GREGORY, Mark
Mark GREGORY. One of the active, prominent
and enterprising citizens of
Marshall
county, is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, who is at
present engaged in agricultural pursuits on section 8, Henry
township. He made his first appearance on the stage of life
beneath the roof of his parents. Harrison and Mary (SIVERS)
GREGORY, in Ashtabula county, Ohio, March 24, 1835. The
father was born in the same county in 1813, and when our subject
was two years of age took his family to Auglaize county, Ohio, where he remained for six years. He
then drove across the country to Illinois,
and in 18143 located upon a farm in Kickapoo township,
Peoria
county, twelve miles west of the city of
Peoria, for which he went in debt. After
spending ten years in the improvement and cultivation of that
place he removed to the village of Henry,
where the following three years were passed. He next settled in
Whitefield township, six miles west of Henry, where he purchased
one hundred and sixty acres and there spent his last years.
Being in ill health he started for California, but was taken worse while en route, and died
four weeks after his arrival in
Los Angeles, October 2, 1882, at the age
of sixty-nine year. His wife, who was also a native of
Ohio, had passed away two years
previous.
The parental household included ten
children, seven of whom grew to maturity, and six are now
living. Mark, of this review, is the only one now living in Marshall county. Ransom makes his home in Pierre, South
Dakota. Harry is in the dry goods
business at Gibson City,
Illinois. Martha is the widow of Frank
SKINKLE, of York,
Nebraska. Fanny is the wife of
Cyrus HUTCHINS, of the same place. Laura is the wife of Charles
JENKINS, who is engaged in railroad work at
Coolidge,
New Mexico.
Mark GREGORY remained at home with his
father until attaining the age of twenty-three years, when he
began farming in Whitefield township,
Marshall
county, renting land for four years. In 1863 he purchased his
present place, paying twenty-five dollars per acre. It is
pleasantly located two miles northwest of Henry, and contains
one hundred and sixty acres of valuable land, which he has
placed under a high state of cultivation and improved with a
good dwelling and substantial barns and outbuildings. He was
soon able to pay for his farm and is now successfully engaged in
general farming and the raising of heavy draft horses.
On the 1st of January, 1860, Mr. GREGORY
wedded Miss Jane LEE, of Henry, who was born in Chittenden
county, Vermont, and was ten years old when brought by her
parents, Harry and Sophia (CHAPMAN) LEE, to Illinois. They were early settlers of Henry
township, Marshall
county, locating upon a farm near where our subject now resides
in 1850 and there spent their remaining days. Mrs. GREGORY died
in 1865, leaving one son, Charles, who became a farmer of
Nebraska, but on his return to
Marshall
county, was accidentally killed at Henry, at the age of
twenty-three years. On the 25th of June, 1866, Mr. GREGORY was
again married, his second union being with Miss Eleanor U.
GOODRICH, a relative of his first wife, and also a native of
Vermont, where their marriage was
celebrated. In politics Mr. GREGORY is a firm supporter of the
men and measures of the republican party, and in all respects
has deported himself as an honest man and good citizen.
Extracted March 2011 by Norma Hass from
The Biographical Record of Bureau, Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois,
1896.
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