Name/Title
Gray Letters 1866 11 01Entry/Object ID
2024.10.1.238Description
This is a letter dated 11/01/1866 from Mr. Edward Powers Gray (1822 - 1902) to Mr. Samuel C. Gray regarding family matters. The first family matter he mentions is the birth of his daughter (Bertha Gray - 10/31/1866 - 12/29/1879). He is also starting his duties at St. Georges P.E. Church. He also tells Samuel that he purchased a house next to the church for $450 plus $100 other expenses.
Edward describes Shakopee as a growing town but with a lot of foreigners and citizens poorly served by the local schools. He blames these people for the lack of growth in the city. He prefers "intelligent suffrage" and not the universal suffrage proposed by both parties. At one point he is describing the immigrants and uses a word that I don't recognize. (Wikipedia says that in the 1860s the largest group of immigrants to the Shakopee area were German. The word may refer to German immigrants.) The big issue about this time was on granting suffrage for the newly freed slaves. The term "intelligemt suffrage" was commonly used in arguing for not granting voting rights to the former slaves. This may be what Edward is really suggesting. (See article attached.)
The last few pages of the letter deal with similarities and differences between "American" and "Mosaic" regulated slavery.
