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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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