Cora Gray Wray

Cora Gray Wray (Mrs. Fred Elmore “Mutt” Wray; born October 23, 1884) was a pioneer resident of Avon Park, a founding member of the Woman’s Club of Avon Park (1919), and one of the five original November 1945 charter signers, longtime treasurer, and official historian of the Old Settlers Association of Avon Park, whose lifelong collection of pioneer family albums, manuscripts, and photographs formed the core archival foundation of the Avon Park Historical Society.[aps-1948-09-10][aps-1957-10-10][aps-1971-10-28][maxwell-1976]

Arrival in Avon Park and Family Life (1903–1924)

According to Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell’s The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976), Cora Gray arrived in Avon Park on November 3, 1903, from Perry, New York, with her father, Captain Fred J. Gray, and her brother, Harry Gray.[maxwell-1976] Traveling by train to New York City, steamship to Jacksonville, and train to Zolfo Springs, the family completed the final day-long journey to Avon Park in a covered wagon over pine-needle trails.[maxwell-1976]

Mr. and Mrs. Fred J. Gray with their daughter Cora, her husband Fred Elmore (“Mutt”) Wray, and their three oldest sons, Frederick Ellis, Vincent DeWitt, and Lawrence Earl. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976), page 69. Avon Park Historical Society.[maxwell-1976]

Cora married Fred Elmore (“Mutt”) Wray, who had settled in Avon Park from Rochester, New York, in 1889; contemporary reports in The Avon Park Sun record that Cora Wray was the daughter-in-law of pioneer Avon Park merchant and photographer George E. Wray, “the person who made most of the old photographs that you see in the windows of the local stores of the old settlers.”[aps-1949-10-07][maxwell-1976] Fred and Cora Wray raised five children:

• Frederick Ellis Wray[maxwell-1976]
• Vincent DeWitt Wray[maxwell-1976]
• Lawrence Earl Wray[maxwell-1976]
• Howard Wray (PFC, United States Army)[maxwell-1976]
• Mildred Wray (Mrs. Frank E. Waddell, who signed the 1945 Old Settlers charter, served as an early and 1977 historian of the organization, and served on the 1975–1976 Bicentennial Historical Committee)[aps-1978-10-12][maxwell-1976]

The Wrays’ original home stood beneath fourteen oak trees on the section of Main Street between the Hotel Jacaranda and Rich’s Hardware store—the same oak grove preserved today in the Mile Long Mall.[maxwell-1976] According to Maxwell, the Wray residence featured the first indoor flush toilet installed in Avon Park, and early Board of Trade “smoker” meetings were occasionally held at the Wray home prior to the construction of City Hall.[maxwell-1976] When Main Street was widened in 1924 to create the double thoroughfare and Mall, the City of Avon Park purchased the Wray house, briefly using it for municipal business before the Wrays relocated their home to West Charles Street.[maxwell-1976]

The Wray residence after its relocation to West Charles Street. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976), page 68. Avon Park Historical Society.[maxwell-1976]

Civic Leadership and the Old Settlers Association (1919–1971)

In 1919, when the local Mothers Congress divided into the Parent-Teacher Association and a federated women’s organization, Cora Wray joined May Walden and Mrs. W. M. Reck as a founding member of the Woman’s Club of Avon Park.[maxwell-1976] She was later crowned “Mother of the Year” and “Queen of the American Legion Auxiliary” (Highlands Unit No. 69).[maxwell-1976]

Cora Wray crowned “Mother of the Year” and “Queen of the American Legion Auxiliary” by Rena Smith. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976), page 70. Avon Park Historical Society.[maxwell-1976]

When the Old Settlers Association of Avon Park was organized on October 9, 1945, and signed its charter in November 1945, Wray was one of the five original Executive Committee signers (alongside May Walden, Byrum Shockley, Clara Davidson, and Alice Davidson) and served for more than twenty-five years as treasurer and official historian.[aps-1948-09-10][aps-1949-10-07][aps-1957-10-10][maxwell-1976] Over decades of correspondence with pioneer families across the United States and former servicemen stationed in Avon Park during World War II, she maintained an alphabetical pioneer family register book, organized annual October window displays of early photographs in Main Street stores, and preserved the primary manuscripts, historical photographs, and family albums of the town’s earliest settlers—including the King, Marshall, Pabor, Putney, Nettleton, and Shockley families.[aps-1949-10-07][aps-1957-10-10][aps-1971-10-28][maxwell-1976]

Wray attended her final Old Settlers Association meeting on her 87th birthday, Saturday, October 23, 1971, at the Old Union Congregational Church Fellowship Hall (misremembered as October 9, 1971, in Maxwell’s 1976 caption), where her chair was carried by Cois Leroy (“Jack”) DeLaney and Milford Dilley.[aps-1971-10-28][maxwell-1976] Before her death (which occurred prior to October 1975), she persuaded Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell to assume custodianship of her pioneer photograph albums and manuscripts; upon Wray’s death, her daughter Mildred Wray Waddell delivered boxes of these collections to Maxwell, providing the primary illustrations and archival base for The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (1976) and the permanent collections of the Avon Park Historical Society.[aps-1975-10-23][aps-1978-10-12][maxwell-1976]

Related

• Report: The Old Settlers Association and the Historical Society of Avon Park (1945–Present)
• Entity: Avon Park Historical Society and the Depot Museum
• Entity: Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell
• Finding: Origins and Formation of the Old Settlers Association and the Historical Society of Avon Park (1945–1981)
• Report: Early Settlers and Pioneers of Avon Park (1885–1900)
• Report: The lodges and clubs of Avon Park

References

• aps-1948-09-10 — The Avon Park Sun. Notice of Old Settlers Association Executive Committee Meeting. 10 September 1948. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1948-10-13 reel)
• aps-1949-10-07 — The Avon Park Sun. Old Settlers Plan Reunion Oct. 12th. 7 October 1949. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1949-09-30 reel)
• aps-1957-10-10 — The Avon Park Sun. Old Settlers Plan 13th Annual Picnic Wednesday, Oct. 16. 10 October 1957. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1957-10-10 reel)
• aps-1971-10-28 — The Avon Park Sun. Old Settlers Association Holds Annual Covered Dish Dinner and Meeting. 28 October 1971. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1971-10-28 reel)
• aps-1975-10-23 — The Avon Park Sun. Historical Society To Raise Funds For Crosby Grave Marker. 23 October 1975. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1975-11-29 reel)
• aps-1978-10-12 — Betty Amburn and Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell (The Avon Park Sun). Leoma Maxwell Helps To Organize City’s History. 12 October 1978. Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1979-10-11 reel)
• maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. 1976. documents/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md

Where this comes from

Evidence

corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.

Review

unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.

Rights

society

Sources

1. The Avon Park Sun, Notice of Old Settlers Association Executive Committee Meeting (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1948-10-13 reel)) (1948) · newspaper
2. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Plan Reunion Oct. 12th (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1949-09-30 reel)) (1949) · newspaper
3. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Plan 13th Annual Picnic Wednesday, Oct. 16 (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1957-10-10 reel)) (1957) · newspaper
4. The Avon Park Sun, Old Settlers Association Holds Annual Covered Dish Dinner and Meeting (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1971-10-28 reel)) (1971) · newspaper
5. The Avon Park Sun, Historical Society To Raise Funds For Crosby Grave Marker (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1975-11-29 reel)) (1975) · newspaper
6. Betty Amburn and Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell (The Avon Park Sun), Leoma Maxwell Helps To Organize City's History (Avon Park Historical Society Newspaper Archive (1979-10-11 reel)) (1978) · newspaper
7. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (documents/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book

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