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The History of our Public Schools
Wyandotte County, Kansas
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Dr. George M. Gray
Dr. George
M. Gray was the great grandfather of USD 500 Board Member, Mr.
George Breidenthal. Dr. Gray was very active in the KCKs
community.
1888: Dr. George M. Gray and his wife deeded to the Board of Education on December 3, Lot 3, plus the south 41 feet of Lot 6 of Block 150, old Wyandott City. The property lay to the south of the high school at Seventh and Ann and had on it a four-room house. This would serve as an office building for the board.
Dr. Gray was a member of the Mercantile Club (a forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce), which was involved in appraising schools and their functions, including the recommendations of school building closings at times (such as after the 1903 flood).
Pictures of Dr. and Mrs. Gray are located in the Biographies Picture Gallery.
From: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, published in 1918.
"George M. Gray, M. D. There is hardly a more eminent physician
and surgeon in the State of Kansas than Dr. George M. Gray, of
Kansas City, Kansas. He is ex-president of the Kansas State Medical
Society, a member of the American Medical Association, and has
been accorded the honor of a fellowship in the American College
of Surgeons. In 1915 Governor Capper appointed him a member of
the State Board of Medical Registration and Examination for Kansas
and he is now president of the board. Doctor Gray has been in active
practice at Kansas City, Kansas, for more than thirty-five years,
and for the greater part of that time has been head of the staff
of St. Margaret's Hospital.
His attainments and the service he has rendered in his profession are not the
only distinctions to be associated with his name. Doctor Gray is properly considered
as the father of the park and boulevard system of Kansas City, Kansas. For
years he has worked and planned for an adequate system of driveways and parks,
and many of the ideas of the project now being put into execution originated
in his mind.
In March, 1907, the Kansas Legislature passed the law giving Kansas City, Kansas,
authority to organize a park board, and permitting the board to levy special
taxes for a park and boulevard system. A test was made of the law, and it was
declared constitutional by the supreme court. When the law went into effect
Mr. Gray was serving as mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, and that position gave
him the authority to appoint the first park board. His appointees were Dr.
S. S. Glasscock, James Sullivan and J. P. Angle. A little later Doctor Glasscock
resigned and was succeeded by Doctor Gray as a member of the board. Through
all the various steps connected with the original legislation, the organization
of the board, and the inauguration of its constructive plans, Doctor Gray's
influence was everywhere apparent. He and his fellow members of the board secured
the services of one of the most eminent landscape engineers in the country,
George E. Kessler, and according to plans drawn up by him the work was started
in 1909. It is still in progress, and it is estimated that ten or more years
will be required for the completion of the ambitious plans formulated at the
beginning. The original park board continued their jurisdiction over the work
until this board was supplanted by the commission form of government.
Doctor Gray is a son of the late Rasselas M. Gray and a nephew of Alfred Gray,
both of whom were prominent pioneers in Kansas City, Kansas. Alfred Gray, who
was born in Erie County, New York, December 5, 1830, a son of Isaiah and May
(Morgan) Gray, was well educated in academies of the east, was graduated in
law at Albany in 1854, practiced for a time at Buffalo, and in March, 1857,
arrived in Kansas, settling at old Quindaro, which was one of the original
starting points in the development of the present City of Kansas City, Kansas.
He was a farmer there from 1858 until 1873, and in 1872 was elected the first
secretary of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, and formulated the plans
and laid the foundation for the magnificent work since carried on by that organization.
He had previously served from 1866 to 1870 as a director of the State Agricultural
Society. Alfred Gray was secretary of agriculture until his death on January
23, 1880. During the war both he and his brother had served in the Union army.
Alfred became regimental quartermaster of the Fourth Kansas Regiment in April,
1862, and later was transferred to the Tenth and subsequently to the Fifth
Regiment. He had served as a member of the first state legislature of Kansas,
having been elected December 6, 1859. Some years ago the state erected a monument
to his memory in the Topeka Cemetery.
Rasselas M. Gray was also a native of Erie County, New York, was one of the
early free state men in the territory of Kansas, and settled at Quindaro in
1858. He was one of the last to desert that town, which had so many interesting
associations with early territorial days. He lived there until the death of
his wife in 1899, being both a farmer and a merchant. After that he lived at
the home of a daughter in Kansas City, Kansas, and died March 11, 1911, at
the age of eighty-eight years. He was survived by two sons and one daughter,
and also by fourteen grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Dr. George M. Gray was born at Waukegan, Illinois, March 4, 1856, a son of
Rasselas M. and Susan (Doust) Gray. He was educated in the public schools of
Wyandotte County, and at the age of nineteen was working as a clerk in a drug
store in Kansas City, Missouri. He aspired to a professional career, studied
medicine under Dr. E. W. Shauffler in Kansas City, Missouri, and then took
a course in the old College of Physicians and Surgeons of Kansas City. He was
graduated in 1879, and then entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College of New
York City, where he received a diploma in 1880.
From the time of his graduation Doctor Gray has been continuously in practice
both in medicine and surgery, and besides his connection with the local hospitals
and his large private practice he has always exerted a strong influence in
behalf of adequate health and sanitary laws in his city and state and has been
prominent in the making of a great medical school in connection with the University
of Kansas.
He is vice president of the Peoples National Bank of Kansas City, is a charter
member and the president of the River View State Bank and president of the
Security State Bank. He is a member of all the Masonie bodies, and is a republican
in politics. In 1907-8 he served as president of the Mercantile Club. While
president of this club he had the satisfaction of seeing his ideas concerning
a park and boulevard system incorporated into state law and made a part of
the charter of the city.
Doctor Gray recalls the fact that when the old Town of Quindaro was laid out
forty acres of ground within the city limits were laid out and designated for
public 
parks. He believes, probably on good authority, that this was the first
city in Kansas to be provided with grounds for public parks, and as a result
of the activities of Rasselas Gray, his father, the land was kept in the original
condition as laid out in 1856, and this will eventually become a part of the
park and boulevard system of Kansas City, Kansas.
In 1881 he married Miss Caroline Harlan, of Kansas City, Missouri, a daughter
of Minerva Harlan, widow of Howard Harlan. Mr. and Mrs. Gray are the parents
of three children: Mary, who married Willard J. Breidenthal, a cashier of the
Riverview State Bank, son of John W. Breidenthal, who was bank commissioner
for two terms and at one time a candidate for governor on the populist ticket;
Ruth M., the second daughter, married Thomas M. Van Chave a lawyer of the firm
of McAnany & Alden and at the present time assistant city counselor; George,
the only son is at present attending the Kansas University with the intention
of taking up the study of medicine."
Note: The Grays lived at 7th and Ann, then 40 S. 18th Street, moving later to a home in Westheight Manor. The webmaster of this history site (Patricia Adams) lived in her first apartment in Dr. Gray's home on 18th Street. This was in the middle 1960s. First in the top room (a circle in the turret) and then moved into the lower floor with the wrap around veranda. The apartment was furnished in 1920s decor and had a marble fire place that had been built with marble from Italy. The atmosphere was fantastic. History came out of the woodwork. Unfortunately, the home was later demolished for the building of a small, ugly building for Mast Ambulance.
Dr. George M. Gray
Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events,
institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons,
etc. edited
by Frank W. Blackmar, 1912.
Dr. George M. Gray
History of Wyandotte County Kansas by Perl Morgan, 1911
Dr. George M. Gray
Political Graveyard Online
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Contact the History Webmaster - Patricia Adams
History Site created on December 02, 2002
Page last updated:
02-Jan-2012
