WILLIAM P. "W.P." GRAY
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W.P. Gray, about whose activities we have previously written, was probably one of Pasco’s best known citizens, town booster and promoter. His father, W.H. Gray, was with Marcus Whitman when the latter established the ill-fated Waiilatpu mission near the present site of Walla Walla in 1836, but he left the mission to settle down in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where W.P. Gray was born on July 26, 1845. He and his brothers became riverboat captains. Gray had captained his own small boat on the Fraser River when he was only 16 years old. By 1863 he and his brother were making regular runs between Celilo and Wallula in the mining rush, as well as making occasional trips from Wallula to White Bluffs, where the miner’s supplies would be unloaded from the riverboats and loaded on to pack trains or wagons, enroute to the mines.
When Captain W.P. Gray passed away on October 26, 1929 he was hailed all over the Pacific Northwest as a great man. The PASCO HERALD wrote: “That Captain William P. Gray, who Pasco had been proud to claim all these years was more than a local character was shown in more ways than one when word of his passing went out. Even before it became generally known locally… telegrams began to come in from newspapers and press associations requesting details an biographical sketches of the venerable captain. He was truly a part of this great Northwest, and recognized as such far and near, even more so then we at home at all times appreciated.” In another editorial in the same edition the above newspaper wrote, under the title, “The Passing of a Great Race of Men,” the following tribute; “The passing of Captain William P. Gray reminds us again that the great race of men who wrested the northwest from the hands of the savage and carved out a great empire here are almost all gone. And our civilization is weaker and less vital with their passing for they were the embodiment of energy, courage and vision…”
Captain Gray, after the Panic of 1803, returned to steamboating for a short time. He made a second Alaska trip, sailed on Lake Couer d’Alene for a few years in command of the “Georgia Oakes,” but this proved too tame so he took command of the “Mountain Gem,” hauling freight on the Columbia River during construction of the S.P. & S. Railroad. When he settle down to a quiet life ashore, here in Pasco, he assumed heavy community responsibilities, serving as mayor, president of the commercial club and he served on the board of trustees of the Congregational church. A grateful Pasco school board honored him posthumously by naming a school for him in the late 1940’s.
