San Diego County Biographies
 
CAPTAIN FRANKLIN AUGUSTUS GREGORY

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


a prominent son of San Diego, was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts, on October 
31, 1827, the youngest child of John H. Gregory, a pioneer of that State. In 
1810 he left school and went to sea in the schooner Erie, in the West Indies. 
While the vessel was in Ocese, San Domingo, the American citizens and shipping 
men went into mourning on account or the death of President W. H. Harrison, who 
was much beloved by the people. Captain Gregory made several voyages to the 
Indies and Newfoundland. In September, 1846, a terrible hurricane swept across 
the Atlantic ocean and destroyed a large number of vessels, of which at least 
over nineteen were foundered on the banks of Newfoundland. The Captain's vessel 
lost her rudder and was very badly damaged, but managed to complete the voyage 
in safety. During the trip they came across a large number of wrecks without 
masts, others on their beam-end, etc., but could render no assistance to them. 
In 1847 he again sailed for Newfoundland as Captain of the trim craft, who was 
caught in the ice at St. Pierres, Sable Island. The ocean was covered with 
ice�bergs standing from fifty to 100 feet out of the water. For three days they 
were in a field of ice, which was so ragged as to render navigation in their 
vicinity dangerous. On repairing the ship afterward, the bottom was found in 
some places worn down to one-eighth of an inch in thickness.
        In 1840 Mr. Gregory went to Europe as second mate of the packet ship 
Liverpool, and had the small-pox on his return voyage. He landed at Boston and 
went then to New Orleans, where he contracted ship fever, and then returned to 
his home in Marblehead, and remained there a year before he fully recovered his 
health. In May, 1849, he left Boston for California, in the brig Chatham, and 
arrived here the October following. After a residence of two months in San 
Francisco, he left for Sacramento in the Chatham, when the company broke up, 
after dividing two years' provisions among the forty survivors. During the 
following winter he was engaged in placer mining on the Feather river, and owned 
several good mines.
        A rumor of hidden gold mines sent Gregory and twenty other adventurous 
prospectors to the headwaters of the Yuba river. A violent snow storm set in 
after they had started across the mountains, and greatly impeded their progress. 
They traveled over the deep gulches until their horses and mules gave out, and 
still could not discover any dividing ridge in the mountains. In crossing a 
small creek they heard a roaring sound of the river below. Suddenly one of their 
party disappeared, and that was the last they ever heard of him; he was carried 
down the river and drowned. They found gold, but not provisions. The country was 
wild and inhabited only by Indians. After four days' journey Mr. Gregory became 
convinced that he would perish from cold and hunger, and after a variety of 
unpleasant experiences he separated from the party with two companions. For over 
twenty days he lived on acorns, which he had to dig out from under the snow, 
which was in some places twenty feet deep! One of his companions dropped into 
the snow just as they came in sight of Springtown. Joseph Phillips and Captain 
Gregory were the only men that ever reached Springtown alive, the rest having 
perished in the snow. At that place he spent over $20,000 in endeavoring to dam 
up the Yuba river about ten miles above the town. in benefiting mining 
enterprises. He finally abandoned it, as the scheme proved unsuccessful, and 
proceeded to San Francisco by the vessel and started for Santa Catalina Island, 
determined to find the lost treasure said to have been buried there in 1842. 
After thirty-six months in the fruitless search there he returned again to San 
Francisco, brought a cargo of lumber down to San Diego, and built the first 
wharf here. He followed the sea and visited Europe, Sandwich Islands, Oregon and 
many other points. He was aboard the steamer Ada Hancock, that brought the first 
cargo ever landed at Wilmington. The Captain made his last voyage in 1865, in 
the schooner Katura, and settled down in San Diego. In September of the same 
year he married Miss Maryette M. Moody at San Pedro, and has three children: 
Ella Sophia, Angenette and Emma. The last named is married. The Captain settled 
in the Chollas valley. Five years ago last April a heavy earthquake changed his 
well into a wonderful mineral spring that is now famous through southern 
California as supplying the means for a "miraculous" cure for almost every known 
complaint.
        The Captain is a rugged, hearty old pioneer, and is well known and 
respected by the community. All his immediate male relatives were shipmasters; 
his brothers are captains and officers in the United States navy. His sister, 
Mrs. Angenette Ames, has five sons, who are, strange to say, all physicians of 
prominence and ability. Their father, Emerson Ames, built the first railroad in 
Russia in 1852. He is well known in Baltimore as a distinguished 
railroad-builder and civil engineer. One of his daughters married Captain 
Nelson, stationed at Mare Island.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  255-256