Capt. Israel Gregg
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 pa rents, 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 keel-boats, 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 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 Shippingport 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 tones, 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 offices 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.
From A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers, Western Biographical Publishing Company, Cincinnati Ohio, 1882.