saac P. Gray is a native of Pennsylvania, having been born near Downingtown, in Chester County, October 18, 1828. His father, John Gray, moved to Ohio and settled near Urbana, when Isaac was almost eight years old. Within a short time thereafter his parents removed to near Dayton, Ohio, but did not long remain there, when they moved to Mew Madison, Darke County, Ohio, where young Gray grew to manhood and became proprietor of a dry goods store. He married Eliza Jaqua, a few years his junior, and the daughter of Judson Jaqua, who resided about two miles from New Madison, in a neighborhood (which had a post office) called Yankee Town. Gray's parents are of Quaker descent, but they never adhered to the society. Their ancestors came over with William Penn and took a prominent part in early colonial times. On November 30, 1855, Isaac P. located at Union City, Indiana, his family then consisting of his wife and two baby boys, Pierre Gray and Bayard S. Gray. From the time of his arrival, he became one of the leading citizens of the then small town. He was always active, energetic and progressive, and no work or enterprise in the town was considered without his advice and counsel, and in many cases financial cooperation. He always bore a prominent part in all public matters and was depended upon to speak for the interests of the place.

He was engaged in the dry goods business for a while after he came to Union City, then the law, where by reason of his pleasant speech, excellent judgment of human nature and the happy faculty of condensing and making plain his thought, he became a successful advocate.

After a few years of practice in the law, however, the civil war came on, and Gray, being a strong unionist, was appointed colonel of the Fourth Indiana Cavalry, which position he held from September 4, 1862, to February 11, 1864. He also raised and organized the 147th regiment Indiana volunteers, mustered in March 13, 1865. He was also colonel of the 105th Indiana (minute men). Served five days -- July 12 -17, 1863. At the close of the war, he became a banker, organizing with Hon. N. Cadwaller, the Citizens' bank, of which he is a prominent stockholder and vice president. In 1866, he was candidate of the anti-Julian wing of the Republican Party for congress. Entered the law in 1868, and was state senator of Randolph County in 1868072, on the republican ticket, of which body he took position as a leading member. In 1870, he was appointed by President Grand counsel to St. Thomas, West Indies, and confirmed by the Senate, but declined. In 1872, he was appointed a delegate at large for the state of Indiana to the national Liberal Republican convention at Cincinnati, and, by that convention was made the member, for the state of Indiana for the Liberal Republican national executive committee.

Dissatisfied with the administration of General Grant, he joined the Greeley liberal movement in 1872, and from that time on acted with the Democrats. In 1876, the Democratic state convention nominated him by acclamation for lieutenant governor, and he was elected to that office in October 1876. In 1880, he was a candidate for governor before the Democratic state convention, and lost the nomination by four votes, but was named by acclamation a second time for lieutenant governor. In the general Democratic defeat incurred in October 1880, Col. Gray shared the catastrophe. But, by the death of Governor J. B. Williams, In November 1880, Lieut. Gov. Gray was promoted to the position of governor of Indiana, which honor he sustained with appropriate dignity, addressing the legislature in perhaps the most voluminous message ever presented by any occupant of the gubernatorial chair to any legislative body. In 1884 he received the Democratic Nomination for governor, to which position he was triumphantly elected in the fall of that year, and for four years served in a manner so satisfactory to his partisan friends that he became the recognized leader of the Democratic Party in Indiana, and it has always been insisted by his supporters that his name, on the ticket with Cleveland, in 1888, would have that year secured the presidency of the United States to the Democratic Party. In the spring of 1894, Mr. Gray was appointed by the Cleveland administration United States minister to the republic of Mexico.

Isaac Pusey Gray is a man about five fee ten inches high, well proportioned and stands erect, with a semi-military carriage, and weighs about 180 pounds; his hair was black and curly, but in now somewhat tinged with gray; bold, prominent forehead, a full, frank, plump and florid face, strongly indicative of a high order of intelligence, and light blue eyes, beaming with good nature. His face is unadorned except with small chin whiskers. Suave of address and of kind disposition, he is always cordial and pleasant with strangers and extremely sociable among his friends and acquaintances. He enjoys the society of his friends. Perhaps one of the elements of his great popularity and steadfast hold upon his friends, in his freedom from any aristocratic reserve, and yet, no one has a keener sense of the demands of true dignity: a man of great decision and firmness, yet always respectful of others' feelings. The home Gray left in Union City was and is today one of its finest residences, a spacious brick dwelling located on a large plat of ground. He has built and owned some of the best residence properties in the city. He took great pride in his house, which was nicely furnished and supplied with a fine library, when he and his wife, who were great readers, gratified their literary tastes.

Mrs. Gray is a blonde of medium height, with gray eyes, well defined features, clear complexion, good figure, easy and graceful carriage. She is regarded as a fine looking lady, whose years rest upon her with becoming grace and dignity. By descent, she comes from an honorable French family, whose ancestors at an early date settled in New England and New York.

Her son Pierre, the elder, graduated at the Indiana State University in 1874 and his younger son, Bayard S., graduated at De Pauw University in 1876. Pierre followed his graduation by a course of law, and has ever since practiced his chosen profession, except while he acted as private secretary to his father as governor, 1885-1889. He is now associated with his father, in the practice, at Indianapolis. Pierre was married, about ten years ago, to Miss Kate Alma McDonald of Union City; they have no children. Bayard S., after returning from his alma mater, studied in his father's law office, but soon thereafter took up journalism, in which he made a brilliant success. He has however abandoned that field and located in Chicago, where he is again at the law. Like his father, Bayard S., has a taste for politics, and being a fluent speaker, with an unlimited vocabulary, he has taken a more or less active part in politics since his majority. Since his removal to Chicago, he has achieved considerable prominence and is now regarded as on of their public speakers.