September 27, 1956

Transcribed by Janette West Grimes

Gregory Reunion Held Recently

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The Gregory Home-Coming or Reunion was held on the second Sunday in September, in the home of G. E. Gregory, on the extreme upper end of Dry Fork, at the old Dock Gregory home place. It was the second annual gathering of this kind among the direct descendants of the Gregory just mentioned. Dock Gregory has been dead for a number of years, but he has a number of sons and daughters still living. A year ago the sons and daughters of W. C. Gregory, their children and grandchildren, and more distant related members of the family met at the old home to enjoy a "get-together" with the result it was decided to make it an annual affair. Dinner was brought in on Sept. 9th by many relatives and friends of the family, with nearly 100 persons in attendance. They came from as far away as Nashville and Sparta, Tenn. The editor of the Times enjoyed the hospitality of the gathering and the big dinner at the noon hour. It was agreed to meet on the second Sunday in next September at the same place.

Wylie Clemons Gregory, better known as Dock Gregory, was for many years a leading citizen of this county, a member of the County Court for a long term and also chairman of the County Court. He was the son of John Gregory, who was the son of Ambrose Gregory, who died near the foot of the Jemima Gregory Hill on the extreme upper part of Peyton's Creek, in 1827. Ambrose Gregory was the son of Bry Gregory and his wife, Elizabeth Gregory, two of the writer's own great-great-grandparents. Bry Gregory was the father of Betty Gregory, who married her first cousin, "Big Tom" Gregory, about 1815. They were the editor's great-grandparents. This unusual couple were the parents of four sons, Ambrose, James L., Gabriel and Bob or Robert Hawkins Gregory. They ["Big Tom" and Betty] were the parents of 10 daughters, Amanda, who married her first cousin, Guy Gregory; Kate, who married a Mitchell; Susan, commonly known as "Sookie," who married Calvin Beasley; Polly, who married Lincoln Shoulders; Tisha, who married a Beal; Lou, who married a Beal; Betty, married her third cousin, Dink Gregory; Betty’s twin, Sina, who married a brother to Dink Gregory, Stephen Calvin Gregory the writer's own grandfather and the man for hwom he was named; Sallie, or Sarah, who married Tom Gregory, a half-brother of Dink and Stephen Calvin; and Jane, who married first a Shoulders and later George Bennett.

Ambrose Gregory married first a Cleveland and later a Coons; James I., married Miss Alethia Oldham; Gabriel, died in the Mexican War and never married; and Bob Gregory, who married a distant cousin, Mary Gregory. Of the 14 sons and daughters of "Big Tom" and Betty, five of them married Gregorys. "Big Tom" Gregory's father was Thomas Gregory, who died about 1815. His wife, the former Miss Phoebe Hawkins, was related to the Governor Alvin Hawkins, who served as the Chief Executive of Tennessee from 1881 to 1883. Phoebe Hawkins Gregory is believed to have been the aunt of the Hawkins men, three in number, who settled about Friendship, in the present Trousdale County. Another Hawkins brother settled at the present Siloam in the west end of this county. Still another Hawkins brother settled at Red Boiling Springs.