Nathan and Thomas Gregg

File contributed to Ohio Biographies Project by:
Linda Isenbarg
22 September 2000

History of Ross and Highland Counties Ohio
Biographical Sketches
Page 212
Williams Bros., Publishers
W. W. Williams, Printer, Cleveland, Ohio
1880

NATHAN and THOMAS GREGG

Among the earliest, if not themselves the first, of the pioneer merchants of Chillicothe, must be ranked the brothers whose names are at the head of this brief sketch. Scarcely yet arrived at manhood, yet developed in energy and physical endurance by the vicissitudes of frontier life, they had asked and obtained their good mother's blessing, who prayed the "God of Jacob to bless her lads and keep them through dangers seen and unseen," and with stout hearts had left Fort DuQuesne (now Pittsburgh) to seek Massie's settlement on the Scioto.

A bright autumnal sky, we are told, welcomed them to this spot near the old Shawnee town of Chillicothe, in the Northwestern Territory. We love to linger with our young adventurers in that bright morning sunshine. The keel-boat in which they had decended the upper Ohio, was moored on the western bank of the Scioto, a little above the old Mulberry ford, and the young strangers proceed to visit the hamlet, of whose existence they had been apprised by the smoke that so gracefully curled above the majestic forest trees; and not by the rush of wheels, the lurid fires of the forge, or the spires of churches lifted into the golden sunbeams. The sunbeams were not more golden than were their dreams, and happily the future reveals, none of her secrets.

A short tour among the cabins, for the first frame house had not then been built, sufficed to perfect their business arrangements, and their stock of goods, which, doubtless, had been carefully selected for the market, was removed to a small building on Water street. Here they announced that they were ready and willing to traffic and trade with the Shawnese and others, citizens of the town and country, to whom they offer good bargains, quite in the style of the moderns.

They "desire especially to exchange goods for furs, peltry, &c."

A prosperous trade soon followed, and in a year or two they were enabled to enlarge their business by adding the purchase and sale of real estate; town lots being at first a specialty. From records in the county offices, it appears that in 1801, Thomas Gregg deeds to Peter Heath, "lot one hundred and thirty-one, in Chillicothe, for the consideration of two hundred and fifty dollars, in current money of Kentucky." There is a little ambiquity as to the meaning of "current money of Kentucky. The author of the Register sketches, suggests that silver and gold may be intended; but it is generally believed that these commodities were current, even then, outside the boundaries of Kentucky. Soon after, says the same writer, the discovery seems to have been made that Chillicothe lay within the bounds of the United States; as, in another sale in the autumn of the same year, to Paul & McDonald, of Hamilton county, the stipulated price was to be paid "in the lawful money of the United States."

About this time (but the exact date is not given) the brothers removed into a large frame building on the opposite side of Water street. The example of Thomas Worthington had, it is evident, been contagious, and the first two-story frame, built by him in 1797, was no longer a nine days' wonder. This building, occupied by the Gregg brothers, stood until 1852, when it was burned in the great fire of that year.

In this improved location, when everything seemed auspicious, this harmonious and prosperous partnership was dissolved by the death of the younger brother, Thomas Gregg, in 1805.

Nathan and an older brother, Robert, who had joined them the second year after their arrival in Chillicothe, continued the business, Nathan being the sole executor, "without bond or surety," of his brother Thomas' estate.

Of the first years that followed this new partnership, nothing of special interest is recorded, if we except the fact that under the ministrations of that really great and good man, Rev. Robert G. Wilson, Mr. Nathan Gregg united with the Presbyterian church. Successes and losses alternated; his open, confiding disposition betraying him sometimes into the snares of the practiced sharper. That he was not impoverished by these reverses, appears from a gift made by him of the lot known as the Presbyterian graveyard.

This donation was made to the Rev. Robert G. Wilson, Moses McClain, Hugh Cochran, Samuel Finley, Adam Turner, and Joseph Miller, Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church in Chillicothe.

In the words of the deed, "The said Nathan Gregg, as well to evidence his love to God and the promotion of the cause of Christ Jesus generally, as for the advancement of the interest of said congregation particularly, and from no other cause him thereunto moving, hath granted, bargained, and by gift enfeoffed and confirmed this donation to the inhabitants of Chillicothe."

Thus it is seen that the old graveyard is so deeded that it cannot be alienated from the purpose for which it was conveyed and given. But should the interest of the city ever demand its abandonment, the law provides a practical solution of all difficulties.

On the 25th of June, 1811, Nathan Gregg was married to Miss Hannah Davis, the Rev. James Davisson being the officiating clergyman. The simple inscription upon the tombstone which serves for the graves of both, tells the mournful story of his short-lived domestic happiness; "Hannah, wife of Nathan Gregg, died 1812, aged twenty-eight years." The records of his business transactions still existing, show that from this time his only wish seems to have been to disentangle himself from business complications, under the impression that he should soon join the beloved wife so suddenly taken from him.

In 1815 he was induced, in compliance with the urgent persuasion of friends, perhaps, to turn his mind from the contemplation of his bereavement, to become a candidate for the State legislature. One old friend and neighbor, John McCoy would fain have dissuaded him from entering the tumultuous arena, but other counsels prevailed, the venture was made and lost. There is no reason to believe that the result was felt as a shock. Rather is it probable that the evidence of confidence on the part of those who supported him was a source of consolation which far outweighed the loss of an honor he hardly coveted. A tombstone near his own shows that the aged father's last days must have been passed with his sons in Chillicothe, though the pious mother whose hands were laid in blessing upon the heads of her departing sons, did not live to see the prosperity which we may reverently believe was given in answer to her prayer for her "lads."

A strange anachronism exists between the records in the probate office and the inscription on the head-stone which marks his last resting place in that city of the dead which he himself had founded. The court records, signed by Isaac Cook, state that in the April term, 1816, Dayton M. Curtis, having given the requisite bond, was appointed administrator of the estate of Nathan Gregg, deceased. The inscription gives the date of his death as occurring in 1817. The court record may be an error: but it is more probable that the tombstone, not having been erected immediately after the death of Mr. Gregg, has the wrong date, and that he departed this life in 1816.

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