August 16, 1956

This Article Appeared In The Times

But Was Not Actually Titled Cal’s Column

Transcribed by Janette West Grimes

Gregory Reunion Is Set For Sunday

The reunion of the Gregory family, particularly the descendants of Bry and William H. Gregory, brothers who fought in the Revolutionary War with their father, Thomas Gregory, has been set for the coming Sunday, August 19th, at Piper's Memorial Baptist church located at Portland, Sumner County, Tenn. A program has been planned and it is hoped that a large number of the descendants of these two brothers will attend. There is also a general invitation to all others of the same name and to the general public to attend. It is requested that all bring lunch and spend the day in "reminiscing" and in learning something of the history of the family which originated in Scotland between the year 800 and the year 850. They were originally McGregors, but the change was made to Gregory in the year 1332 as a safety measure in seeking to lose their identity because the king of Scotland had "outlawed" the McGregor chieftains and had placed a price on their heads. Quite a lot of the McGregor chieftains were hunted down with blood hounds and then put to death.

The editor of the Times is Calvin Gregory, the son of Thomas M. Gregory, commonly called "Dopher" Gregory, the son of Steven Calvin Gregory, born Oct. 30, 1827; the son of Major Gregory, the son of Jeremiah Gregory, the son of John Gregory, who married Miss Judy Morgan about 1750. The first Gregory to arrive in America, according to our records, was Richard Gregory, who arrived at Jamestown in 1619.

There have been both "good and bad" Gregorys and we have no apology to offer for the "bad apples" in the barrel. We do not believe that there is a family, whose record runs back over one thousand years that does not have some "black sheep" in it. Moreover, we of the present generation are not responsible for the conduct, either good or bad, of those who went before us. Let us all do the best we can and then we are sure to make some blunders.

We hope that hundreds of members of the Gregory and related "clans" will be at Portland on the coming Sunday.