BIOGRAPHY: McGregor, Alexander
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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    ALEXANDER  McGREGOR, the founder of the city which bears his name, was 
one of the early pioneers of the territory west of the Mississippi, and is 
remembered with interest by many of the "Old Settlers," and with esteem and 
even affection by a large circle of surviving friends. To perpetuate the 
memory of such men in the annals of the state is not only to gratify the 
wishes of many living contemporaries, who shared with him the hardships and 
privations of frontier life, but also to confer a blessing on posterity. 
    Alexander McGregor was a descendant of the old Scotch family of 
McGregors, his immediate ancestors having emigrated to the United States 
and settled at Wilton, Saratoga County, New York, where he was born May 
23rd, 1804.  Of his early life we have been able to gather little 
information, except that his education was of that meagre sort furnished by 
the common schools, such as they were at an early day in the country where 
his parents settled. But his native energies were such that he overcame in 
a great measure these disadvantages, in the school of experience and 
self-education. 
    He emigrated to Chicago in 1832, where he could have purchased at that 
time a future fortune for a mere trifle, had he foreseen what Chicago was 
destined to become.  But that was hidden from the most sagacious observer 
in the sunken, miry and unpromising aspect which the future great city 
presented.  Prairie du Chien was then attracting considerable attention, 
and to this point he removed in 1835.  During the following year he 
established a ferry from Prairie du Chien to the mouth of Coolie de Sioux, 
near the foot of Main street, McGregor, which, in consequence, soon became 
known as McGregor's Landing. 
    The boat which Mr. McGregor first used was an old fashioned river craft 
known as a flatboat, and was propelled by poles.  In the Spring of 1840 the 
United States Government commenced the building of Fort Aikinson, about 
fifty-five miles northwest on Turkey River, and established a military road 
from a point opposite Fort Crawford to Fort Atkinson.  As that road had to 
pass through the Coolie de Sioux, the present site of McGregor, it being 
the only accessible point for crossing the river and reaching the high 
table land to the west of it, the landing became a place of considerable 
importance.  Ground was leased by the Government, and a warehouse erected 
on the river bank at the foot of what is now Main Street.  Mr. McGregor 
having located his claim at this point.  The flatbed ferry established in 
1836 did not prove exceedingly remunerative, but when the Government 
commenced work on Fort Atkinson, business increased to such an extent that 
a horse ferry was established in 1841. 
    In 1847 Mr McGregor moved across the river with his family, and 
occupied a log cabin at the foot of Main Street.  This house, a Government 
store house on the opposite side of the street, and a few shanties on the 
river bank occupied by soldiers, were all the buildings on the site of the 
present city of McGregor at that time. 
    During the year 1856, (twenty years from the establishment of the first 
ferry), business had increased so considerably that Mr. McGregor found it 
necessary to exchange his horse ferry boat for one more powerful and rapid. 
Consequently a new steam boat of 300 tons burden was purchased at Cincinati 
for $12,000.  This boat was christened the "Alexander McGregor," and 
arrived here November 13th, 1856.  It was dedicated the following day by 
the citizens of McGregor and Prairie du Chien in an excursion to Clayton, 
twelve miles below on the Iowa side. 
    In 1853 and 1854, the demands of immigration increasing, he established 
also a ferry at the mouth of the Wisconsin River, crossing at a point about 
two miles below McGregor, where he built a road at his own expense. 
    It would be interesting as well as just to the memory of one so 
intimately identified with the history of this section of Iowa, to treat 
the eventful life of Mr. McGregor in greater detail, had we the data at our 
command; but little has been furnished us beyond what we have thus briefly 
recorded. 
    Mr. McGregor was married April 23, 1843, to Miss Ann G. Gardner of 
Saratoga County, New York.  By this marriage he had four children, namely, 
the following, in the order of birth: Chester, Gregor, Gardner and George, 
of whom Gregor and Gardner are living. 
    Gregor McGregor is engaged in business in the City of McGregor, and has 
server times been elected to the mayorality.  He was elected in 1870 and 
1871, and re-elected in 1874, holding the office at the present time. 
    Mr McGregor died at the age of fifty-four years and seven months, on 
the 12th of December, 1858.  His illness was long and painful, but he bore 
it with patient and heroic fortitude and "died as calmly as if going to 
sleep."  We can not do better, in closing this sketch, than to copy the 
following friendly tribute to his memory, written at the time of his 
decease by the lated editor of The North Iowa Times, Col. A.P. Richardson, 
who knew him intimately: 
    "Alexander McGregor was our friend, and it would afford us a melancholy 
gratification to detail the difficulties and privations he encountered in 
the early settlement of this country, and the energy and manliness with 
which he met the responsbilities of pioneer life; but we are not furnished 
with the data, and hence this notice can not be historical, though the 
subject of it eminently merits and invites a minute biographic article. 
Knowing our deceased friend to have been a man of unquestioned integrity, 
averse to the application or the reception of flatttery, we dare not insult 
his memory by the use of smooth terms of exclusive praise.  In the 
estimation of the world, and doubtless of himself, he was not faultless, 
but whatever errors of life may be remembered against him are properly 
attributed to a moral constitution that asked nothing but the right, and 
submitted to nothing that he regarded as wrong.  The compromise of interest 
with principle was unknown to a nature that deliberately took a position 
believed to be correct, and inflexibly maintained it. 
 
    "Many men are said to have died unregretted; their conduct has been 
such that no eye, moistened with the tear of sorrow, looked upon the last 
sad office that frail humanity could render; no interest except that caused 
by the remembrance of their wrongs awakened in the heart of the multitude. 
Not in here--- the inhabitants of the town will long regret his early 
decease; the friends and neighbors of many years will mourn the loss of a 
true friend, while anguish immeasurable will possess the hearts of his 
revered partner and her orphan boys.  When the gentle voice and the 
eloquent eye of the departed one present themselves to the keenly searching 
eye and ear of memory. 
    "Alexander McGregor was a warm friend, an open foe, a kind husband, an 
indulgent father, a law abiding citizen, and an honest man.  His sickness 
was borne and death met with a fortitude unexcelled in the records of 
earth's greatest heroes." 
    His funeral was the most imposing tribute of regard on the part of the 
citizens ever paid to a deceased fellow citizen in this part of the state. 
The cortage was half a mile in length, numbering from fifty to seventy-five 
teams, and carrying nearly a thousand people."  The (???) and business 
houses were closed and draped in mourning, and a general sadness was 
exhibited by all.