From A Biographical History of Central
Kansas, Vol. II, p. 250
published by The Lewis Publishing Co, Chicago & New York, 1902
Andrew J. Gregg
In central Kansas are many fine stock farms. In the pastures are seen high grades of horses and cattle and in the barn yard splendid animals give evidence of the car of an ambitious owner who wishes to improve his stock and therefore make it of high market value. Mr. Gregg owns a good farm on section 34, Valley township, Rice county, and is devoting the greater part of his attention to this branch of agricultural labor. He was born in Winchester township, Adams county, Ohio, July 3, 1858. His father, James Gregg, was a native of Brown county, Ohio, born March 4, 1823, and the family is of Irish lineage, for the grandfather, Andrew Gregg, was born on the Emerald Isle. After coming to America he was married in Ohio to a Scotch wife. They reared two children, the daughter being Ellen Houston, of Cincinnati, Ohio. The son James Gregg, was reared in his parents’ home and established a home of his own through his marriage to Miss Sarah Dillinger, who was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, a daughter of William Dillinger, a farmer, whose property is now included within the corporation limits of the city of Pittsburg. Mr. and Mrs. Gregg were married in 1857, and their union was blessed with seven children, namely: Andrew J; Margaret, the wife of Del Cummings, of Portsmouth, Ohio; Harriet, who married James Larkin, of Valley township; Catherine, the wife of William Hibbard, of Portsmouth, Ohio; Edward, a stock farmer of Reno county, Kansas; Mrs. Laura Hawkins, who died at the age of twenty-five years; and Stewart, who is also living in Reno county. The father carried on agricultural pursuits in Ohio and died in Scioto county, that state, in December, 1900, at the age of sixty-seven years. His widow is now living in Kansas, keeping house for her son, Edward, and is a very active old lady of seventy-five years.
Andrew J Gregg received but limited school privileges for his services were needed upon the home farm in his youth, and he early began to assist in the labors of field and meadow. He remained at home until twenty-five years of age. In 1884 he came to Kansas, arriving at Sterling on the 10th of July, with only twenty-five cents in his pocket after he had paid his hotel bill. He came here as a feeder of a threshing machine, and during the first winter after his arrival he was employed to feed cattle owned by Tom Harper. Later he erected a blacksmith’s hop on the Arkansas river, south of Sterling, and there conducted business for one summer. His first purchase of land comprised eighty acres, for which he gave eleven hundred and ninety dollars. He afterward bought a tract of two hundred and forty acres one mile to the north and in 1900 he became the owner of a quarter section adjoining his farm. He carries on general farming and does an extensive business as a stock raiser, having fifty-two horses and mules and seventy-five cattle of his own, while each year throughout the winter season he cares for from one hundred and twenty to two hundred and fifty head of cattle.
On the 19th of September, 1885, Mr. Gregg was joined in wedlock to Miss Caroline Elhuff, a native of Ohio. Both of her parents were natives of Germany, and her father died in the Buckeye state, but her mother is now living in Rice county and has attained the age of eighty-four years. She had twelve children, of whom five are yet living. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Gregg has been blessed with three children: Sadie, who died at the age of two years; a son who died in infancy; and Pearl, who is now eleven years of age. Socially Mr. Gregg is connected with the subordinate lodge and encampment of the Rebekah order of the Odd Fellows society, and is likewise a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His wife belongs to the Methodist church, in which he is serving as one of its trustees. Politically he is a Republican and is now overseer of the highways.