon & Gray Cemetery fund. Also, I am mailing out a letter to some of my fellow Gray researchers and requesting that they submit a donation to the fund. I hope others will contribute, since they have ancestors buried in this cemetery. I am a descendant of John Pipes and Mary Morris Pipes as well as John Gray & Lucy Jones Gray. I suspect that John Gray & Lucy Jones Gray are buried in this cemetery, but their grave markers have long been lost to history.

Please keep in touch !
Dennis