Isaac & Rev. William Gregory
Four generations of Isaac Gregory family
Isaac Gregory, with his father and other members of the family, was one of the first settlers of the black land region of Cooke County. One of the most interesting subjects of local history is determining the special influences that mold and make a community what it is as a social, religious, educational and business environment. It would be difficult to overestimate the forces that emanated from the Gregory family during their long residence in Cook County. While they moved to the county primarily to acquire fertile lands for agricultural purposes, among their first thoughts were the church and school, and for fifty years they have upheld all the forces for good in this section of the state.
The head and leader of the family when it came to Texas was Isaac Gregory's father, Rev. William Gregory. He was born in Nelson County, Kentucky, in November, 1820, and at the age of ten went to live with a sister in Louisville. In those years he had little opportunity to attend school. As a youth he became a drayman, hauling goods to and from the river boats. As a young man in Muhlenberg County he was converted, and soon afterwards felt the call to preach. Preparatory to such work he endeavored to make amends for his lack of education. Though married and with children of his own, he attended school and became proficient in English grammar and other lines of study. He preached his first sermon in Muhlenberg County and in after life the ministry was his chief work. He was known as a profound student and thinker on theological lines, for a forcible preacher, and as a revivalist he founded and built up many successful congregations. He also became prominent in the administrative sphere of the church, and was frequently a moderator and representative in the General Assembly.
In early life he was not a man of great physical vigor, and his move to Texas was made chiefly to benefit his health. It was in 1852 that he and his brother-in-law, Felix Grundy, started with their families to the Southwest, traveling from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Their first settlement was southeast of Sherman, in Grayson County, where they were near both wood and water, items to which they were accustomed in Kentucky. They developed farms and raised grain for their stock and families. There was not a cotton gin in that entire region of the state. They became familiar with Texas lands during the seven years of their Grayson County residence, and decided that the black land belt was more fertile, and accordingly disposed of their interests in Grayson County and drove on West to Cooke County, settling in what has since been known as Gregory Settlement.
Here William Gregory bought lands at the cheap prices then prevailing, and his home, the Allred homestead, was the first farm house erected in the locality. His brother-in-law had land adjoining, and the two pioneers spent the next tend years of their lives as neighbors and home builders. In 1868 William Gregory moved to Denton County and for some years lived near Lewisville in the Flower Mound settlement, where he was pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Next he went to Wise County, near Chico, where he continued his church work as pastor, and where he performed his last act of service for the church.
Wherever his interests as a farmer and minister called him he was watchful of the moral welfare. He abhorred all things proface, especially profaning the name of God. It is said that he spoke to a member of his church who then represented Denton County in the Texas Legislature, requesting that he introduce a bill making profane language on the public highways of Texas an offense, and such bill was introduced. In spite of frail health, by careful living his years were prolonged to the benefit of many communities. He kept regular hours, practiced temperance in all things, and was a bitter foe of liquor. When the Civil war came on he was staunch in his Union sentiments, and he and Felix Grundy, supported the Union in the first election held upon the question of secession. Before the second election was held on that subject he realized nothing could keep the state true to its allegiance, and he told Mr. Grundy that it was useless for them to attend the polls. After the close of the war he cast his ballot as a Democrat, though he was never a strong partisan. Rev. William Gregory lost his life by fire, being unable to save himself when his home burned. This tragedy occurred in December, 1908, when he was eighty-eight years of age. His faithful wife survived him until January 13, 1915. She was then nearly ninety-fives years of age, and they had been married seventy years before the death of Mr. Gregory. They were married in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, in 1838. Her maiden name was Millie Grundy. She was born in Indiana about 1820, and was three years of age when her father, William Grundy spent the rest of his life as a farmer in Muhlenberg County. He was born in 1785, and by his marriage to Ruth Osborne had the following children: Samuel, James, Felix, William, Robert, Garrett, Abraham, Priscilla, Letitia, Millie, Mary Ellen and Sallie Ann.
The children of Rev. William Gregory and wife were: Isaac; Joseph, of Gainesville; Drusilla, who died as the wife of W.N. Cannon; Nancy, wife of J.C. Griffis, living at Crafton, Texas; Mary, who was married to B.F. Donald and died in Denton County; Caroline, wife of M.F. Carnes, of Chico, Texas; Samuel, of Valley View; and Laura, wife of Charles Word, of Amarillo.
While his achievements and experiences make an interesting sotry of itself, Isaac Gregory has in many ways made his life conform to the honored example of his father. He was about eleven years odl when brought to Texas. He was born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, November 8, 1841. He attended school in Kentucky and finished his education in the log school houses of pioneer Texas, where he became familiar with the dirt floor and the puncheon floor of the old time schoolhouse, and sat on the split log benches without backs. The terms of such schools were short and the teachers inferior, but as he did not complete his schooling until after his service in the Confederate Army he acquired a fairly complete and satisfactory education.
He had about reached his majority when he enlisted in February, 1862, in the Confederate Army, joining Company C of Colonel McCord's regiment of Texas Rangers. The rendezvous of this command was in Montague County on Red River. Indian raids upon the settlements made it necessary for the troops to remain on the frontier, and Mr. Gregory was never in the great theater of the war between the North and South. His command was stationed near Fort Belknap until the final surrender. He participated in several combats with hostile Indians. On Christmas Day, 1863, his comrades overtook a band of Comanches on Fish Creek, and with thirty-two white soliders against a hundred and sixty-five Indians there was waged an unequal conflict from which the soldiers had to retire as best they could. Again, on January 8, 1865, a band of Indians on Dove Creek in Tom Green County was attacked by McCord's Rangers, resulting in one of the hottest engagements in frontier annals. After several hours of fighting the soldiers were forced to retreat with the loss of several men. Mr. Gregory was in that battle and during the campaign, and in the absence of beef, he participated in the feast on the carcasses of seven Spanish ponies killed.
After the war was over Mr. Gregory continued in the frontier service as member of a company of minute men and was subject to call at various times when the community was menaced by hostile raids. Indians continued their stealing and killing expeditions for a number of years and Mr. Gregory was called out at the last raid made on the settlement, in October, 1878.
In the meantime he had devoted himself to the serious duties of a civilian farmer and in the community where he had grown up. For half a century he has been one of the leading farmers and stockmen and community builders of Cooke County. His home is nineteen miles southwest of Gainesville and adjacent to Clear Creek. Here he has created a farm of nearly six hundred acres, and has almost half of it under cultivation. His livestock comprises sheep, horses and cattle. Mr. Gregory is also a director of the First National Bank of Valley View.
As a layman Mr. Gregory has been one of the prominent church leaders in this section of Texas, interested not only in his home church but in the extension of church building elsewhere. After the war he united with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and served as elder of the Mount Olivet Congregation, has attended Presbyteries and favored the movement to unite the two branches of the Presbyterian Church. In the process of that consolidation he was a delegate from his home church at the General Assembly at Dallas of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. For many years he has been devoted to the building up and maintenance of a splendid Sabbath School in his locality. The cause of public education has always been an object calling for his best endeavors. He has served as trustee of his local district. Mr. Gregory is a democrat and singularly enough is also a believer in protective tariff for American industries, a belief that gives him a unique distinction among the old-line democrats of his locality. For many years he has been affiliated with the Masonic Order, has mastered the esoteric work of the order and became a teacher of Masonry under a certificate from the Grand Lodge of Texas.
On November 8, 1866, Isaac Gregory married in Denton County Miss Mary E. Copenhaver, and they were companions in home and all their interests for more than forty years, until the death of Mrs. Gregory on September 21, 1909. She was born in St. Clair County, Missouri, September 12, 1849, daughter of Benjamin F. and Margaret (Criger) Copenhaver. The Copenhaver family came to Texas about 1860. Her brother, John F. Copenhaver, is now a resident of Texahoma, Oklahoma. In the declining years of his life Mr. Gregory is comforted by the presence of both children and grandchildren, a number of whom still live in his home community. His oldest child is John William, a resident of Valley View. James F. died in the Gregory Settlement, leaving no children. Martha A. is the wife of John Ratliff and lives near Lone Wolf, Oklahoma. Margaret L. is the wife of W.H. Davis, of Aransas Pass, Texas. Joseph Edward, a farmer on the old homestead, married Daisy Waggoner and has three children, Richard, Edith and Lowell. Laura Belle is the wife of Luther Atcheson, of Slidell, Texas. Robert Bruce lives at Orland, California. Charles Monroe has his home at Hood, Texas. Thomas J. remains a factor on the homestead farm. Mary Eunice is the wife of John McFarland, a farmer on the Gregory estate. Edna Florence, the youngest, is the wife of Sam Flint, of Cleburne, Texas.
Source: Paddock, B.B., ed. History of Texas. Fort Worth and the Texas Northwest Edition. Vol. 3. Chicago: Lewis, 1922. Pages 269-271. Image opposite page 269. Archive.org, 26 June 2018.
