Aaron Thomas Gregg, p. 485

AARON THOMAS GREGG. In the year 1836 there arrived in Monongahela (then called Williamsport) two brothers, Nimrod Alfred Gregg and Aaron Thomas Gregg, both natives of near Brownsville, Fayette Co., Penn., the former born April 15, 1813, the latter July 26, 1815.

They were house plasterers by trade, which they carried on for some time after coming to Monongahela, but Nimrod abandoned it and entered into mercantile business with Hampton Kerr, with whom he remained for a time, after which he moved to West Newton, Westmoreland Co., Penn., where he carried on a grocery and drug business up to the time of his death, which was brought on by consumption. He married Mary Jane Hamilton, of Monongahela, who died in Adair county, Iowa, leaving three children: Margaret, Harriet and Aaron Thomas; Mrs. Gregg was a daughter of Joseph Hamilton, an innkeeper, in Monongahela.

Thomas Gregg, grandfather of Nimrod Alfred and Aaron Thomas Gregg, was a son of Samuel Gregg, a native of Ireland, who married Elizabeth Alford, both dying in Loudoun county, Va. The names, dates of birth, etc., of their children are as follows: Thomas, October 25, 1743, died in Fayette county, Penn., in 1821; Priscilla, September 8, 1745; John, October 14, 1747, Rebecca, February 24, 1749; Ruth, April 23, 1752; Israel, March 2, 1754; Ann, May 5, 1756, died in Greene county Penn., July 20, 1817; Samuel, April 18, 1758; Aaron, June 17, 1761 (he served as an officer in the American army twelve years; was present at St. Clair's defeat, and participated in Gen. Wayne's great victory at the battle of Fallen Timbers on the Maumee river, August 24, 1794; he died in 1803 at Fort Adamson on the Mississippi); Elizabeth, born April 15, 1863. Of this family, Thomas married Amy Gregg, and they settled in Fayette county, Penn., on Dunlap's creek, one mile from Brownsville. Amy Gregg's people settled in Greene county, same State, near the town of Carmichael's, and being Quakers intermarried, as was their custom. One record says that John Gregg and some of his children settled in Greene county, Penn. His children were Mary, Hannah, Amos, Amy, George, John Richard (died in Greene county November 15, 1812), Lydia, and Rebecca (who was married to Frank Geaton, and moved to Vincennes, Ind., where they died). Of these, Mary married a Mr. Nixon; Amos married Priscilla Gregg; Amy married Thomas Gregg; George married Ruth Gregg; Richard married Ann Gregg. The Greene county Greggs were of Scotch descent.

When Thomas and Amy (Gregg) Gregg settled in Fayette county, Indians were still hostile to the whites, making raids on the settlers, and the latter, including the Greggs, had often to flee to Ricket's fort, near where Merrittstown now stands. Thomas Gregg and wife were in the fort when a man named Morgan was attacked by two Indians a short distance from the blockhouse; Morgan killed both the Redskins, and the soldiers of the fort skinned the dead bodies, and tanned the hides to make sword belts. The children born to Thomas and Amy Gregg were: (1) Samuel, (2) John, (3) Nimrod, (4) Thomas, Jr., (5) Ruth, (6) Mary and (7) Dinah. (1) Samuel married Margaret Ball, and their children were Noah, Israel, John, Thomas, Minerva, and Priscilla; Samuel was a trader on the river to New Orleans; his children moved to Circleville, Ohio. (2) John married Margaret Allen, and had three sons Carlton, Ashton and Thomas; John died in Fayette county; they then located at New London, Ohio; Margaret died at the patriarchal age of one hundred and four years. (3) Nimrod married Katie Johnson, and had children Bani, Elihu, Zilla and Lizzie, of whom the sons are deceased, the daughters married and settled in Ohio. (4) Thomas, Jr., married Mary Miller, and had two sons: Nimrod Alfred and Aaron Thomas; Thomas, Jr., started to cross the mountains with a team, in 1815, but at Emmitsburg, Md., he was taken sick and died; his widow afterward married Capt. George Gregg, of Greene county, Penn., and by him had one daughter that died young; the mother was carried off by a fever in 1819 while a resident of Bridgeport; her father and mother were in Ricket's fort at the time Morgan killed the two Indians, as already related. (5) Ruth married David Wood, of Winchester, Va., and had seven sons who grew to maturity Addison, Thomas, Joseph, John, Samuel, David and Jesse of whom Samuel lives in Bridgeport, Fayette Co., Penn., and is the father of Charles B. Wood, M. D., of Monongahela. (6) Mary married Judge Ignatius Brown, and moved to Lebanon, Ohio. (7) Dinah married John Gregg, and had the following named children: George, Amy, Caroline, Mary, Harriet, Harmon. George died in Fayette county, the rest moved to Ohio. There are two accounts about Thomas and Amy (Gregg) Gregg's movements: one states that they went to Fayette county from Chester county, Penn., while the other avers that they moved from the Shenandoah Valley, Va. Samuel and Elizabeth (Davidson) Miller came from Chester county, Penn., near where the battle of Brandywine was fought.

Aaron Thomas Gregg, the subject proper of this sketch, learned the trade of plasterer with George D. Stevenson, in Uniontown, Penn. In 1841 he married Catherine, daughter of Joseph Caldwell, for many years an innkeeper in Monongahela, and they had eleven children seven sons and four daughters of whom one son, Joseph Caldwell, died in his tenth year; those now living are (1) Idesta Fidelia, (2) George Alfred, (3) Eliza Jane, (4) William Thomas, (5) David Swartz, (6) Charles Carroll, (7) Catherine Leilla, (8) Mary Cooper, (9) Albert Miller, and (10) John Caldwell. Of these (1) Idesta Fidelia married Lewis Bollman, and they moved to Bloomington, Ind. (they had one son, Charles Harvy, who died at Way Cross, Ga., and his father died in Bloomington; the widowed mother is now at her father's); (2) George Alfred and (6) Charles Carroll are married and live at Chehalis, Wash, (3) Eliza Jane is at home, unmarried; (4) William Thomas married Lenora Fell (they have no children; he collects toll at the Monongahela river bridge); (5) David Swartz is single, and now lives in Monongahela; (7) Catherine married John L. Kirk, powder agent at Sharpsburg, Penn. (they have three children, one son and two daughters); (8) Mary Cooper married William I. Beaver, and they live in San Bernardino, Cal. (they have two sons and one daughter); (9) Albert Miller married Lilly Le Masters, and they have five little daughters; (10) John Caldwell is a lieutenant in the Sixteenth Regiment United States Army, now stationed at Fort Douglas, Utah (he went to West Point in 1883, and graduated in 1887).

Aaron Thomas Gregg served as adjutant and major of the Thirty-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Militia; in 1855 he was elected a justice of the peace, serving five years; in 1859 he was elected colonel of the Second Regiment Uniformed Militia, Third Brigade, Seventeenth Division; in 1862 he aided in recruiting Company E, One Hundred and Fortieth P. V. I., served at its captain till after the battle of Chancellorsville, and was honorably discharged at Falmouth, Va., June 3, 1863, on account of age and consequent disability. Mr. Gregg is a Republican, and in 1873 he was elected an alderman of Monongahela, and served five years. He belongs to the M. E. Church; has been a member of the I. O. O. F. since 1853, and is a member of the G. A. R. Post, No. 60, and of the Loyal Legion. Mr. Gregg taught school two winters (1839 and 1840) near Monongahela. In 1849 he crossed the Plains to the California gold mines, in Capt. Ankrim's company, which left Pittsburgh March 15, 300 strong, on the steamboat "Consignee," Captain Lockwood. He started with mule teams from St. Joseph, Mo., and was gone two years.

Text taken from page 485 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).

Transcribed June 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project.
Published June 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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