Isaac Gregory & his father Rev. William Gregory

Contributed by Tamara Kincaide

Source: History of Texas. Lewis Pub. Co., 1922.

Part 1

Isaac Gregory, with his father and other members of the family was one the first settlers of the Black Land region of Cooke County, Texas. 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 Cooke County.

The head and leader of this family when it came to Texas was Isaac Gregory's father the Rev. William Gregory.

The Rev. William Gregory was born in Nelson County, Kentucky in November 1820 and at an age of ten moved to Louisville to live with a sister. In those years he had little opportunity to attend school. As a youth he became a drayman hauling goods to and from the riverboats. As a young man in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, 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 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 afterlife 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 became prominent in the administrative sphere of the church and was a frequent moderator 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 along with 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 Texas, where they were near both wood and water, items they were accustomed in Kentucky. They developed farms and raised grain for their families and stock. They became familiar with the lands in Texas during their stay in Grayson county of seven years residence, and decided the black land belt was more fertile, and accordingly disposed of their interests in Grayson county and drove west to Cooke County settling in what has since been known as Gregory Settlement.

Here Rev. William Gregory bought lands at cheap prices then prevailing, and his home the Allred homestead was the first farmhouse erected in the locality. His brother-in-law had adjoining land and the two pioneers spent the next ten years of their lives as neighbors and homebuilders.

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 performed his last act of service for the church.

Wherever his interests as a farmer and minister called him he was watchful of moral welfare, he abhorred all things profane, especially profaning the name of God. It is said that he spoke to a member of his church who represented Denton County in the Texas Legislature requesting that he introduce a bill making it an offense on public highways of Texas in the use of profane language, such a bill was introduced.

In spite of his 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 for the Union sentiments and he and Felix Grundy supported the Union in the first election held upon the question of secession. 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; the tragedy occurred in December 1908 when he was eighty-eight years of age. His faithful wife survived him until January 13 1915; she was nearly ninety-five years of age and they had been married for seventy years before the death of Mr. Gregory.

They married in Muhlenberg County in 1838; her maiden name was Millie Grundy, [and] she was born in Indiana about 1820. She was just three years of age when her father William Grundy moved from Indiana to Kentucky. [William Grundy] was born 1785 and spent the remainder of his life as a farmer in Muhlenberg County. He married Ruth Osborne, and they had twelve children, Samuel, James, Felix, Wm., Robert, Garrett Abraham, Priscilla, Letitia, Millie, Mary Ellen and Sallie Ann.

The children of Rev. William Gregory and Millie Grundy were

Part 2

Isaac Gregory born in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky November 8 1841 [and] was eleven years of age when brought to Texas by his parents. He attended school in Kentucky and finished in the log schoolhouses of pioneer Texas, where he became familiar with the dirt floor and the puncheon floor of the old schoolhouses, and sat on the split log benches without backs. [Though] the terms of such schools were short and the teachers inferior, [and] he did not finish his schooling until after his service in the Confederate Army, he acquired a fairly complete and satisfactory education.

[When] he reached his majority, he enlisted in February 1862 in the Confederate Army, joining Company C of Col. 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 Indians. On Christmas Day 1863, his comrades overtook a band of Comanche on Fish Creek, while thirty two soldiers waged a unequal conflict from which the soldiers had to retire as best they could against 165 Indians.

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 the battle and in the absence of beef he participated in the feast on the carcasses of seven Spanish ponies killed.

After the war was over he continued in frontier service as a member of a company of minutemen 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 the last time in October 1878.

In the meantime he had devoted himself to the serious duties of a civilian farmer in the community where he had grown up. For half a century he has been one of the leading farmers and stockman of his community, and builder of Cooke County. His home is nineteen miles southwest of Gainesville, and adjacent to Clear Creek, where he has created a farm consisting of over six hundred acres, almost half of it under cultivation. His livestock comprises of sheep, horses and cattle. He is director of the First National Bank of Valley View.

After the war he united with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and served as elder of the Mount Olivet Congregation.

On November 8, 1868 he united in marriage in Denton County to Miss Mary E. Copenhaver, and they were companions in home and all interests for more than forty years until the death of Mrs. Gregory on September 21, 1909. She was born in St. Clair County, Missouri on September 12, 1849, the daughter of Benjamin F. and Margaret (Criger) Copenhaver, who came to Texas about 1860. Her brother John F. Copenhaver is now a resident of Oklahoma.

In the declining years of his life Mr. Isaac Gregory is comforted by the presence of both his children and grandchildren, a number of who still live in his home community. His children are