Jacob Gray
Jacob Gray was an early settler in Pulaski County, Arkansas. With his older brother Shared Gray, Shared floated a raft or canoe up the Bayou Meto from its mouth on the Arkansas River to a site twelve miles to the northeast of downtown Little Rock in the winter of 1820-1821.
Jacob Gray was born on August 21, 1762, in Granville County, North Carolina. He lived for four years with his parents in the Kershaw District of South Carolina, and then returned to Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. He remained in North Carolina until 1815, when he moved with his brother to Bedford County, Tennessee. He left Tennessee in 1820.
Jacob and Shared were Revolutionary War veterans. In a military pension statement, Shared claimed that he marched against the Tories for several months in 1780-1781 as a private in a North Carolina company of Rangers commanded by Captain John Foster and Robert Davis. In April 1871 he reenlisted with Captain Foster to march in the State Troops of South Carolina. Foster's troops reached General Sumter's headquarters on the Congaree River in South Carolina. There he transferred to the company of Captain Jacob Barnett, joining a regiment commanded by Colonel Wade Hampton. Gray marched to the Torie Thompson's Fort on the Santee River with this regiment. The fort was subsequently captured. Gray was present at the Battle at the Eutaw Springs, and engaged in other suppression efforts against the Tories. Jacob returned to his North Carolina home in the spring of 1782 after serving out the entirety of his time of service.
The Grays settled on land that became the Reed's Bridge Battlefield in the Civil War.
References
- Evin Demirel, "Battle's Site Links History, Present," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 6, 2009.
