Introduction
John Gregg and Jane Miller are my paternal great-great grandparents. They were both born in Ohio in 1804, the year after this slice of the Northwest Territory entered the Union as the 17th state. Available records tell nothing of their origins, childhood or their early adult years. Their marriage was recorded in the courthouse of Fountain county, Indiana, on 10 Jan 1828. They next turned up in 1834 near Big Woods in Illinois -- then a large tract of timbered land about 10 miles long and 4 to 5 miles wide east of the Fox river --with a boy and three girls in tow.
In 1836 Kane County was formed from a 36 square mile slice of the northern end of La Salle county, including Big Woods. . Kane's population of twelve to fifteen hundred rapidly increased.
Big Woods in time became a part of Batavia, founded in 1835, one of a cluster of still bucolic communities strung along the Fox and within the western penumbra of Chicago. Batavia is home to Fermilab, the nation's premiere national laboratory for the study of particle physics. But in 1834 the Black Hawk Indian war had been fought only two years earlier, although there is no record of Illinois' most famous Black Hawk militiaman, Abraham Lincoln, having marched about in Big Woods. After a series of desultory skirmishes, in which cholera was the victor, the disputed valley was safe enough for settlers.
John became the first blacksmith in the region. They had seven more children, including two daughters whose names are so far lost to history, and one son whose life was lived in the shadows. They acquired land, helped found what became the Batavia Congregational Church and were otherwise active in the community. John died in 1860 and Jane after 1870. John may be buried in the East Batavia cemetery along with 17 of their descendants, while Jane is probably interred near Plymouth, Indiana.
John’s death in 1860 precipitated the loss of the family homestead to creditors. These destabilizing events plus the civil war forever changed the trajectory of this pioneering family. At least three members fought for the union. One son was partially disabled and one son-in-law was killed in battle.. The extended family scattered – a not unusual pattern in our restless nation.
The First Family
The known vital statistics (birth, marriage, death) of the named children of John and Jane Gregg are:
Sarah J. Gregg. born, Indiana, 1828-1829. Married Clinton Bates, 24 Jan 1849, Kane county, Illinois.
Dorcas Gregg: born, Indiana, 1830.
William M. Gregg: born, Indiana, 29 May 1832. Married Phoebe E. Lumm, 9 Jun 1860, Kane. Died 29 Sep 1873, Batavia.
Elizabeth A. Gregg: born, Indiana, 1833. Married Benjamin Boorman (Borman), 5 Oct 1859, Kane.
Harriet Gregg: born, Batavia, 1835. Married Clement G. Bradley, 12 Jan 1859, Kane.
George Whitfield Gregg: born, Batavia, 7 Aug 1837. Married Adelaide (Addie) Minium, 22 Feb 1871, Batavia. Died 24 Feb 1917, Batavia.
Henry J. Gregg. born, Batavia, probably 1841.
Charles S. Gregg: born, Batavia, probably 1843.
John H. Gregg: born, probably Batavia, date unknown.
John and Jane Before Illinois
What can you say when next to nothing is known? Well from what you do know you can conjecture, hypothesize, and otherwise make things up, and then try to prove them.
What do we know? That in the 1850 census. which provides the most complete family snapshot, the couple said they both were born in Ohio and were now age 46. That Fountain County, Indiana, recorded their marriage, 10 Jan 1828, by handwritten record. It says they were residents of the county, "of lawful age," received their license on 4 Jan 1828 and were married within the week.
That the 1830 census has a John Gregg, age 20 to 29, residing in Fountain county, Indiana, with a female child under the age of five (Sarah?), another female child, 15 to 20, and a female, 20 to 29 (Jane Gregg).
That in 1800 Ohio counted 45,363 settlers scattered over 44,828 square miles. The territory was growing rapidly enough that Congress said it could begin the process of becoming a state because it would soon meet the Northwest Ordinance's threshold of 60,000 people. That in 1810 Ohio had 230 thousand inhabitants, and over twice that many by 1820, reason enough for a true pioneer to move on to Indiana.
That a history of Fountain County, Indiana (Beckwith, 1881), records that on 3 Dec 1827 “members and adherents of the Presbyterian church met at the house of William Miller. . . The following persons then presented certificates of membership from other churches: . . . Mrs Jane Miller, Miss Jane Miller, Dorcas Brier . . . and . . . were organized into a church.”
That after John's death in 1860 Jane and three children moved to near Plymouth in Marshall county, Indiana. That one of those children, my great grandfather, George Whitfield Gregg, lived there for a time after the civil war and that my grandfather, William Houston Gregg, was born there in 1871.
What can we conjecture? That most of the 1804 Ohio settlers were recently from elsewhere. That they probably arrived in small groups and settled near other small groups, surrounded by their farms and on or near potable and navigable waters. That they had familial and/or religious ties to those they journeyed with and/or decided to settle near.
Unfortunately the Miss Jane Miller mentioned above most certainly married someone other than a John Gregg. However, Mrs. Jane Miller could be a widow at 23 and this Presbyterian church the one that Thompson Paxton and John Gregg left when they moved to Big Woods, Illinois, and helped found a like church there (see below). Not proven, of course, but provocative enough to drive future research.
Tracing John and Jane In Illinois
1834. “John Gregg, the first blacksmith in the township settled on what is now known as the Griffith place, east of the village, early in the spring of 1834. His services were in great demand, as he was an excellent workman, and the prairie breakers used to come to his shop from Rockford [Illinois] – a journey which required a week to perform and return – to get their plows repaired.”. From the “Past and Present of Kane County, Illinois,” Chicago, William LeBaron, Jr:, and Co:
“ John Gregg, a blacksmith, an absolute necessity in frontier life, set up his shop two miles east of the river that spring. The shop consisted of an anvil on a stump and a bellows mounted in an open shed.” From “John Gustafson’s Historic Batavia,” p 11, by Marilyn Robinson and Jeffery D. Schielke.
1835. Excerpts from “A History of the Congregational Church of Batavia, Illinois, 1835 – 1985:”
“ . . .on Saturday, the 8th of August, 1835, five families met together to take the first steps for the organization of a Christian church [in] . . . the log cabin of Thompson Paxton. . . [The Paxton]
family came from Tennessee, fugitives from slavery, driven away from their native home by [their] intolerance of that institution. Mr Paxton . . . was compelled to silence his convictions, or find refuge in a state with free institutions, and this brought him first to Indiana, and, . . . in 1833, to his home. . . east of Big Woods.
“Another family, John Gregg and wife [Jane], was [also] from Indiana, from the same church
with the Paxtons. He was a blacksmith, and had his cabin and shop two miles east of the river.“
Both the Paxtons and the Greggs were among those named as the new church’s first elders.
1842. When Cornelius B. and Hanna Conde came to Batavia from New York he set up the first blacksmith shop in the village of Batavia at N. River St and formed a partnership with John Gregg, who is credited with being the first blacksmith in Big Woods.
“The election of August, 1842, was for state and county officers . . . Geneva and Batavia (Sandusky) had three votes for the abolitionists . . . [including] John Gregg.” From Marilyn Robinson’s “Batavia Places and the People Who Called Them Home.”
1847. In April John Gregg filed suit against Warren and Mary Spear in the Kane county circuit court: Case No, 1325, Box 9, Type, “CONVE.” A guess is that defendants allegedly failed to do what they said the would, probably involving the conveyance of property.
1848. The first Kane county tax list for personal property (not real estate) included John Gregg who was assessed at $520, probably on the value of his smithy.
1850. John Gregg was elected Overseer of the Poor of Batavia in the first annual town meeting for Batavia Township.
The Federal Census found John and Jane Gregg living on a property valued at $1,000 with all of their named children listed above except for John H. Gregg. Also enumerated with the family was Cornelius T. Healy, 34, born in Ireland and described as a pauper.
1853. A John Gregg, residence unknown, purchased 40 acres of federal land for $50 in Rock Island county on the third of March according to the “Illinois public Domain Land Tract Database” of the Illinois State Archives. Three John Greggs lived in three different Illinois counties in 1840, none in Rock Island, per the Illinois Census, 1810 to 1890.
1857. The city directory lists John Gregg as a lime burner at the corner of River and Spring streets, Batavia. Burning lime at a sufficiently high temperature creates a power which is the chief component of plaster for the building industry. Lime kilns were used to burn the lime rock.
In May John Gregg filed suit against Joel and George B. Moss in the Kane county circuit court: Case No. 6847, Box 50, for trespassing.
1860. A petition to the Kane County court, Daniel Eastman, Judge, by John Gregg’s eldest son, William M. Gregg, dated 17 April, 1860, “respectfully represents that John Gregg . . . died at Batavia . . . on or about the 12th day of March, 1860, leaving property and effects in this county and leaving no last will and testament, as far as known to and believed by this petitioner, and leaving personal property to the amount of about six hundred dollars. . . Your petitioner, being son of said deceased, and Jane Gregg, [his] widow, having filed her relinquishment therefore prays that Letters of Administration [of] the said estate of John Gregg, deceased, may be granted. . .”
Jane Alone
After John’s death in 1860 the census taker that year found Jane, age 57, still in Batavia making a home for George, 23; Henry, 19, and Charles, 18. Also in the household was her orphaned grandson John Bates, 7, and Hanna Cooper, 16, a domestic.
By 1865 she had moved to Burlington, today a rural village and township within Kane county, per the Illinois State Census of that interim year. That record is silent on who else might be in residence. She probably moved because eldest son William was successful in persuading the county court to allow him to sell the family property to discharge John’s debts (see below).
By 1870 Jane, 68, was living near Plymouth, Indiana, in Center township, Marshall county. Still with her were George, 32; Charles, 27, and John Bates, 17. Next door was her daughter, Harriet Bradley, with her two sons, Charles, 10, and Edward, 8. Nothing further is known for sure of Jane's life and death.
Chasing The Children . . . and Their Children
Sarah J(ane?) Gregg. Some time after their 1849 marriage in Kane Clinton and Sarah Bates settled in Milton, Du Page, Illinois, east of Kane. Two daughters, Abbie and Ellen, died in 1853 at age 3, and 1851 at age 1, respectively, and are buried in East Batavia cemetery.
In the 1850 census Sarah and "D. C." Bates, ages 21 and 33 respectively, were living on a Du Page farm valued at $300 with Abbie, 3 months old. A son, John G(regg?) Bates, was born in 1853.
By 1860's census John Bates, 7, was residing with Jane Gregg and three of her sons in Batavia. Sarah was dead, perhaps in childbirth. She was listed as deceased in the court petition cited above. Clinton Bate’s whereabouts and fate are unknown as of then.
John was reported to be in Montana in 1907 by Marilyn Robinson, who also asserted in notes on file at the Batavia Historical Society that both Sarah and Clinton Bates were departed by that time. The 1920 federal census shows a John G. Bates, 66, born in Illinois, residing in a rental house in Bridger, Carbon county, Montana, with wife Harriet P. Bates, 53.
A third person named Bates, given name illegible, is buried next to the two girls in East Batavia. The headstone bears no decipherable date of death and so could be either parent or another child.
Dorcas Gregg. Named at age 20 in the 1850 federal census and found by deduction in the 1840 census, Dorcas vanishes from history except for that one faint clue about the origin of her given name.
William M. Gregg. The eldest son was also a blacksmith in Batavia, presumably with his father. When John died leaving no will, William became his executor (see above) and further petitioned the Kane county court in June of 1861 to sell approximately 5 acres of county land, “part of the east half of the south east quarter of section twenty six (26) township thirty nine (39), range eight (8) bounded as follows . . .” by adjacent parcels, in order to satisfy claims against his father’s estate.
William and Pheobe both evaded the census taker in 1860, the year they married. In 1870 he got even by misspelling their name as Grigg and recording suspect numbers for their ages. They were in Batavia with William, age 5 months. Conflicting East Batavia cemetery records show somewhat ambiguously that Frances (Frankie) Gregg is buried near William and Phebe and next to an unknown Gregg.
In the 1880 census Phebe is living only with Jennie Gregg, age 8, and both Williams are absent. The son is presumably the unknown buried Gregg; William senior’s headstone records his date of death cited above. Still in Batavia, Pheobe’s occupation is listed as milliner. Nothing further is known of Pheobe until her death and burial in Batavia in 1899. She did not remarry in Illinois per the state marriage index.
On 8 Aug 1907 a Jeanette Gregg married Henry Herbert Ratcliff. Seven years earlier the 1900 census found a Henry H. Ratcliff, 33, a single man, in Columbiana, Ohio, and Jennie Gregg, 28, in Batavia living with Sarah F. Lemon, 52. Both Jennie and Henry are mentioned in a quit claim suit filed 19 Dec 1907, by John Griffiths against about half of Batavia, including eleven descendants of John and Jane and their families, to obtain quiet title to parts of four sections of land. The suit also mentions in proximity to the Greggs one Jennie Trenner and Unknown Trenner.
However, a Jennie Gregg is listed in land records in Bourbon Township, Marshall County, Indiana in 1908 (SEC 15, TPN 34, RE 1).
Elizabeth A. Gregg. In 1870 Benjamin and Elizabeth Borman, with one “o”, are recorded as living in Juneau, WI, with William, 9, and Jane, 8. Benjamin, born in England, is 39 and Elizabeth, born in Indiana, is “abt” 36. Both children were born in Wisconsin.. A Winnie Boardman (sic) is termed a non-resident in the long list of these cited in the 1907 quit claim suit grouped with others of the Gregg clan.
Harriet Gregg. Clement enlisted in the 89th Illinois Infantry on 25 August 1862. He died in battle on 19 September 1863 at Chickamauga, GA. On 13 February 1865 Harriet applied for a widow’s pension. She applied again 13 October 1873. Her younger brother, Charles S. Gregg, is listed on the government’s record of her applications as her guardian. Her sons, Charles and Edward Bradley, are listed non-residents in the quit claim suit.
Harriet appears in the 1870 federal census living next door to mother Jane in Center township, Marshall county, Indiana, with Charles, 10, and Edward, 8. A list of Marshall County guardian ships designates her (and her two children!) as guardian of John H. Gregg, the mystery child and her brother, as of 10 October 1873
George Whitfield Gregg. See the chapter, The Paternal Line And Civil War
Henry J. Gregg. By the 1860 census dated 24 July young Henry was still at home working as a cooper, or barrel maker. He escapes mention in the defendant list of the 4 June 1861 petition to sell the family homestead to settle John’s estate, but is listed in a June 1863 civil war draft registration as of age 22, unmarried and still a cooper. His brothers Charles and William registered with him: the three names are grouped together.
Charles S. Gregg. In 1860 the youngest, son was also still at home and also a cooper. During 1864 and 1865 he was in the Union army, 141st Illinois Infantry, as a 2nd Lieutenant. In 1870 he is at home with Mom near Plymouth, Indiana, where he owns land worth $2,000. There Charles signed as a witness to brother George W. Gregg’s petition for a civil war pension dated 27 July 1871, and vanishes thereafter.
John H. Gregg. John even more than the others is a mystery. He was never named with the family by census workers. He first surfaces as a defendant with Jane and the other children in the 1861 petition of William M. Gregg, his presumed brother, to administer their late father’s estate. The petition lists Jason Chapel as his guardian ad litem. He also surfaces in Marshall county, Indiana, in 1873, with his sister, Harriet, named as his guardian.
The Paternal Line And Civil War
When George Whitfield Gregg and Adelaide (Addie) Minium (often misspelled with two “m.s”) married on 22 Feb 1871 (Rev William H Gloss officiating) it was the last of a series of pivotal events in his life that did not seem disposed to allow him this day, and their offspring and subsequent generations (including the writer) their days in turn. The death of George's father and the sale of the family home and acreage in 1860 have already been described. On their heels came civil war.
George enlisted in the 124th Illinois Infantry on 6 Aug 1862 at Camp Baker, near Springfield for a three year term. The 124th was mustered out at Vicksburg on 28 July 1865 and discharged at Camp Douglas, Chicago, on 15 Aug 1865. Famed as the “Excelsior Regiment” of the storied Third Division, the unit was front and center at most of the famous battles of the western front: Vicksburg, Mobile, Spanish Fort. Wrote Union General M. D. Leggett: “It may be truthfully said of them, they were never driven from a position, and never attempted to take a position and failed.”
It was at the siege of Spanish Fort that George was hit by the musket ball that never again left his body. Five years later his pension application described his wound and its aftermath as follows: “. . . . That while . . . in the line of his duty he received the following wound, at Fort Spanish (sic), in the state of Alabama on the 28th day of March 1865 while skirmishing with his company . . . he was shot by a musket ball . . . entering about center of the inside of his right leg about six inches below the thigh joint striking the thigh bone and glanc[ing] inwardly and upward the said thigh bone lodging at the joint and in the rear of said thigh bone, and . . . he has never been able to have said ball extracted and [it] causes a continuous pain which prevents him from walking long at a time . . . and he can not . . . sit square down on the side of his bottom on which he was wounded.” George’s pension was approved for $30 a month and remained at that sum for the balance of his life.
Grievous and annoying as his injury obviously was, had that bullet glanced outwardly and upwardly Addie might have had good reason not to accept his proposal of marriage, and the potential for life to extend itself down the generations to this writer and beyond abruptly terminated by great grandpa’s close call with a musket ball.
Batavia’s war touched about 288 men, including 80 who went with George and the 124th Illinois Infantry regiment. Another 55 marched with George’s brother, Charles, in the 141st Infantry, which was formed late in the war for a 100 day enlistment that extended at least three months beyond that term. Clement Bradley was one of two Batavia men in the 89th Infantry, which filled its ranks mostly from Aurora when recruiting in Kane county.
When and how George proposed to Addie is unknown, but known facts and events continue to conspire to make it a highly improbable event that (happily) happened anyway. The first fact is the difference in their ages. While they likely knew of each other – Miniums were as thick on the ground as Greggs in that small community --, Addie was 16 and George, 25, when he enlisted and left for the civil war. Unmarried at 19 when he returned, she improbably stayed that way for nearly six more fallow years.
During those years George was likely living with his mother and other siblings, first in Burlington, Kane, then near Plymouth, Indiana, where he applied for his disability pension on 27 Jul 1871. Still he and Abbie found both each other and the time to wed. before he applied. They tied the knot 22 Feb 1871 in Batavia, one day after they got the license.
The couple’s first child, my grandfather, William Houston Gregg, was born in Nov 1871, in Plymouth, Indiana, suggesting that they were living either near or with Jane. Daughter Ruth Nellie Gregg was born 30 Sep 1878 in Batavia, however, putting George and Addie back home – to stay -- some time before that date. Jane’s death likely came some time roughly within the time span between the births of her grandchildren.
Addie no doubt was glad to get back. Adelaide Minium was the oldest daughter of John Jacob (J. J.) Minium and Ruth Bower. This family of seven living children had been in Batavia since 1850, where J. J. owned and operated a general merchandise store: dry goods, shoes and groceries. The Minium children moved away over time but J. J. and Ruth remained until their deaths in 1899 and 1905 respectively. In the 1880 census George and Addie are living next door to her parents on River street.
It is said that most of us only make the papers when we are born, get married and die. So it was with the family life of George, Addie and children in Batavia. From George’s obituary in the Batavia Herald we learn: “He was a wagon maker by trade and for a time ran a wagon shop on North River street [and Franklin], but afterwards associated himself with the Newton factory, where he was for years a valuable employee. . . Gregg was a loyal Soldier, a good citizen, quiet and retiring in his manner, honorable and upright, kind and obliging as a neighbor and friend. He had been one of the leading officers in the G. A. R. Post No 48.”
(Historical note: Batavia was an important seat for the manufacture of the fabled Conestoga wagon in which many a late 19th century pioneer trekked west to the Pacific. Three companies also manufactured the windmills that pumped many a mid west farmer's well.)
Tranquility ended in 1899 when both children married and about a year later moved away. William Houston never returned to live in Batavia, but Ruth Nellie, as we shall recount, ultimately did, staying until her death in 1921. William Houston married Lola Rustin, daughter of Oliver Rustin and Harriet Wells of Omaha, Nebraska, on 14 Mar 1899 in Batavia, Addie’s big brother, the Rev W. J. Minium, officiating. George, Addie and Ruth Nellie Gregg were witnesses. He was 28 and his bride was 25, born in Douglas County, Nebraska, but living at the time of their marriage in Mt. Holly, Burlington County, New Jersey. William listed his occupation as mechanic. Their first child, Maxwell George Gregg, my uncle, was born 22 Apr 1900 in Batavia. How William and Lola ever met is a mystery.
Ruth Nellie Gregg, age 20, married William R. Jones, 19, of Wheaton, Du Page county, Illinois, on 1 Jun 1899 in Batavia. The Rev W. J. Minium again officiated and witnesses were Mabel Conde and, William H., Addie and George W. Gregg. The groom was born in Streator, Illinois, to John S. R. Jones and Nora Sullivan. The couple obtained their marriage license on 14 Mar 1899 (the same day William married Lola) but waited until the traditional month of June for the ceremony.
By 12 Jun 1900 Ruth and William Jones were living in Batavia at 75 N. Washington Ave when visited by the census taker. William H., Lola and Maxwell Gregg, age two months, were living next door; however by 19 Sep 1907 when my father, Bruce Houston Gregg, was born, they had migrated to Ocean City, New Jersey.
In the 1910 census both couples were living in Chicago, again next door to each other on E. 66th Pl. But the Jones’ household had grown in ways significant for our unfolding tale. Bill’s niece, Nora, age 16 was living with them, as was a boarder, Vincenzo (misspelled “Bincengo”) Gullotta, age 29 (wrong), an Italian immigrant violinist from Taormina, Sicily. A 1921 passport application attests that Vincenzo first migrated to the U.S. in 1906, sailing from Liverpool, England. Ellis Island records also have the single, age 30 (right), immigrant arriving August 16, 1910, in New York aboard The Carpathia, suggesting that he sailed between the U. S. and Italy with some frequency.
The Taormina Trio
Ruth Gregg-Jones was also a musician. She was an accompanist, taught piano and published an instruction book of piano exercises. The potential affinity between the two musicians in one household was soon realized.
On 30 Aug 1911 Ruth and Nora both applied for U.S. passports. Ruth's application was witnessed by Vincenzo, Nora's by Fred J. Lamb. Their signatures were notarized by G. Lifrieri, who was also to receive their passports at his address. Both pledged to return to the U.S. within two years. On Nora's application it was noted that "Miss Nora Jones is going to Italy for instruction."
Official records are silent as to when they actually went to Italy, but Ruth, Nora and Vincenzo all came back to New York from Naples on the Berlin on 15 May 1912. They are listed together on the ship's manifest, Ruth as a music instructor, Vincenzo, a musician. Ruth and Nora were returning to the same Chicago address on 66th Place.
Whether they were coming home to William Jones is problematical. No, William did not die. Instead, as another researcher has declared -- in all probability correctly -- he married Nellie F. Gissler on 25 Apr 1914 in Richland City, IL. By the 1930 census the couple were living in White Plains, NY, with Marjorie, 12, and Nancy, 8. William was president of a stock brokerage, and the family lived in an elegant home with a live-in couple from Finland.
Meanwhile Ruth Gregg-Jones, Vincenzo Gullotta and (Mrs.) Fern Grant, a soprano, formed the Taormina Trio and successfully performed classical music professionally on the Chautauqua circuit and other venues on both sides of the Atlantic: London and Rome; Chicago and Denver; Taormina and San Francisco. A publicity photograph from their promotional literature shows three young, attractive performers. A "famous" fan, Mary Anderson, wrote to them: "I will never forget your most beautiful playing, with the Ionian sea before us and the roses of Taormina above us."
The Trio continued for at least three years. They likely formed after the Italy trip as no passport application for Fern is on file, nor was she on the Berlin passenger list. Vincenzo applied for a passport for himself and "my wife Ruth Gregg Gullotta" on 28 Apr 1921 for a trip to Taormina to see his parents. He had planned for them to go about 15 August, but Ruth died without issue on 31 Jul 1921, age 41, and is buried next to her parents in East Batavia cemetery. It is likely that Vincenzo went to Italy immediately after her death as his return by the passenger ship Providence on 25 October 1921 is recorded on the Ellis Island Foundation on-line data base.
The Music Man of River City
Vincenzo (“Vincengo” this time) Gullotta and Ruth G. Jones had married on 8 Apr 1914 in Lake county, Indiana. The new couple were found next in 1920 on 20 May when Vincenzo, on becoming a U. S. citizen some 14 years after his first known arrival, gave his address as 84 River Street, Batavia. Vincenzo called it home at least until 1942 when he registered -- at age 62 -- for the World War II draft's fourth "call" of men up to age 64.
Vincenzo and the former Helene Caroline Rogers were married on 21 Sep 1922. By 1930 Vincenzo, 51, and Helene, 33, were living in Batavia with two daughters, Rose Marie (sic), 6, and Helene, 4, and Helene’s mother, Mae E. Rogers, 54.
After Ruth's death, no mention of his first wife can be found in Batavia records, but his fame as a musician had spread as far as San Francisco where in 1922 the Chronicle newspaper, in an article entitled "Controlled by Wife Ghosts," declared that "The prospective second wife of a noted violinist is selected by his first wife's spirit." A picture titled "Helene Rogers" accompanies the article, which profiles several cases of wifely visitations from beyond the grave. In the florid prose of the period, writer Elizabeth Shields declaims:
"Like the faint, sweet, exquisite love songs he draws from his violin, Vincenzo Gullotta explains, is the knowledge of his dead wife's spirit rising to his consciousness. Beloved in life as she was, the beautiful Ruth Gregg, also a musician, was mourned with desperation of grief when she 'went away.'
"'But she promised,' the musician continued, 'that if it were permitted, she would return to me. . . . She told me that her greatest desire was to see me linked with youth and vitality and love' . . . It was the woman in the spirit land, the musician believes, who led him to Helene Rogers, a girl fourteen years his junior, who has promised to become his second wife. . . . Ruth Gregg Gullotta approves of this second marriage, and is working, from her astral plane, for its success!"
Given an endorsement from a higher plane the marriage could not help but occur and prosper. A history of the Batavia Commercial Club, available in the Batavia library, credits Vincenzo with being the only musician to be a member of that organization. It declares in part:
"A very distinguished man in appearance and in reputation, he lived on North Washington Avenue and was a frequent user of the [Commercial] club facilities.
“Professor Gullotta as he was so well known, was born March 6, 1880, in Taormina, Sicily. . .[He] came to Batavia as a fairly young man. A music teacher . . .he . . . had a varied career in his profession. He was married to Helen (sic) and they had three daughters. Antoinette died at age six years. Rosemary [Hicks] survived until her death in 1990 in our town and Helene G Koch [died 10 October 2009 in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin]. . .
“During his 80 years of life, the Professor not only taught music, bus also was a teacher at the St. Charles School for Boys and at the State School for Girls at Geneva. He was also Director of the Fox Valley Philharmonic Educational Orchestra during the 1940's.
“Becoming homesick, Professor Gullotta went back to Sicily in 1959, where he died on March 5, 1960, one day short of his eightieth birthday.”
It is not known whether or not Helene went with him to Italy on that final return. It is known that she is is buried in the East Batavia Cemetery, sharing a plot with her young daughter, Antonette, and but three plots away from Ruth, her predecessor and reputed spiritual sponsor. She was buried 23 Oct 1980, age 84.
George Whitfield Gregg . . . Death and Aftermath
Two documents tell the tale of George’s death and shed more light on the kind of person he was. One, an internal memo from the Chief, Finance Division, Bureau of Pensions, U. S. Department of the Interior, to the Commissioner of Pensions, declares:
“Sir: I have the honor to report that the name of the above-described pensioner who was last paid at $30 to Jan 4, 1917 has this day been dropped from the roll because of death Feb-26-1917. Very respectfully, [completely illegible signature].”
The other document is an accounting of his estate prepared by Horace N. Jones, estate administrator for the Kane county probate court, John N. Williams presiding judge. George left $2,484.40 each to William and Ruth, his surviving children. A little less than half of his assets were real enough: savings in two Batavia banks. The rest was promissory notes and accrued interest thereon owed him by Ruth and Vincenzo ($3,280.51), William ($446.70) and John and Susan Kuczinski ($210).
After $818.14 in expenses were paid, William wound up with the remaining cash and a couple of the promissory notes. Ruth and Vincenzo didn’t do badly though, as their largest note ($2,250) was in all probability a loan to buy their home, and was now forgiven in death. George’s meager estate paid $1.57 to record their trust deed.
George had no real estate of his own, only $20.00 in his checking account and owed Ruth $44.00 for board, which she collected. R. C. Hollister’s funeral bill was $356 and the estate administrator claimed $250.00. George’s estate also paid for various fees and taxes and on 26 January “at request of W. H. Gregg and Ruth G. Gullotta, [paid] on Karlzen and Co. Monument bill, $25.00.”
He is buried in the East Batavia Cemetery next to Addie. Cemetery records list George as the owner of 22 grave sites in Sections 9 and 11, lots 154 and 285 respectively, although these assets were not part of his probate. Thirteen of the sites have been used. Another 10 sites are owned by the estate of his son William in Section 11, lot 80, four of which are occupied.
William Houston and Lola Rustin Gregg . . . and Family
Grandparents William and Lola didn't have it easy during their 30 plus years of marriage. The census records for 1900, 10 and 20 describe him as a wheel maker, stock broker and investigator respectively. In 1907, when my father, Bruce Houston, was born, his New Jersey birth certificate listed his father's occupation as laborer. According to William's marriage license he was a mechanic.
By 1910 the family was complete and in the neighborhood where they would live for nearly the next two decades. Maxwell George was 10 and Bruce Houston 2 1/2 and they were living next door to their Aunt Ruth and Uncle William Jones at 1433 East 66th Place, Chicago, Illinois. Young Max would be the first of the two families to peel off. A cousin has written me that family legend has it he "went west to work on a ranch" at the young age of 14. He did return home long enough to register for the World War I draft sometime in 1917-18, but ultimately wound up in Ballston Spa, New York, for the balance of his long life (see below.) His draft registration form, unfortunately barely legible, lists his employer as American Express Company, Chicago. Under a portion labeled "Description of Registrant" is a cryptic notation: "Lost an eye."
Next to go was Great Uncle Bill, whose displacement in the affections of my Great Aunt Ruth by Vincenzo Gullotta, has been previously chronicled. William H and Lola moved into 1435 East 66th when Ruth and Vincenzo departed for marriage in Indiana and housekeeping back in Batavia. They promptly took in up to four borders in the more spacious quarters, that number being enumerated in both the 1920 and 1930 censuses. More evidence that William H was an inconsistent provider.
That was not his only inconsistency, as he left the scene sometime in the 1920s for parts and reasons unknown. Little is known of his life thereafter other than he remarried and raised a family, while his time and place of death are not known. By the 1930 census Lola, age 54, was alone with her four latest borders, no visible husband, and a disappearing son as well.
My only physical evidence of William Houston Gregg's life and ambitions is a painting I inherited from my mother. It is a majestic untitled seascape, a study in sand and sea, wind and clouds, by an impressive talent. My mother always said it was a painting of Lake Michigan, and she could be right, but it also could be a portrait of a windswept day in Ocean City, New Jersey. Not that that matters. The initials, "WHG," are bold and clear. There is no doubt where his true interest and talent lay.
Lola, Emma and Maxwell
My uncle Max was not on any one's radar for the 1920 census, but by 1930 he was living at 123 South Street, Ballston Spa, New York, with his wife, the former Emma Margaret Thayer and daughters, Marjorie, 7, and Susan, 4.
The 1940 census found Max, Margaret and Marjorie (but not Susan) living in an Albany, NY, rental house. He was the proprietor of his own Commercial Art business, working 60 hours a week. The census worker recorded that Maxwell had two years of high school, Emma Margaret had only one year high school, while Marjorie completed all four years of high school. He also recorded that Marjorie had been born in New Jersey.
Eventually the family settled in Ballston Spa. Their home was a large two story house with room enough at one point for himself and Emma, Lola, Emma's mother, his daughter Marjorie and her daughter, my living cousin, who provided this description, plus a family in an upstairs rental unit.
Lola came to live with her eldest son after 1940 and no later than 1952. The most probable year is 1942, when youngest son, Bruce, enlisted in the army. My cousin wrote: "She was a tall thin woman . . .a member of the Christian Science faith and came to live with us . . . I don't remember when that was as Grandma Gregg was always there. I was born in 1950 and I think I was about 10 when Grandma Gregg died. She and Grandma Thayer were fond memories of my childhood."
Maxwell Gregg married Emma Margaret Thayer, daughter of George Arthur Thayer and Addie M. Havens, about 1921. The Thayer family paternal line goes back to Thomas Thayer, baptized in 1596, Thornbury, Gloucester, England, who immigrated to Colonial America in 1637. It is a New England family of many branches and both notorious and distinguished members. Max and Emma were married for about 65 years until his death in 1986. She died two years later.
My cousin wrote: "My grandmother Margaret met Grampy when she would pass the mill he was working at on her way to work. . . Grampy was a quiet and thoughtful man. He read a lot and enjoyed his painting. He had his own sign and display business for a while and then went to work for the GE company as a lithographer. In his spare time he would design greeting cards, paint landscapes and portraits from pictures, and work with silk screens to create the patterns for stuffed dolls sold worldwide."
I have one of my Uncle Max's paintings, passed down from my mother. It is a landscape of the Grand Canal, Venice, signed in block letters "MGREGG AFTER MORAN." Thomas Moran, an iconic American western landscape painter of the Hudson River School, also painted numerous Venetian canal scenes. Uncle Max's work is a composite most closely resembling one Moran did in 1912. It has an honored place in my living room as it did in my mother's homes for the years I was growing up and after.
Bruce Houston Gregg, Sr.
In April, 1930, when the census enumerator came calling, and when I was but 5 months from my debut, my father began his own signature disappearing act. His first magic trick was to appear to be in three places at once. He was listed as an unemployed boarder, age 22, at the home of my maternal grandmother, Maria Krusenstierna, along with my mother, Signe Marie (Bessie) Gregg and four of mother's six siblings. They all lived at 7011 Cornell Avenue, Chicago, which became my home, too, on 15 September next.
Only blocks away, Lola told perhaps the same enumerator that her son lived with her and that he was an architect, age 22. The inconvenient truth that he was married with a son on the way did not come up. Meanwhile a census taker caught up with a Bruce H. Gregg, age 22, living at the Hyde Park YMCA, married four years, born in New Jersey of a father born in Indiana and a mother born in Nebraska, working as a building supervisor.
The next official sighting of Senior was his application for a social security card and number, dated May 21, 1937. He was working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Resettlement Administration, on the Greenbelt Project in Berwyn, Maryland, and living at 126 E Street SW in Washington, D. C. The Greenbelt Project was a New Deal era experiment in rural self sufficiency. It consisted of small garden apartments of some charm and architectural merit, organized and run for communal and cooperative living, and was a favorite initiative of Eleanor Roosevelt and Rexford Tugwell, who ran the Resettlement Administration. No trace of his contribution to this historical endeavor has been found, although much more than a trace of the community still exists.
In 1940 Senior and Lola were living at 1218 East Marquette Road, Chicago, when the census enumerator caught up with them. He worked as a real estate estimator for $2,600 a year. Also in residence as lodgers were Jessie Dudley, 33, a white married woman born in Illinois, and Robert A. Dudley, 4, presumably her son. Jessie worked as a food checker for a private school and made $540 in the past year.
Another 1940 census entry for a Jessie L. Dudley, also 33, a white single woman born in Illinois, declares that she is living alone with her parents, William W. and Ana Dudley, at 7251 Phillips Avenue, Chicago, about two miles from the Marquette Road address. Mr Dudley, 67, worked as a real estate manager for $2,000 a year, while his daughter was a secretary in real estate earning $1,200 a year.
In 1930 Jessie Dudley, no "L," was living with William and Annie Dudley and three siblings at 1536 East 67th Place, Chicago. Lola and Bruce were living at 1435 East 66th Street, about two blocks away.
What to conclude from all of this? (1) Times were hard; people did what they had to to survive. (2) People lied and exaggerated when talking to census takers, frequently more than once. (3) My father was probably a cad.
It seems likely, though not proven, that Senior left my mother when she was pregnant with me, took up with Jessie living near by, fathered a child by her, left town to work in D. C. before his second son was born, later moved her and the child in with his mother and then enlisted in the army without ever officially getting married. At least no record of his marriage to Miss Dudley has yet been found.
On 9 Sep 1942 Senior went to war. He enlisted in Chicago as a private in the army "for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law." On the way in he declared he was married, a geologist by profession with three years high school. On the way out, 18 Sep 1945, he was discharged honorably as a sergeant. A fire on 12 Jul 1973 at the National Personnel Records Center in St Louis destroyed all paper trails of his years in between.
Long before, about 1935, my mother had divorced him and remarried, so the marriage he declared to the army is to someone else. A Bruce H. Gregg married one Faye C. Hewitt in Cook County, IL, on 13 April 1942 according to an on line index. Details are on order, but all I know for sure about this marriage is that it didn't last.
On 7 Mar 1951 Bruce Gregg, 43, married Carroll Hopkins, 31, in the Randolph county courthouse, Pocahontas, Arkansas. Randolph county borders the southeastern quadrant of Missouri. The license, payment of a $100 marriage bond and the civil ceremony itself took place on the same day. Bride and groom both gave Chicago as their place of residence. I was living not far away in Tulsa, Oklahoma, about then and remember Arkansas' reputation as a marriage mill for mid westerners in a hurry.
Carroll Mildred Hopkins, daughter of Samuel B. and Veola Hopkins, was born in Illinois about 1920. The 1930 census found the family in Johnson City, Williamson county, Illinois, near the southern tip of the state -- about as far from Chicago as one can get and not leave Illinois. There were three children: Robert, 12; Carroll, 10; Marion (a son), 5. Samuel was a Virginian and Veola from Kentucky.
Sometime in 1951 after their marriage Senior and Carroll moved to Denver, CO, and lived at 14352 Ivanhoe according to Denver's city directory for that year. His occupation was abbreviated as "carp," short presumably for carpenter.
For the next sixteen years the official record is so far a blank.Only by his death do we learn enough to conjure a story of my father's mature years. From his obituary in the Nashville Tennessean, 3 September, 1967:
"Bruce Houston Gregg, 59, of 511 Chesterfield Ave., representative of Skidmore, Owens (sic) and Merrill, Architects of Chicago, died yesterday at a local infirmary after a heart attack.
"Services will be conducted at 2 p.m. tomorrow by a Christian Science reader at Phillips-Robinson Funeral Home. Cremation will take place later in Louisville [Kentucky].
"Gregg and his wife, Mrs. Carroll M. Gregg, moved to Nashville last March from Chicago. She survives.
"Gregg's firm is designer and builder of the new 3rd National Bank building under construction across from the L.C Tower at Fourth Avenue and Church Street.
"Upon completion of the new structure, the Greggs (sic) planned to return to Chicago.
"Gregg was a members (sic) of the 1st Church of Christ Scientist of Boston, Mass.
"He is salso (sic) survived by a brother, Maxwell Gregg of Ballston Spa, N. Y."
Some atrocious proof reading aside, this terse account has supplied much food for thought and conjecture. Like most obituaries it is selective in recounting the existence of ex-spouses and their offspring. Fair enough.
Why cremation in Louisville? Was he interred there? Louisville, the funeral home emailed, was the closest crematorium in those days. They didn't know where his ashes went, but did confirm that a Christian Scientist reader from the First Church of Christ Scientist of Boston conducted the 2 p.m. service. Perhaps Senior had lived in Boston for a time.
The Skidmore, Owings and Merrill connection is both heartening and intriguing. SOM is perhaps the largest building design and construction firm in the world. Among its most noted buildings are Lever House, the Air Force Academy Chapel and John Hancock Center and Sears Tower in Chicago. To represent its world class architects on construction sites would be to rise above his meager education (as of 1942) -- if not his mother's ambitions. Unfortunately, the company did not respond to my request for more information about his career.
From the his social security file (thank you, Becky) I learned that he earned $6,110 in the six months ending July 1, 1967.
Carroll M. Gregg is still alive at the end of 2010 but not responsive to attempts at contact. This is her privilege and her privacy will be otherwise respected. She lives with a relative, probably her son and my half brother, who also is unresponsive to attempts at contact.
Notes on Sources
The Batavia Historical Society on two brief visits provided access to many original and authenticating documents and advice and direction to cemetery records and other histories.
The Batavia Public Library’s local history room is a treasure trove of printed histories of Batavia, Kane County and local institutions, most notably “John Gustafson’s Historic Batavia,” by Gustafson, Marilyn Robinson and Jeffery D. Schielke, copyright 1998.
The City of Batavia records of the East Batavia Cemetery, and the kind assistance of a groundskeeper, were invaluable on my single hurried visit to the ancestral plots.
The shared research of my cousin by marriage, Ronnie Osko, and her family, of Du Page County, Illinois, whose grandfather was our fascinating Music Man.
The Illinois State archives provided many on-line data sets, including the State Marriage Index and muster rolls and histories of the Illinois civil war regiments.
Other major sources include:
The on-line federal and state census and other records of Ancestry.com.
The pension records of civil war soldiers of the National Archives
The Social Security Death Index version maintained on-line by Ancestry.com.
The on-line resources of Family Tree Maker.
About The Author
Born Bruce Houston Gregg, Jr., to Bruce Houston Gregg and Signe Marie (Bess) Von Krusenstierna, the daughter of Swedish immigrants, in Chicago, Illinois, 15 Sep 1930. My father took one look at me and left, never to be seen or heard of again. Five lonely years later my mother married John James Johnson, of Waterloo, Iowa, the only man I ever called “Dad.”. We moved immediately to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I was raised as their son and was unaware of any other paternity until adolescence. Later, my step-father formally adopted me. After John and Bess Johnson were dead I began a search for my family roots. One result is this history. My wife, Carol, and I now reside in Orange City, Florida, in the John Knox Village retirement community, at 8 Nasturtium Ct. 32763. 386-218-4850. bruce4572@aol.com.
Dedication
This modest work is dedicated to the late Marilyn Robinson, noted historian of Batavia, who personally shared her time and research with me, and to Helen Morris, of Sunnyvale and The Sea Ranch, California, twelve years a neighbor and a continuing friend, who initially and patiently introduced me to the techniques and delights of genealogical research.
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