EVA ALZORA BILLINGS          October 30, 1854 - September 8, 1910        56 years  
FREELAND GRAY                      April 19, 1841 - December 21, 1903           62 years
     Company B, 13th Michigan Infantry    WIA     Served 2 1/2 years
       Buried Oakhill Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Kent, MII

Freeland Gray entered the service with Eva Billing’s brother, James, and brother-in-law, Samuel Stillson. Freeland was only 19 years old when he enlisted in 1862. It was almost 2 years later that Freeland was wounded in action at Stone River, TN. Three weeks after that he was discharged by reason of a gunshot wound.

In 1870, Eva married Freeland Gray when she was 16 and he was 29 years old. Eva and Freeland had 6 children. Gale, their oldest daughter died in 1887 when she was 17 years old. Their other 4 daughters all became members of Eva Gray Tent 2 between 1915 and 1919. They were “Sarah” Elizabeth Erwood, Minnie Cooper, Francis English, and Helen Vogelsang. Eva and Freeland’s son, Walter, who was born in 1880, entered the military during the Spanish American War. An excerpt from his biography states: Walter Gray had the distinction of being the youngest man from Grand Rapids to serve as a soldier in the Spanish-American war.  He was actively affiliated with the Spanish-American War Veterans and also with the Sons of Veterans, in honor of his father, Freeland Gray.

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