Alameda
County
Biographies
HENRY C. GREGORY
An honored representative of the
early pioneers of California, Henry C. Gregory, of Centerville, is a true type
of the energetic, hardy, and enterprising men who have actively assisted in
developing the mercantile, industrial and business resources of Alameda county. In his career he has had a varied experience,
meeting with exceeding prosperity or with heavy losses, sometimes possessing
great wealth and at other times being left with little means, but whatever his
fortune never becoming unduly elated or at all discouraged. A son of Lewis B.
Gregory, he was born October 13, 1839, in Montgomery county,
N. Y. He is the descendant of an old family of that state, his paternal
grandfather, Josiah Gregory, having spent his entire life in the vicinity of
Albany.
A native of
Rensselaer county, N. Y., Lewis B. Gregory was reared to agricultural
pursuits, and in his earlier life was employed in farming and lumbering in
Sullivan county. Removing to that county with his family about 1850, he settled
in Callicoon, buying land on the Delaware river, and was there engaged in agricultural and mercantile
pursuit for many years. Coming to California in 1874, he has since been a
resident of Centerville, this state, and is now a hale and hearty man of ninety
years. Patriotic and public-spirited, he rendered his country noteworthy
service during the Civil war by expending $20,000 in raising a regiment, which
he took to Washington.
After leaving the public schools,
Henry C. Gregory attended the academy at Hamilton, N. Y., for a couple of
years, and at the age of sixteen began teaching school in Sullivan county,
receiving $12 per month, and “boarding around.” He was very successful in his
professional career, winning an excellent reputation both as an instructor and
a disciplinarian, at one time being in charge of a particularly hard school for
six months, and having no trouble at all in its management. Subsequently taking
possession of the store given him by his father, Mr. Gregory was engaged in
business as a general merchant in Callicoon until
1859, when he left his business in charge of his father, who later sold it out,
and started for California, arriving in San Francisco in that year. Bringing
with him as an investment several hives of bees, he soon sold them at a good
price and then went to Solano county, where he took up government land and
embarked in lumber dealing on an extensive scale, buying a large quantity of
lumber and posts, which were unfortunately swept away by a flood, leaving him
financially stranded.
Coming to Centerville in the fall of
1861, Mr. Gregory began clerking in a general store, and also taught telegraphy
to an agent here, although his only knowledge of the subject was self-acquired.
He was afterward engaged as a telegrapher at Lake Tahoe for two years, from
there going to Big Creek, here in eight months he lost all of his money in
mining operations. The following winter, with two partners, he was engaged in
mining in Ione, Nye county, Nev., after which he
returned to Big Creek where he was telegraph operator and express agent for
about four months, when the camp became almost depopulated and he was literally
starved out. Locating then on the John Day river, in Oregon, Mr. Gregory was
there prosperously engaged in mining and merchandising for two years. Going
thence to San Francisco, he worked as a clerk in a tobacco store for two years,
receiving $250 and found (sic) per month, and when he left his employer offered
him $350 per month if he would remain, but he declined the offer. In January,
1869, Mr. Gregory returned to Centerville, and purchasing the store of C. J.
Stevens carried on an extensive and lucrative business as a general merchant
for fifteen years, when he old out, having $100,000 in his possession. Of this
sum he subsequently lost $64,000 in one year, by speculating in stocks. The
following year he went to Eldorado (sic) county and lost $9,000 in mining and
then returned to Alameda county and engaged in buying
grain, losing about $10,000 that year. While in the store, he built the Gregory
House and the livery stable connected with it, and has since had the management
of the same at different times, ten or twelve years in all, whenever he was
without a good tenant, and has proved a most popular host. The hotel is now
rented, and he is living practically retired from active pursuits.
Mr. Gregory married first, in1868,
in Sunol, Mary Scott, who was born in Illinois and came to California with her
parents when a child of five years. She died June 20, 1874, and their only
child, Mary E., who married George P. Hauch, of
Pittsburg, Pa., died March 12, 1901, leaving four children, Ernest, Henry,
Gracie and George P., Jr., who are living with Mr. Gregory. Mr. Gregory married
second Mary A. Smith, a native of Canada, and they are the parents of two
children, namely: Amy, the wife of Oliver Blanchard, of San Jose, and George L.
Politically Mr. Gregory is a faithful adherent of the Republican party, and is an ex-member of the county central committee.
Fraternally he is a member of Alameda Lodge No. 167, F. & A. M., having
united with the order in Oregon, in 1864.
Transcribed
by: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Pages 1106-1107. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.
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