George Washington Uncertain GREGORY George GREGORY Susannah Lucretia GREGORY Richard GREGORY Susannah Virginia GREGORY James Few GREGORY Mary Elizabeth GREGORY William Richard GREGORY George Washington GREGORY Martha Georgiana GREGORY Ann Eliza GREGORY Cora Frances GREGORY Martha Lynn REYNOLDS Susannah Uncertain FEW Mini tree diagram
Few Hall GREGORY

Few Hall GREGORY8,8,1,9,6,7,3,4,5

4th Oct 17811,2,3,4,5 - 18th Aug 18726,7,3

Life History

4th Oct 1781

Born in Culpeper County, Virginia.1,2,3,4,5

1st Jun 1841

Married Martha Lynn REYNOLDS in Monroe County, Tennessee.9,6,3

13th May 1842

Birth of daughter Susannah Virginia GREGORY in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee.1,2,3,4,5,10

27th Jan 1844

Birth of son James Few GREGORY in Tennessee.1,3,5

1st Feb 1846

Birth of daughter Mary Elizabeth GREGORY in Tennessee.1,3,4,5,11,12,10

1848

Birth of son William Richard GREGORY in Tennessee.1,3,5

12th Jan 1851

Birth of son George Washington GREGORY.3

3rd Feb 1855

Death of son George Washington GREGORY.3

17th Jan 1857

Birth of daughter Martha Georgiana GREGORY.3

about 1858

Death of daughter Martha Georgiana GREGORY in Died in infancy, exact date unknown.3

15th Oct 1858

Birth of daughter Ann Eliza GREGORY.3

1st Jan 1861

Birth of daughter Cora Frances GREGORY in Tennessee.3,4

Nov 1870

Death of son William Richard GREGORY in Ocala, Marion, Florida.3

after Aug 1872

Death of Martha Lynn REYNOLDS in Monroe County, Tennessee.7

18th Aug 1872

Died in Monroe County, Tennessee.6,7,3

Other facts

 

Buried in Monroe County, Tennessee

Notes

  • -----------------
    Gregorys and Fews in Migration Patterns from the 1700s
    By Orville Boyd Jenkins
    Posted on Ancestry.com 16 October 2017

    One factor in reconstructing a family lineage are patterns of movement and migration.  These migration paths are helpful in finding and evaluating records in our Gregory and related Few line.  We see Gregory records in a generational pattern along the migration streams along the tidewater area or valleys southwards and westward.

    Westward
    Records are being discovered in the westward line from Philadelphia through Frederick and Hagerstown, Maryland, through what is now West Virginia, still part of Virginia in the era we are looking at, and on to Ohio and Indiana.  Brothers John, Richard and Benjamin Gregory, thought to be sons of Isaac Gregory of Pennsylvania, are mentioned several times in lists of residents of old Frederick County, Virginia, a large area at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, also on a common east-west migration route.

    Records for a younger Richard Gregory are found in Culpeper County and Fauquier County, Virginia, on this westward path south of the Pennsylvania border.  These two counties were established in 1749, cut out of Orange County, the original huge area from which Frederick County was originally established in 1743.  These counties bordered Frederick County on the east.

    Dates and locations of various records match a line of movement from the residence of Richard's likely grandfather Benjamin Gregory of Pennsylvania, into Frederick County, and later back to eastern Virginia in Prince William County, across the Potomac from Washington, DC.  This westward line of migration connects with the great Shenandoah Valley running southwestward along the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains in what is now West Virginia.

    Records for a Lewis Gregory, who appears to be a son of Benjamin, son of Isaac, are found along this Shenadoah Valley route then across into the part of Virginia that later became Kentucky, one of the areas where Fews and Gregorys come into contact.  This matches the pattern of residence and Gregory-Few marriages in some of these areas along this southward line of migration.  Details are found in individual notes for the Fews and Gregorys.  Gregorys from this lineage moved westward a bit to the part of Virginia that is now northern Kentucky.

    Southward
    Gregorys are found along the Shenandoah Valley which runs southwestward from Hagerstown to Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee, on the border, on through Jefferson and Cocke County, which were all one area of North Carolina, or then East Tennessee (current I-81 to I-40 to Knoxville) in the 1700s and early 1800s and on toward Cherokee and contiguous counties in Alabama.

    We find Gregorys that appear to be from two different lineages who followed the Shenandoah or similar route from Philadelphia-Baltimore through Virginia into Tennessee, our line through the easterly route of the named east Tennessee counties, the other a bit more westerly, with members of both lines in Kentucky.

    I have traveled through all these areas and explored these lines of migration so have these in mind as I read through records and watch for connections and clues.

    Also thought to belong to this line of Gregorys is one Few Hall Gregory.  Few was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1781 and established himself as a physician and farmer in Monroe County, Tennessee.  It is thought by some Gregory family sources that his mother was a Few, perhaps named Susannah, but records are lacking.

    Westward Ho
    Gregorys in the line of James Henry Gregory and Rachel Lewis are found in those counties of Tennessee from Jefferson-Cocke on to Knox, McMinn (where we find both these Gregorys, with apparently no crossover), Franklin, etc, in the westward migration route.  Gregorys of our lineage also seem to have moved northwestward through the mountain passes toward Louisville.

    The Fews in NC apparently followed the westerly route over the Smokies into Tennessee into Jefferson and surrounding counties where they connected again with the Gregory lineage.  We find them in the family of Francis Marion Few from North Carolina in Jefferson County, Tennessee, where his daughter Letha married Andrew Jackson Gregory, my great great grandfather's brother.

    Crossflow
    Traffic went both ways along those midwestern routes over a period of two centuries.  Fews moved into the Louisville, Kentucky, area from Indiana (across the Ohio River.  Gregorys and Fews also moved from eastern Tennessee into Kentucky.

    Great migrations northward occurred in the 1920s and later because of extensive floods along the Mississippi, destroying much of the Delta South.  The depression added to this exodus northward.  Midwestern droughts accelerated movement to California.  Further industrialization in the next two decades and after WWII accelerated this migration northward and westward.

    The geographical indicators are not only contiguous counties, but similarly in the counties along these common natural migration routes, which also reveal patterns of the same family decade to decade and generation to generation.  These patterns match the same kinds of patterns we find in ethnic investigations all over the world.
    -----------------

    Few was still in Virginia during the War of 1812.  He enlisted in the American forces from Virginia.

    "Dr. Gregory enlisted in the war of 1812 from Virginia.  He studied medicine in Petersburg, Va., Philadelphia, Penn.  For 30 years he practised medicine and farmed."
    --  History Of Sweetwater Valley, by W B Lenoir (Published by Presbyterian Committee Of Publication, Richmond, Va., 1916), p 158, Archived on Archive.org, http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofsweetwa00leno/historyofsweetwa00leno_djvu.txt

    Few moved to Tennessee before 1835.  In 1835, when they were laying out boundaries for Tennessee counties, Gregory property was mentioned in the description of District 1 of Monroe County, Tennessee.

    "(Boundaries of the First Civil District.)   No. 1 District. Beginning at the northwest corner of Monroe County, thence running with the line of Monroe and Roane Counties, to include Thomas Vernon, Esq.; thence a direct course to Dr. [Few Hall] Gregory's mill on Sweetwater Creek; thence to Morganton road, leading by the farm of William Dillard; thence with the road leading from Dillard's to Gregory's Gap till you come within about two hundred yards of the Boiling Spring; thence a direct course to the county line between Monroe and McMinn Counties, passing between the dwelling house of E. Moore and James Axley, and between John Lotspeich and William Neil; thence with the county line to the corner of Monroe County the beginning of the First District. Election Ground, Charles Owens."
    --  History Of Sweetwater Valley, by W B Lenoir (Published by Presbyterian Committee Of Publication, Richmond, Va., 1916), p 261, Archived on Archive.org, http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofsweetwa00leno/historyofsweetwa00leno_djvu.txt

    Few was elected to represent his district in the state assembly in 1839.

    "Hon. Few Hall Gregory was a representative in the Twenty-third General Assembly, elected in 1839."
    --  History Of Sweetwater Valley, by W B Lenoir (Published by Presbyterian Committee Of Publication, Richmond, Va., 1916), p 389, Archived on Archive.org, http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofsweetwa00leno/historyofsweetwa00leno_djvu.txt

    Few married there in 1841

    Tennessee, State Marriages, 1780-2002
    Few H Gregory
    Martha Reynolds
    License issued 26 May 1841
    Marriage 1 June 1841 Monroe County, Tennessee, by Robert Snead, Minister of the Gospel
    Monroe County Marriage Book, p 139, Entry #350

    There is a second version of the Marriage Book, with printed and typed forms on each page, also entered by hand with all the officiants' signatures entered by the clerk.  In this version, Few's name was written only as initials.

    Tennessee, State Marriages, 1780-2002
    F H Gregory
    Martha Reynolds
    License issued 26 May 1841
    Marriage 1 June 1841 Monroe County, Tennessee, by Robert Snead, Minister of the Gospel
    Monroe County Marriage Book, p 234, Entry #1214

    1850 Federal Census, Roane County, Tennessee, 10 September, Subdivision 20, p 167, Hse #430, Fam #454
    Fu H Gregory 52 M Physician $14,400 Real Estate b Virginia [b abt 1798]
    Martha Gregory 26 F b Tennessee [b abt 1824]
    Susannah V Gregory 7 F b Tennessee Attended School [b abt 1843]
    James F Gregory 6 M Farmer b Tennessee Attended School [b abt 1844]
    Mary E Gregory 4 F b Tennessee Attended School [b abt 1846]
    William R Gregory 2 M Farmer b Tennessee [b abt 1848]

    1860 Federal Census, Monroe County, Tennessee, [no date] September, P O Sweetwater, page 8, Hse #50, Fam #54
    F H Gregory 68 M Married Farmer $400 Real Estate $400 Personal Estate b Virginia [b abt 1798]
    M L Gregory 35 F b Tennessee [b abt 1825]
    S V Gregory 17 F b Tennessee [b abt 1843]
    J F Gregory 16 M b Tennessee [b abt 1844]
    M E Gregory 13 F b Tennessee [b abt 1847]
    W R 12 M b Tennessee [b abt 1848]

    Note that in the 1850 census, Few was reported as age 52.  But the 1860 reported him age 68, a gain of 16 years.  Then the 1870 census reported him as 83, an increase of another 15 years, for a total increase in age of 31 years in a 20 year period.  We find this in many of the Tennessee censuses in some counties in this era.  Few's official birth date is 4 October 1781.  From this date, in 1850 he should have been 69 already, and in 1870, 89.

    1870 Federal Census, Monroe County, Tennessee, 16 June, PO Philadelphia, District 4, page 4, Hse/Fam #23
    Gregory, F H 83 M W Phasition [Physician] $7000 Real Estate $700 Personal Estate born Virginia [b abt 1802]
    Gregory, Martha 45 F W Keeping House born Tennessee [b abt 1865]
    Gregory, Susan 27 born Tennessee [b abt 1843]
    Gregory, Mary 21 F W born Tennessee [b abt 1849]
    Gregory, Francis 9 F W born Tennessee [b abt 1861]
    Gregory, William 55 M B Farm Laborer born Tennessee [b abt 1815]
    Gregory, Adilade 14 F B born Tennessee [b abt 1856]

    Nathan Gregory reports in his Gregory genealogy that Few died in Monroe County, Tennessee, on 18 August 1872.  Martha Few moved to Marion County, Florida, where she died in on 2 February 1884.  I found a military pension record with this and his pension information, based on service in the War of 1812.

    War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815
    Few H Gregory
    Widow Martha L Gregory
    Marriage Date 1 Jun 1841
    Date Enlisted 1 Apr 1813
    Date Discharged 1 Oct 1813
    Soldier's Death 18 Aug 1872 Monroe County, Tennessee
    Military Service Location Virginia
    Pension Number - #1 SO 24411, SC, WO 32682, WC 26128
    Bounty Land Number - #1: 7455 80 50
    Bounty Land Number - #2: 48295 80 55

    Fellow Gregory descendant and researcher found a biography for Few in an Internet archive

    -------------------------
    Few Hall Gregory, MD

    Was born in Culpeper County, Va., October 4„ 1781.  He came to Philadelphia, Monroe County, Tenn., in 1820. He died August 18, 1872 in Sweetwater Valley at his home.

    He married Martha Lynn Reynolds, June 1, 1841.  She was the daughter of James Reynolds of Philadelphia.  She was a member of the Baptist Church on Sweetwater.  She died on February 2, 1884, in Marion County, Florida, on Lake Gregory.

    Dr. Gregory enlisted in the war of 1812 from Virginia.  He studied medicine in Petersburg, Va., Philadelphia, Penn. For 30 years he practised medicine and farmed.  He was a legislator from Monroe County in 1839.  He was a commissioned colonel of the State militia.  He was called upon to act as Brig. Gen. Vol., in the Mexican war, but declined on account of his wife's health.

    He was a member of the Methodist Church, South, at Bat Creek (Hiwassee College).  He owned a large amount of land, the Eli Cleveland, Jr., place, and the H. E. Martin place.  He was a wealthy man for his day and time.

    Few Hall Gregory, MD -- married Martha Lynn Reynolds, June 1, 1841
    Children of F H and M L Gregory were:
    1. Susanna Virginia, b. May 13, 1842. PO 1913, Nashville
    2. Jas. Few, b. January 27, 1844; d. April 30, 1897 at Citra, Fla. Married to Georgia Dallas January 19, 1876
    3. Mary Elizabeth, b. February 1, 1846. Married to Daniel J Fogg, January 19, 1885 at Lake Gregory, PO Belleview, Marion County, Fla
    4. William Richard, b. 1848. Died November, 1870, at Ocala, Fla
    5. Geo Washington, b. January 12, 1851; d. February 3, 1855
    6. Martha Georgiana, b. January 17, 1857; d. in infancy.
    7. Ann Eliza, b. October 15, 1858; d. an infant.
    8. Cora Francis, b. January 1, 1861; d. December, 1887, at Livyville [Levyville] Fla. She married Wm. Bro???ni January 1, 1885

    Jas. Few Gregory was a student at Hiwassee College when the Civil War began and enlisted from there in 1861, CSA.  Daughters of James F G: Lula L??m, b. October 26, 1876. PO (presumably) Citra, Fla.;  George Dallas, b. February 21, 1878.

    Children of James and Susanna Hilton. They were married in 1866.
    (1) Robt Reynolds H., b. April 25, 1868. Now in Colorado
    (2) Geo Gregory, b. September 18, 1870. (Dead)
    (3) Wm Andrew H., b. June 5, 1873. PO Nashville

    These children were all born in Sweetwater Valley.
    Above information was obtained from Mary E. Fogg, of Belleview, Marion County, Fla.

    --  History Of Sweetwater Valley, by W B Lenoir (Published by Presbyterian Committee Of Publication, Richmond, Va., 1916), pp 158-159, Archived on Archive.org, http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofsweetwa00leno/historyofsweetwa00leno_djvu.txt
    -------------------------

    Culpeper County borders Fauquier County on the northeast.

    Few had three sons that we know about.  George died at age three.  James Few and William Richard survived into adulthood.  In January 1867 they were indicted along with their older sister Susannah Virginia for a murder.  The Hankins family has a story that one of their family was murdered by three of Dr Few's children, and they were indicted by a grand jury, but fled to country, and no trial was ever held.

    "The foregoing were accused, but never tried nor convicted, of murdering my great, great grandfather, Edward Ezell Hankins, in Tennessee in December, 1866.  A Grand Jury brought an indictment against all three for the murder but the three had absconded and could not be found by authorities.  The prosecution elected not to pursue the case further, and court costs, curiously, were paid by the physician father of the three, Few Hall Gregory."
    --  Robert Hankins, Ancestry Messaging to Orville Boyd Jenkins, 6 April 2020

    He followed up with some more background.

    -------------------------
    I am hoping that someone in the Gregory family can report stories, or family lore, surrounding my GGGrandfather, Edward Ezelle Hankins, who was a neighbor of the Gregory family.  Edward was shot and killed at his home after he returned from the Civil War.

    The three named children of Few Hall Gregory were indicted for the murder but left the area and were never prosecuted.  Edward's widow left afterwards and moved to NW Missouri.  It is from this line that my family comes.

    We have known of the incident but have no information about any relationship between the families, what motivated the shooting, how the families got "cross-ways" with one another, etc.  Hoping that someone might be able to provide insight and information.
    --  Robert Hankins, Ancestry Messaging to Orville Boyd Jenkins, 13 April 2020
    -------------------------

    Considerable searching found no reference to this event.  I found a short cryptic line about it in the Find a Grave memorial for Edward Ezell Hankins, stating "he was in the Civil War and was shot coming home" with no further details   I was puzzled by this, since the shooting was in December 1866, and the Civil War was over before the end of 1865 and all prisoners released and units disbanded.  (The official end of the war is sometimes given as 9 May 1865, but final hostilities did not end till November 1865, still over a year before the murder of Edward Hankins.)

    Robert Hankins commented that Edward was killed at his home.  Court records indicate the shooting occurred 1 December 1866.

    The 1860 census for Few Hall Gregory's family includes both sons, James and William Richard.  Neither of them can be found in the 1870 or 1880 census.  This is consistent with the Hankins family tradition says that the Gregory boys killed Edward Hankins in December 1866.

    It was said that the Hankins and Gregorys were neighbors but not related.  But I looked at the censuses of 1850 and 1860 for several pages before and after Dr Few Hall Gregory and did not find a Hankins family.

    Persistent searching finally turned up a genealogy on TribalPages that had a statement of the event.  It actually cited an inscription on Edward Ezell's burial marker.

    -------------------------
    About Hankins, Edward Ezelle

    Tombstone reads "Held in fondest remembrance his children"

    Murdered - Two brothers and their sister were indicted for his murder.  Could have been a property dispute.  Both the murder suspect (James F Gregory) and Edward were in the 59th Tennessee Mtd. Infantry Division (Confederate) together in Company E.  The other in Company G.  Both were Privates.  Edward was shot as he answered the door one night   He fought in the Civil War with two brothers, one of whom was killed in battle.

    --   Clevenger and Takes, TribalPages, https://takes.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=takes&view=0&pid=19632#moreinfo_
    -------------------------

    The story here says he was shot when he opened his door one night.  Interestingly, the gravestone story does not mention the trial or the flight from the town by the Gregory perpetrators.  No Tennessee record of the two brothers is found after the trial record.  The two brothers wound up in Ocala County, Florida, and so did their sister Mary.

    The Hankins story reports all three suspects fled.  However, the Hankins family tradition about Few's sons fleeing the county after their indictment for murder.  However, Susannah stayed there, being enumerated still in her parents' home in the 1870 census.  She lived out her life right there in Monroe County.

    The court document of ithe indictment was obtained a long time ago by Riobert Hankins' uncle.

    -------------------------
    Wednesday January 16th, 1867

    The State vs. James F. Gregory, William R. Gregory, Susan Helton
    Murder
    Came the grand jury into court headed by their foreman and brought with an indictment for murder. . ..

    Circuit Court January term AD 1867.  The Grand Jurors for the State of Tennessee. . . present that James F. Gregory, William R. Gregory and Susan Helton late of said County, not having the fear of God before their eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigations of the Devil on the first day of December A.D. 1866 with force and arms . . . in and upon one Edward Hankins, willfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, maliciously, feloniously and of their malice aforethought, did make an assault . . . with certain pistols and guns. . .  they held to against and upon the said Edward Hankins . . . did shoot and discharge (weapons). . . in and upon the said head, breast and body of the said Edward Hankins. . .divers mortal wounds. . . of which the said Edward Hankins, languishing did live and of which mortal wounds, he the said Edward Hankins afterwards, to wit, on the third day of the said month of December AD 1866. . . died... .
    J. M. Shernburgh, Atto., Gen.
    Witnesses: Julia Hankins, Sophia Hankins, Mat Hankins, Milly Hankins, sworn in open court and sent before the Grand Jury Jan. 16th 1867.
    -------------------------

Sources

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