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| Birth: | 5 Oct 1904 in Canton, Fulton County, Illinois |
| Death: | 4 Oct 1977 in Salem, Marion County, Oregon |
| Sex: | M |
| Father: | "Bit" b. 25 Jun 1880 in Canton, Fulton County, Illinois |
| Mother: | Martha Jane FITZGERALD b. 3 Dec 1887 in Canton, Fulton County, Illinois |
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| Burial: 7 Oct 1977 Dallas Cemetery, Dallas, Polk County, Oregon |
| Social Security Number: Nebraska |
| Changed: 5 Feb 2003 17:20 |
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Individual:
Having arrived in Nebraska from Illinois with his parents in a covered wagon at a young age, Dallas Gray's first home in his newly adopted state was a log cabin located on the Spade Ranch near Ellsworth, Nebraska.
Living on the Spade Ranch, some distance from town, his formal education did not exceed the eighth grade.
At the age of 14, he began working as a cowpoke on the ranch. He would work hard all week branding cows and breaking brocks so he could go into town on Friday and Saturday nights to play his self taught music at the local dance halls.
It was at these dances where he met his true love, Esther Ruth Miller. He married Esther Ruth Miller on May 23, 1932. The newly weds settled in Whitman to begin their family.
While living in Whitman, he operated his own gas station/automobile repair garage and tended to the coal bins for the local railroad that ran through town.
When the railroad company replaced the coal burning locomotives with diesel engines, work for the railroad became scarce. In 1951, after hearing about work in the timber industry in Oregon, he decided to move his family to Oregon settling in the small town of Falls City. He immediately began working in a plywood mill in the timber town of Valsetz and remained there until his retirement in 1966.
Dad's music never stopped when he moved to Oregon. My early childhood memories include listening to him play.
On Saturday nights, our house was filled with music played by Dad and anyone else he could get to play with him.
He never took a music lesson in his life, yet he could play any instrument he picked up. Music was a natural talent Dad had that all us kids wished would have been passed on to us.
Dad was a hard worker and good provider for his family. Because there were so many of us, he spent a great deal of time working in the plywood mill just to make ends meet.
He put in so much time at work, us kids did not see him much and when we did, he was working on projects around the house.
Dad's hard work ethicists were deeply instilled into each one of us. As a result, our lives have been molded into the hard working, strong individuals that we are today.
The first house we lived in after arriving in Oregon was a log cabin, which was nestled in large fir trees on a gravel road between Falls City and Valsetz.
I don't remember just how long we lived there, but I do remember when Dad started building a new house on property just over the hill from the log cabin.
I can remember walking across the floor joists of the new house while Dad worked on laying down the floor.
Our new house at first did not have running water or an inside toilet, so Dad dug a well by hand at the base of "The Old Fern Hill" and ran a water pipe to the house so we could have inside running water.
Our first outhouse was located back behind the house. It wasn't bad to use except at night. Everyone was scared to use it at night because we thought there were wild animals out there.
Our first outhouse was also the target on at least two different occasions by neighbor boys who thought it was hilarious to tip it over in the middle of the night. Shortly after, Dad built a garage and added an outhouse so no one could tip it over and we didn't need to go out back to use the outhouse.
It wasn't long after that Dad built an inside bathroom. At that point it seemed we had all the comforts of home, but we still had to heat our water on the wood-burning stove in the kitchen to take baths.
Life was good for the short time we lived there.
It seemed like Dad was never content setting back and enjoying the projects he had completed. It was not long until he got the bug to move off the hill and into town were the projects started all over again.
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