THIRD GENERATION

15. Francis Marion GREGORY ^{(14) (31)} was born on 16 Oct 1842 in , , South Carolina, USA. ⁽⁵⁾ He appeared on the U.S. Census on 27 Oct 1850 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA.⁽⁸⁾ Listed as Marion, son, age 8. He appeared on the State Census in 1853 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA. ⁽⁹⁾ Francis is enumerated here as one of the 6 males in the household. He appeared on the State Census in 1860 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA.⁽¹⁰⁾ Here he is one of the 7 males in the household. He appeared on the U.S. Census in 1870 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA.⁽¹³⁾ He is listed as head-of-household at the age of 27. He appeared on the U.S. Census in 1880 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA.⁽³²⁾ Listed as Francis Marion, head-of-household at the age of 38. He died on 2 Jul 1899. He was buried in Bogeufala Cemetery, Mooreville, Lee, Mississippi, USA.⁽⁵⁾

The following information is taken from "A Gregory Family in America" by Forest F. Reed (1944)

"Francis Marion Gregory, known as Marion Gregory to his friends and relatives, was born in Union County, South Carolina, October 16, 1842. He was named for one of the great heroes of his native state, Francis Marion, a general in the American Revolution.
He was the oldest child of Hugh and Nancy Turner Gregory who moved with him to Mississippi in 1845. They settled near the village of Mooreville on land not far from the present Itawamba-Lee County line. He grew up there and was a Confederate soldier, soon after the Civil War began, in Company H, 43rd Mississippi Infantry.
In 1868 he was married to Lucy Ella Beene. To them were born ten children. They made their home on the land inherited from his father, the location of which was in Itawamba County about one-half mile east of the Lee County line on the north side of the present Bankhead Highway, the road between Fulton and Tupelo. In 1893 they purchased a place near Dorsey, three miles east of the old place on the same highway. The house on the new place faced north and was on the south side of the road. They moved again in 1899, having purchased a farm four miles south of Fulton on the Fulton-Amory Highway. The house was about one hundred yards east of the road.
Marion Gregory was engaged in farming only a part of the time. A man of versatile talents, he was an architect, builder and millwright. Many of the houses he designed and built still stand in that region.
In 1895 he became a candidate for the office of state senator from the Thirty-Eighth Senatorial District, composed of Lee, Itawamba and Monroe Counties. He was elected on July 25 of that year by an overwhelming majority.
Physically he was a large man, five feet, nine and one-half inches in height and weighed over two hundred pounds. He had a large, well-shaped head, brown eyes and dark, wavy hair. His beard was dark brown. He impressed those who knew him as a man of commanding appearance and forceful personality.
Marion Gregory was perhaps the most notable member of the Gregory family. He never attended school more than three months in his life, yet was reputed to be the best informed man and one of the finest speakers in his part of the state. It is not unusual to talk with persons now, forty-five years after his death, on whom his eloquent speeches and remarkable personality made such a lasting impression. He never resorted to the demagogic type of oratory. His speeches were always clear, concise and logical.
Whether he was right or wrong from the viewpoint of his hearers, he was always ready to give a definite, reasonable explanation as to how he arrived at his conclusions.
When he went to the senate at Jackson, Mississippi, in 1896, the Jackson Evening News said of him: "The senator is a big, fine-looking farmer with an honest face upon which is reflected his integrity of character. No man in his district stands higher in the estimation of his people." He was of course a Democrat but one of conviction. In religion he was a Baptist.
Francis Marion Gregory died July 2, 1899. He was buried at Bogefala Cemetery, near the graves of his parents."

A Partial Extraction from the Centennial History of Arkansas relating to F.M. Gregory follows.

"Francis Marion was a native of Union County S.C. and his parents were Hugh and Nancy Turner Gregory. The (father) was also a native of South Carolina, while his father came from Virginia and was of Scotch-Irish extraction.
F.M. Gregory also had extended military experience having served in the Forty-third Mississippi Infantry, with which he fought at Corinth, at Iuka and in the siege of Vicksburg. At the time of the surrender of the city he escaped up the Yazoo River in a skiff. He was later on active duty in the Georgia Campaign under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. For many years he was an honored and prominent resident of Mississippi and from 1896 until 1898 served as state senator from the thirty-eight senatorial district in the Mississippi assembly leaving the impress of his individuality and ability upon the laws enacted during that period. In the family of Mr. & Mrs. F.M. Gregory there were ten children: Alice, who became the wife of John Hall; Alma, who married C.N. Reed, their son, M.O. Reed being a lawyer in Little Rock; Thomas H., a teacher in the schools of Booneville, Mississippi; George R., a farmer in Alabama; Lula, deceased; William Hugh, Emma and Julia, who have departed this life; Myrtle, the wife of George Ivey of Tishomingo, Mississippi; and Marie, the wife of John Jones of Eastman, Mississippi..."

He was married to Lucy Ellen BEENE in 1868 in , , Mississippi, USA. ⁽¹⁴⁾
There were ten children of these parents, all born at the old Gregory place. The house no longer stands there but it was situated eight miles west of Fulton about one hundred yards north of the present Bankhead Highway, and approximately one-half mile east of the Lee County line.

Lucy Ellen BEENE⁽¹⁴⁾ was born on 17 Nov 1849 in Guntown, Itawamba, Mississippi, USA. ⁽¹⁴⁾ She appeared on the U.S. Census in 1850 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA.⁽⁸⁾ Listed with her parents as Lucy E., daughter, age 1. She appeared on the U.S. Census in 1860 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA.⁽¹²⁾ Listed with her parents as Lucy E., daughter, age 10. She appeared on the U.S. Census in 1870 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA.⁽¹³⁾ Listed with her husband as Ellen at the age of 20. She appeared on the U.S. Census in 1880 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA. ⁽¹⁵⁾ Listed with husband as Ella at the age of 30. She appeared on the U.S. Census in 1900 in , Itawamba, Mississippi, USA. ⁽³³⁾ Ellen is widowed by the time of this census and is listed as the head-of-household. She gives her birth as November of 1849, and that she has had 10 children born with 7 still living. She also listed that her father was born in Tennessee and her mother was born in Alabama. She died on 30 Jul 1933. She was buried in Fairview Cemetery, Fulton, Itawamba, Mississippi, USA. ⁽³⁴⁾ Her grave marker reads:
"Ellie Beene wife of Francis Marion Gregory 11/17/1849 - 7/30/1933."

The following information was taken from "A Gregory Family in America" by Forest F. Reed (1944)

"Lucy Ella Beene, known to her relatives and friends as Ella Beene, was born at Guntown, Mississippi, November 17, 1849.
Guntown is in Lee County, fifteen miles north of Tupelo. According to an old legend, this village was named for James Gunn, a Tory who fled from Virginia during the Revolution. He married the daughter of a Chickasaw Indian chief and settled on the site of the present village where he continued to toast the King of England on his birthday as long as he lived.
When she was a small child, Ella Beene moved with her parents to Itawamba County where she was living at the age of eleven when the Civil War began. She remembered the war well, especially when her brothers left to join the Confederate Army and later when they received the tragic news that her oldest brother, Johnnie, was killed in action at the battle of Atlanta.
At that time her family lived across the Tombigbee River one mile west of the present village of Bean's Ferry. Her father owned and operated a ferry on the river at the point where they lived which was known then as Beene's Ferry.
After the war she moved with her family to the vicinity of Mooreville where she was living when she was married to Francis Marion Gregory in 1868.
Her father was Robert Beene who was born in East Tennessee about 1810. His family migrated to Tennessee from Virginia. He was a surveyor and civil engineer who helped to survey much of the land in northeast Mississippi which was known as the Chickasaw Cession of 1832. Robert Beene died in 1877.
Ella Beene's mother was Julia Ann Green, who was born in 1819; she died in 1896. The Greens were from Alabama. Julia Beene was a tall, slender woman with brown eyes and dark hair. She had one brother, James Green, who spent his life in Itawamba County, and four sisters: Betsy Green Moore of Itawamba County, wife of Jack Moore; Minerva Green Barnet of Texas; Ruth Green Chilcoat of Itawamba County; and Margaret Green Patton of Lee County."
Francis Marion GREGORY and Lucy Ellen BEENE had the following children:

+80 i. Dora Alice GREGORY.
+81 ii. Mary Alma GREGORY.
+82 iii. Thomas Henry GREGORY.
+83 iv. George Robert GREGORY.
84 v. Hattie Lulu GREGORY was born in Aug 1880 in Ballardsville, Itawamba, Mississippi, USA. She died in Mar 1881.⁽¹⁴⁾ at the age of seven months.

+85 vi. William Hugh GREGORY.
86 vii. Emma GREGORY was born on 18 Apr 1884 in Ballardsville, Itawamba, Mississippi, USA.⁽¹⁴⁾ She died in Sep 1884. ⁽¹⁴⁾ at the age of five months old.

87 viii. Julie GREGORY was born in 1886 in Ballardsville, Itawamba, Mississippi, USA. She died in 1886/87 in Gregory Family Cemetery, Ballardsville, Lee, Mississippi, USA.⁽¹⁴⁾ at the age of 7 months.

+88 ix. Myrtie Edmonia GREGORY.
+89 x. Winnie Marie GREGORY.