The History of Gregory Station
By Roger L. Miller
(Source - Middletown Journal, Middletown Past,  4/17/2004                  updated 7/2009)
Transcribed by Tracey Saucy
 
	 "The ever-present fear of raids form the Indiana meant that small defensive fortifications were among the first structures built  as the new and vulnerable southwestern Ohio settlements were founded between 1788 and 1795.  The story of these defenses is inseparable from that of the people who build them, for settlers spread throughout the area not in the isolated cabins of frontier -Myth, but in tightly knitted communities.
	One of these was located near the mouth of Gregory Creek.  David Gregory was one of the earliest settlers in Butler County and the first in what would become Lemon Township.  He was the founder of Gregory's Station and gave his name to the Creek.  Around 1791 a stockade station, and outpost of Fort Hamilton, was built on this site.
	The Gregory family was living along the banks of the stream as early as 1790. He had purchased at least two tracts of land from Jonathan Dayton.  The deed for the 412 acres on which his station stood was not signed until April 1, 1795, and was not recorded at the Hamilton County courthouse in Cincinnati until Feb. 28, 1797.
	We know that Gregory's Station was already at this site in 1791 because Daniel Doty, who spent the summer of 1791 in the area that became Middletown, recalled passing the small military outpost on his trip north in 1791 as well as his return trip in 1796, when he came to stay.  He is regarded as the first permanent settler of Middletown.	Gen. Arthur St. Clair ordered the construction of Fort Hamilton in the fall of 1791, the first in a chain of forts in what was to become western Ohio.  During a surprise attack in 1791, Little Turtle, the 
	While this was proceeding, Little Turtle continued his attacks against the frontier settlements.  He started south in November 1792, with 260 young braves, and planned to wipe out Columbia, and important settlement on the Ohio River at the mouth of the Little Miami River.
	Near Gregory's Station the Indians saw some soldiers, probably a detachment from Fort Hamilton.  Seeing the superior Indian forces, the soldiers fled, but two were captured and - under torture - revealed that 50 mounted riflemen were escorting a brigade of pack horsed to Fort Jefferson to supply that garrison.  Hoping to secure provisions, guns and ammunition, as well as horses, Little Turtle began trailing the pack train.  It reached Fort Jefferson safely 
	The empty convoy started south, resting for the night at Fort St. Clair,  The next morning Little Turtle surprised the pack train, captured the horses and killed six of the soldiers: Robert Bowling, Joseph Clinton, Isaac Jett, Job Hale, Matthew English, and John Williams.
	In 1793, Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne took over the army after St. Clair's defeat, and moved to Fort Hamilton.  Proceeding slowly and moving cautiously, he was determined to avoid St. Clair's mistake and sent out a detachment to observe Indian movements.  He placed a few soldiers at Gregory's Station.
	Ellis Miller, who was in charge of a pack-horse train for Wayne's expedition was captured and killed near Gregory's Creek.  Hearing the news, Wayne and a detachment rushed to the site, but the Indians and supplies were gone.  While there, Wayne and his soldiers stopped at the Gregory home and a friendship developed, with Wayne returning whenever conditions permitted - perhaps enticed by Mrs. Gregory's excellent cooking.
	This little incident was preserved in history by a carving on Margaret Gregory's tombstone in the small family burial ground near LeSourdsville.  The epitaph reads:
	"Here lies a woman, the first save one-
	Skilled in everything [sic - Settled in Miami] above Fort Hamilton.
	Her table was spread, with that of the best
	And Anthony Wayne was often her guest."
	
	In 1800, Butler County was still a part of Hamilton County.  In January of that year David Gregory was among 66 petitioners to Congress on behalf of Abraham Freeman, who has settled north of the Gregory family.  The petitioners asked Congress to pass and act allowing Freeman to purchase land on Dick's Creek for a much needed  mill site.  Freeman has constructed a stockade for his family's safety, but by this time Wayne had defeated the Indians, elimina 
	Gregory died July 9, 1802, at the age of 34.  He and his wife, Margaret are buried on the station site, which is today's LeSourdsville's Rochester Hills mobile home park".
				-Roger Miller is a Middletown resident and historian.