My Genealogy Hound

ALEXANDER JAMES McGREGOR, post office Monroeville, was born in that part of Wilkins now called Penn township, in 1829. His grandfather went from Scotland to Ireland, where he died, and our subject’s father, James McGregor, was born there. The latter was the youngest of five children, who came with their widowed mother to York county, Pa., when he was eleven years old. There he grew to manhood, and married Martha, daughter of Robert Wilson, of Scotch stock. About 1818 he settled on a farm in Penn township, where he died in 1833, aged forty-five. He was one of the twelve organizers of Unity Presbyterian Church, and was a democrat. His widow died in 1873, aged eighty years. There were ten children in the family, and the six survivors reside in this county. Following are their names, with ages at time of the death of the deceased: John, fifty-five; William, fifty-one; Margaret, twenty-five; Robert, Jane (Barton), Nancy (Peterman), Mary (Booth); Martha, fifteen; Alexander and Rebecca (Elliott). A. J. McGregor remained on the farm in Penn until fifteen years old, when he took up carpenter work, and in 1845 embarked in building in Pittsburgh. Later he took up pattern-building and tank-making, and for five years kept a retail grocery in the city. His only unsuccessful venture was the purchase of a steam flouring-mill in Penn township, which, burned down after he had operated it a year and a half, and which was uninsured. In 1865 he was associated with others in putting down an oil-well near Pit Hole, which was sold to advantage same year. Mr. McGregor became a resident of Patton in 1872, purchasing 146 acres of land, on which he has excellent buildings, and engages in general farming. He is a republican, with prohibition sympathies. In 1860 he married Margaret Anderson, a native of Ireland, a daughter of Jacob Anderson, who brought her to America when a babe. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McGregor. The second, Mary, died when thirteen months old. The others are Martha, Annie and James; the oldest is the wife of George Aber, residing at Bingham, Wyo.