James Alexander Gray Sr. was born in 1846 in Gladesboro and moved with his parents, Robert and Mary Gray, to the new town of Winston when he was five years old. Robert Gray was a pioneer resident and businessman, and had a large family, of which James Alexander was the third child.
James Alexander was raised in Winston and attended the Salem Boys School and served in Company C, 36th Regiment from North Carolina during the Civil War. He was captured at Fort Fisher about seven months after he enlisted. His older brother, Samuel Wiley Gray, was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. James Alexander attended Trinity College, and married Aurelia Bowman in 1848.
James Alexander worked with his father in their dry-goods business, then he helped organize Wachovia National Bank in 1879. He served as the first cashier and later became president, working a total of thirty-nine years at the bank.
Mr. Gray was very active in civic affairs, and served on the school board, as a town commissioner, as city treasurer, as director of the Roanoke and Southern Railway, as treasurer of the Methodist Children’s Home, as a director of the Winston Water Company, and in many capacities at his church, Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church.
James A. Gray High School, which later became the North Carolina School of the Arts, was named for Mr. Gray.
Mr. Gray died in 1918 at his home on Cherry Street. He and his wife were the parents of six children.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
