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From the historical files of June E. Tuck, who does not validate or dispute any historical facts in the article.
Dick Hare was a dear friend of my family. I hope to honor him by sharing his unpublished research with the public. Please give him full credit if any of his research is used. June Tuck
Josiah Gregg, by D. H. (Dick) Hare - 1977
The John Gregg family moved to the Red River District of the Province of Texas from Arkansas in the early 1830's. The children were William, Mary, Samuel, Jacob, Melinda, Rebecca, Milton, Matilda, and twins, Sabiah and Josiah. They settled on the beautiful "Blossom Prairie" north of present Deport, Texas, which was several miles north of the forks of the Sulphur River. The illustrious Dr. Josiah Gregg was a nephew of John Gregg. Dr. Gregg was an explorer, and a Santa Fe trader, as well as a medical doctor, botanist, and surveyor. He was recognizes as one of the most reliable writers of the early day American West. His book, "Commerce of the Prairies" published in 1844, was eagerly read in the Eastern United States and Europe. His "Diaries and Letters" were published in 1941 by the University of Oklahoma Press in two volumes, and covered a period from 1840 to 1847.
My Great Grandfather, Maj. William Brinton, came to Clarksville from England, arriving there on Christmas Day, 1833. He was well acquainted with all of the Gregg family in Red River and Lamar Counties. In 1838, when the Republic of Texas granted to William Brinton his own Headright Land Certificate for 1/3 Spanish League (1,479 acres), Josiah's brothers, William and Jacob, attested in behalf of William Brinton. For almost 150 years there has been an enduring family friendship between the generations of the Gregg and Brinton families.
In 1846, Josiah Gregg and Louisa Jane Hargrave, daughter of Eldred Glen (Hargrave), married at his home at Pleasant Hill (Nelta.) Josiah and Louisa Jane had three children, William Alvin, Susan Jeane, and Evelyn Ezell. Evelyn died in infancy, and Alvin died in 1894. He may have been about the last Gregg to have been buried in the Gregg Cemetery, which was established on Josiah's plantation. The last known burial was the wife and infant of Little Mexican Joe in 1929. He worked on the Gilbert P. Smith farms in Stringtown some two miles west of the cemetery.
Josiah acquired the approximate 1,000 acre plantation from the heirs of John Gregg in 1859. John Gregg had bought the Headright Certificates of Obijah Burkham, Allen McLendon, and James Burkham. Jacob Gregg bought the Headright Certificates of Jarvis Berry. Josiah paid $1.00 per acre for his lands, and received Patents in 1855 and 1861; however, Josiah and his brother, William and wife, nee Rebecca Clark, were occupying the land since about 1846. Others of the John Gregg family moved to Sulphur Bluff in the early 1850's.
Josiah Gregg was a farmer and cattle raiser. After the cotton gins were built in Sulphur Bluff in the 1860's, he, as well as may others, commenced growing cotton more extensively.
In about 1875, Josiah commenced building what was considered a mansion of that day. The lumber was hauled from Winnsboro, Texas, and it took about six months to build the mansion and kitchen houses, in which his old servant, Henry Clay, and family lived.
The mansion was an imposing and stately home, with balustered and columned porches, surrounded with groves of trees and buildings. The orchard was in the back, and the vegetable garden to the east had a picket fence around it. The foundation sills for the house was 16" x 16" hewn oak placed on large bois'darc (sic) pegs. The home had eight large rooms in addition to the large halls. With 14' ceiling in the house, the 24' x 24' rooms and 14' x 18' halls seemed more spacious than they actually were. All of the walls had wainscoting, each bedroom had two clothes closets, each room had a fireplace, and each of the eight mantels was a different design.
The second floor was an exact duplicate of the ground floor. The entrance and back exit on the ground floor hall, and the upper porch exit had double doors with plate glass panels on each side. There were two staircases. The front windows were extra large size pane glass type.
A breeze-way extended from the rear of the house to connect the kitchen house, which was an ell type story and half building containing four ground floor rooms, but the upper floor was unfinished.
All the barns, sheds and outbuildings were west of the mansion, including an ash hopper shed. Lye was made from the fireplace ashes, and used in making soap, hominy, etc. The stock barn stabled some twelve head of horses and mules. Barn lots were made of rail. There were some 300 acres of cultivated land, and the other land was used in raising horses, mules, cattle, hogs, and sheep.
Many substantial homes were built in Sulphur Bluff area during the last quarter of the 19th century. Monroe and Mattie (Clifton) Dawson built an identical home of the Josiah Gregg house on their land about three miles south of the town of Sulphur Bluff. This house burned about 1905. Alvin Gregg, only son of Josiah, built a nice home on his land about two miles south. Darrell "Jabbo" Deaton razed this house on his dairy farm in 1977. Many of these old homes were of the ell-type architecture containing varying number of rooms. They were of the one or two-story type, or the story and half type.
In 1886, Josiah and Louisa Gregg and their daughter, Susan Jane moved to Pomona, California, where he died in 1903.
P. T. Hare sold his place in Sulphur Bluff in 1908, and leased the Josiah Gregg place. Henry J. Smith later acquired the Pete Hare place, razed the house, and built a two-story home on the site. He resided there until his death in 1967 at the age of 100 years old. He had lived in Sulphur Bluff for 95 years.
In 1910, W. A. Smith of Sulphur Springs purchased the Josiah Gregg place for $7.50 an acre. The Gregg place contained almost 1,000 acres. The acquisition followed the "Money Panic" of 1907. About this time, W. A. Smith's advertising slogan was "Land Man that buys and sells more land than any other man in Texas."
P. T. Hare remained as farm manager of the Josiah Gregg place when Mr. Smith acquired the land, whose commission was 10% of all farm rents. The rents paid to Mr. Smith paid for the land in five years. The rich fertile lands of the Gregg place produced from one to over two bales of cotton per acre. One year, Alec Ramsey produced 18 bales of cotton on a nine acre field, and had quite a bit of "scrapping" toward another bale. Pete Hare brought back under cultivation neglected old fields on the place. The corn production ran from 50 to 60 bushels per acre, which was long before hybrid corn.
In 1910, Pete Hare moved the kitchen house from the home site down on a public lane southeast of the big house, and rented it as a farm tenant place. Mr. Jefferson D. "Jim" Martin moved from Brinker into this relocated house. His sons were Arthur, Murley, Sam, Charlie and Onis, and the Martins raised a foster girl, Zada Williams. Following this tenure, a Mr. Helton rented the house who had 18 children.
While P. T. Hare lived at the Gregg house, France Lewis and Hugh Houser lived and worked for him. After the kitchen house was relocated away from the main house, Brimily, the colored cook, moved into the family household. Buster and Dick Hare (Author of this article) were born in the Gregg house in 1909 and 1912. There were eight homes on the Gregg place.
P. T. Hare Remained As Farm Manager Of The Gregg Place Until 1913, When He Built A New Home On His Adjoining Land. After He Moved To His Own New Home, Which Place K. H. (Kinnie) Hare Was Living On, Kinnie Moved To The Gregg House As Farm Manager, And Managed It Until It Was Sold In 1950. Kinnie Bought An Adjoining Farm In 1914, Which Was Sold By His Heirs To T. L. Sanderson In The 1970'S.
In 1916, Minter and Lester Smith, son of W. A. Smith, moved from Sulphur Springs to the big Gregg house and lived there for one year. Minter had lived once before in the old Archer home north of the cotton gin in Sulphur Bluff. He came to Sulphur Bluff as a young agriculture "expert" to assist Pete Hare. While Minter and Lester lived in the big Gregg house they built a tall circular wooden type silo like many that were built in the area about the same time. They moved back to Sulphur Springs, and the big house was rented to E. Everett Sewell, who had six boys and one girl. The Sewell family lived there in 1917.
W. A. Smith acquired the old Weatherford farms in Stringtown two miles west of the Gregg place on the Sulphur River. His youngest brother, Andrew, was a carpenter, and in 1918, W. A. and Lester razed the big Gregg house and built a large one story, six room, home on the site. Frank Tatum and will Glenn moved to Sulphur Bluff. Tatum first lived in the reconstructed large home, and Will Glenn in the kitchen house. Miss Kate Tatum taught in the Sulphur Bluff school, and married Roy Hicks.
The first oil wells were drilled at Sulphur Bluff in 1913 by Witherspoon of Corsicana. The first one was drilled about two miles south of the town of Sulphur Bluff on the Worsham place, the second one on the Josiah Gregg place, and the third on the Rev. Leander Hedrick place. P. T. Hare had leased his Sulphur Bluff place in 1907 before selling it.
Bill Morses and "Mac" McFall came to Sulphur Bluff with the Witherspoon oil rig and crew. They boarded with the Henry Cliftons, who lived in the Dr. Caldwell home.
Lee Peyton of Dallas bought the Josiah Gregg place in 1929 from Lester Smith and his sister, Mrs. Dial. Mr. Peyton was the Southwestern States manager of the International Harvester Company. K. H. Hare continued as farm manager of Gregg place until it sold to C. N. Kent. The first half of the Peyton ownership was during the years of the Great Depression. The Federal Goverment's cattle slaughtering grounds were across the Sulphur River Gunn Bridge, where hundreds of cattle bought by the Government were slaughtered in an effort to raise the selling price of cattle.
It was during this time that the State Highway Department surveyed and acquired a right-of-way for building a highway from Sulphur Bluff to Paris. Later, Highway 69 was constructed only to near the south side of the Gunn Bridge. Much excitement was created by this project, even though the Sulphur Bluff oil field had been discovered in 1936, there were many unemployed. Also, during this period, the Federal Government made a Resource Survey of East Texas, and many test holes were drilled in Hopkins County investigating possibilities of potable and irrigation water. The reconnaissance investigation covered the river basins of the Red, Sulphur, and Cypress in Northeast Texas.
C. N. Kent, of Dallas, who was in the insurance business, bought the Josiah Gregg lands from Lee Peyton heirs in 1950. He primarily used it as a cattle ranch, and as a hay business. Annually thousands and thousands of bales of hay were produced on this place. The old kitchen house was relocated back to the original site, as the large one story reconstructed house had been sold and moved out of the country during World War II period. Many such homes were bought and moved to growing military towns, with lumber sales curtailed during the war years. For the most part, all farming in the Sulphur Bluff area ceased about this time.
C. N. Kent also acquired the old Tom Patty place west of the Gregg place. In 1955 the Gregg lands were conveyed to Mrs. Gertrude Kent.
Mr. Oscar M. Wilson, of Dallas, purchased the Gregg place in 1973, except for about 38 acres, from Mrs. Gertrude Kent. Gen "Too Tall" Beale was hired as manager and moved from Denton to Sulphur Bluff.
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