Person:Richard Gray (13)

Richard Elmus married Virginia C. Houchins on 01 May 1881 in Wirt, WV.

By 1900 Richard and Virginia had 4 children out of 5 alive. Richard was a farmer and they lived in Burning Springs. Sometime before the 4th child's birth, there was another child, possibly stillborn. Meanwhile, the first daughter (second child) does not show on the 1910 census but the count of living children remains the same. (Where did she go and how does the count remain the same? She was the only daughter.)

By 1910 Richard and Virginia lived in Marion. Richard, in his 50's, did odd jobs for a living. His eldest son was a breakman for a steam train while another son was a car orderer at the B&O Yard. Virginia showed 5 out of 6 children living by now.

In 1920, only two children remained at home, still in Marion. One son lives next door with his wife and daughter. The other son is listed as married but no wife is on the census record. The youngest son, at the age of 16, was an elevator boy in an office building. Dad is still a farmer but now the breakman son is doing coal mining while the car orderer son drives a taxi.

By 1930, it was just Richard and Virginia still living in Marion. The census shows that although neither went to school, both could read and write.

On January 12, 1943 Richard died of an embolism in the Fairmont hospital having broken his leg 3 days earlier. He is listed as a widow having lost his beloved Virginia on 06 Jan 1935.