THOMAS GREGORY, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by: Gaytha Carver Thompson
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890



**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
 

THOMAS GREGORY

Thomas Gregory, general merchant, Provencal, La.  Mr. Gregory is one of the
influential citizens of Provencal.  He comes of a long line of Virginian
ancestors, his father, Richard C. Gregory, and his grandfather, also Richard
C. Gregory, where both natives of the Old Dominion.  The father was born in
Lunenburg County and was married in about 1835 to Miss Martha Hamlin, a native
of Nottoway County, Va.  Her father, John Hamlin, was a native of Virginia.
Mrs. R. C. Gregory is the sister of the late Dr. Charles Hamlin, of
Natchitoches, La.  The Gregorys were originally from England and the Hamlins
from Wales.  Of the nine children born to Richard C. and Martha (Hamlin)
Gregory, four sons and three daughters are now living.  The names of the
children in the order of their births are as follows: Mary, Octavia, Thomas,
Agnes, Richard W., Charles, William S., Mattie and Plummer.  Those deceased
are Mary and Charles.  The parents of these children are aged respectively
eighty and seventy six years ,and both are still living, residing in Lunenburg
County, Va.

Thomas Gregory was born in Lunenburg County, Va., May 3, 1842, was reared in
Lunenburg and Nottoway Counties, and from the age of seven to nineteen years
he attended the best schools and academies of those counties.  He prepared
himself for the University of Virginia, which he intended to enter, but by the
time he was fully prepared the Civil War had broken out and he threw aside his
books, resigned his hopes for a collegiate education and entered the service
of the confederate army, enlisting in Company G, Eighteenth Virginia Regiment,
Gen Pickett's brigade, of the celebrated Pickett's division A. N. Va., known
as the Nottoway Grays, in 1861.  Out of the 105 men which composed his company
but one escaped being either killed or wounded.  Mr. Gregory served in the
first battle of Manassas, battle of Gaines' Mill, Frazier's Farm, Seven Pines,
the second battle of Manassas, and the battle of South Mountain or Boonsboro,
Md., the last being on September 14, 1862.  There he was severely wounded, and
upon recovering he was transferred to the commissary department, in which he
served at Blackstone, Va., until the end of the war.

He then returned home and gave his attention to farming, although during a
portion of the time was connected with the sheriff's office of Lunenburg
County.  In 1870, he removed to Yazoo County, Miss., where he resided until
1880, being engaged as a school teacher, bookkeeper, and as the partner of
Col. R. M. Johnson, in mercantile pursuits.  In 1880 he came to Louisianan and
located in the parish of Natchitoches.  In 1881 he formed a partnership with
J. H. Stephens, in merchandising at Provencal, and the firm continued for nine
years or until December 31, 1889.  They founded the town of Provencal, and so
long as they were in business there they were its principal merchants.  In
politics he is a Democrat, and is one of the prominent men of Provencal,
having the respect and confidence of all.