Gray is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States.

and included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area.

The area was granted on March 27, 1736, by the Massachusetts General Court to a group from Boston.

Other industries included a gristmill, 12 sawmills, a tannery, granite and marble works, carriage and sleigh manufacturer, and shuttle maker.

[5] Along Collyer Brook, Samuel Mayall established in 1791 the first successful water-powered woolen mill in North America.

Mayall smuggled out of England plans for machinery hidden in bales of cloth meant for trade with the Indians.

They sent him a hat in which were hidden pins laced with poison, and then a box with loaded pistols rigged to fire when opened.

[6] In the 1970s, Gray was chosen as the site of one of ten Decision Information Distribution System radio stations, designed to alert the public of an enemy attack.

Instead of sending the body away, the "Ladies of Gray" gave the rebel soldier a proper burial and funded a gravestone marked simply, "Stranger".

A statue dedicated to the "Unknown Soldier" was later erected in Gray Village Center, and every Memorial Day, the Unknown Soldier is respected with a Confederate flag marking the grave.

Gray has five towns surrounding it: Windham to the southwest, Cumberland to the southeast, North Yarmouth to the northeast, New Gloucester to the north-northeast and Raymond to the northwest and west.

Gray has long been interconnected with its neighbor to the north, New Gloucester, both sharing similar demographics, culture and economy.

Subdivisions and commercial developments have been built at an ever-increasing frequency, leading to the possibility of Gray being swallowed up into the surrounding urban and sub-urban areas in the future.

[8] These developments have drawn much protest from residents, many of whom live on the same property as their ancestors many generations ago.