BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio
edited by
Hon. Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater,
Frederick Schneider and Others To which is appended
A Comprehensive Compendium of Local Biography and Memoirs of Representative
Men and Women of the County.
Illustrated
Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers
1905
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CAPTAIN
ISRAEL GREGG, for many years a prominent steamboat man, was for a
long time a resident of Hamilton. He was born on the 20th of February,
1775, in Virginia, but .his parents, who were adventurous pioneers,
removed to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, shortly after, where, on attaining
a sufficient age, he was taught the art of a silversmith, and on
reaching his majority set up for himself. Two years after, or on the
12th of July, 1798, he married Elizabeth Hough, one of the
younger children of a Quaker family, and sister of Joseph
Hough, for twenty years the leading merchant of Hamilton. Another
brother, Benjamin, was auditor of the State of Ohio from 1808 to
1815.
Mr. Gregg afterwards became interested in
steamboating, and in 1814 was in command of the steamboat Enterprise,
built at Brownsville by Daniel French, on his patent, and
owned by a company at that place. It was a boat of forty-five tons. It
made two voyages to Louisville in the Summer of 1814. In December she
took in a cargo of ordnance stores at. Pittsburgh, and sailed for New
Orleans, arriving at that port on the 14th of the same month. She was
then dispatched up the river in search of two keelboats, laden with
small arms, which had been delayed on the river. She had reached twelve
miles above Natchez when she met the boats, took their masters and
cargoes on board, and returned to New Orleans, having been out six and a
half days, in which time she ran two hundred and sixty-four miles. She
was then for some time actively employed in transporting troops, etc.
She made one voyage to the Gulf of Mexico, as a cartel, and one voyage
to the rapids of Red River with troops, and nine voyages to Natchez. She
set out for Pittsburg on the 6th of May, and arrived at Shipping port on
the 30th, twenty-four days out, being the first steamboat that ever
arrived at that port from New Orleans. She then proceeded to Pittsburg,
where her arrival was warmly greeted, as the passage from the sea by the
means of steam had been successfully accomplished for the first time.
Captain Gregg afterwards commanded the Dispatch, a small boat
of twenty-five tons, built at Brownsville, which was wrecked near New
Orleans in 1819, and he continued as a commander in the river service
for several years after.
He then became an inhabitant of Hamilton, where he
dwelt the remainder of his days. He was elected sheriff of Butler County
in 1835, and served four years, also holding other orifices of trust and
responsibility. By his first wife he had eleven children, who are now
all dead. Upon her decease he married Mrs. Phebe Kelley, of
Rossville, an aunt of William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, on
Thursday, the 5th of December, 1822, the ceremony being performed by the
Rev. H. Baker. By this marriage he had two children:
Jane H, now the wife of J. C. Skinner, and Sarah,
widow of Samuel Cary. He died on the 20th of June, 1847,
aged seventy-three years. He was a man of great uprightness and
benevolence, and his memory is still cherished by those who knew him.
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio -
Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers -
1905 - Page 922 |
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