GenealogyMedia.com

Robert W. Gregg

My great great grand­fa­ther, Robert Washington Gregg (1843–1910), was known as “Gypsy” Gregg because he trav­eled so widely.

I have been cat­a­loging these trav­els. An account of what I have found so far fol­lows. Each new loca­tion is high­lighted in red.

According to his Civil War pen­sion file, Robert W. Gregg was born in Ohio County, VA (now WV) in 1843. He appears in the 1850 cen­sus in that county at the age of 7 with his par­ents William and Margaret, five sib­lings, a 75-year-old woman that I sus­pect to be his grand­mother, Sarah Echols, a cou­ple more Echolses, and some­one who was prob­a­bly a ser­vant girl, Isabel Carr.

By 1860, he has moved to Des Moines County, Iowa, where he appears in the cen­sus with his father, five sib­lings, again Isabell Carr. He is 17 and listed as a farmer. His father is listed as hav­ing 15,000 worth of real estate and 2,500 worth of per­sonal property.

On 22 August 1862, at the age of 19, Robert W. Gregg of Parrish, Iowa, and born in Virginia, enlisted in Company E of the 25th Iowa Volunteers. His pen­sion records indi­cate that he was shot in the hand by the Federal sol­dier next to him as the left a troop trans­port after cross­ing into Kentucky. He spent the bulk of the war in hos­pi­tals and was mus­tered out as a Private in Washington, DC on 6 June 1865. (His brother, William Gregg, aged 31 and resid­ing in Burlington, Iowa is also listed in the muster rolls as hav­ing been more in Virginia. He also enlisted into Company E of the 25th Iowa on 22 August 1862 and was later pro­moted quar­ter­mas­ter sergeant.)

Continue read­ing “Robert Washington Gregg (1843–1910)”