His mother, Sarah Kathleen Kepford, married first Hiram Gaff (family tradition says he was thrown from a horse and trampled) and second Nathan Munson Gray. James Aaron Gaff, known first as "Jim" and in later life as "Dad Gaff" was stepbrother to my GGgrandfather, John Kepford Gray. See
www.graysgoingback.myheritage.com for details.
Dad Gaff was a "larger than life" character--frontiersman, buffalo hunter, rancher--who has been written up in numerous local histories and collections of western tales. Eventually he went to the Cyprus Hills/Maple Creek area in the provisional district of Assiniboia (now the province of Saskatchewan) and "settled down" on a large ranch that was a way-station for his step-family the Grays in their migration to Alberta.
Canadian historian Grant MacEwan in his book "Coyote Music and Other Stories" tells of Gaff's famous purchase of the Govenlock hotel.