Caleb Gregg (1807-1882) was a leading Wilburite minister of the mid to late 1800s first in Ohio and then in Iowa. As a recorded minister, he travelled widely among Wilburite and Primitive Friends.
Early Years at Plainfield
Caleb Gregg Jr. grew up in Plainfield Meeting in Belmont County, Ohio. His dad died when Caleb Jr. was quite young, and the family struggled to meet their obligations. Gregg was only 21 at the time of the Hicksite division. Most of his family became Hicksite, including his mother, who was a leader among the Ohio Hicksites. His brother Burr Gregg was a Quaker hatmaker who sided with the Hicksites in 1828 but was soon disowned by them. Not long after the division, Caleb married Millicent Doudna, and he and Burr moved to Morgan County as part of a migration of many Quaker families from Belmont County.
Pennsville and Hopewell
Caleb and Millicent settled on a farm on the main road leading north out of Pennsville and became members of Deerfield Monthly Meeting (soon to be renamed Pennsville). A Friends school house named Hopewell was constructed on their farm by 1837 that was part of the network of Quaker schools within Pennsville MM. In the late 1830s, Friends near the Greggs's farm asked to hold a meeting in their vicinity; it was turned down initially but finally granted in 1841. The Hopewell Meeting House was built in 1841 on Gregg's farm (it still stands as a residence). The meeting was quite large in the succeeding two decades.
The Greggs were active in the Pennsville Meeting. Gregg served as Recorder of Births and Deaths, Assistant Clerk, and Clerk. He first appeared in the ministry during these years, and he was recorded as a minister in 1839 [Source: Pennsville MM minutes]. He was also appointed to the Ohio YM Meeting for Sufferings, an appointment that testified to his stature in the yearly meeting.
Gregg was interested in the welfare of non-Quakers as well. In the local election of 1848, Gregg was elected on the Whig ticket as Director of the County Infirmary, a post he held 1849-1852. [Charles Robertson, History of Morgan County, Ohio (Chicago: L.H. Watkins & Co., 1886), p. 121.]
Iowa Wilburites, Primitives, and Conservatives
Caleb and Millicent Gregg moved to Iowa in 1853 and settled on the road to Viola in Linn County. The Linn Meeting House and School house were built on their farm; the Linn Meeting was subordinate to Red Cedar MM. At the first session of Linn Preparative Meeting in 1854, the overseers brought a complaint against Gregg because of his known allegiance to Ohio Wilburites (Indiana YM had decided to cut off fellowship with Ohio YM by this time). The PM unanimously rejected the complaint. When the Clerk of Red Cedar MM tried to force disciplinary action against Gregg the next month, a division took place.
The Linn Meeting was solidly Wilburite during the division in Red Cedar MM and was active in Salem QM, which rather unusually survived as an independent Quarterly Meeting in the late 1850s. In 1856, Gregg deeded two acres of land where the meeting house and school house stood to PM trustees. He travelled in the ministry to Ohio, New York, and New England during this time.
Friends in the Linn community divided three ways in the late 1850s. First, Ohio YM directed that Iowa Wilburites send their membership to Stillwater MM in Belmont County, Ohio. Since Salem QM did not have a YM, the tie to Ohio was strong even among those who had never been members there. Stillwater MM opened a meeting that used the Linn MH and named it Hopewell after the meeting that stood on Gregg's farm in Morgan County, Ohio. The shrinking Linn Meeting divided in 1862 between supporters of the Otisites and Kingites in New York and New England, though Gregg believed that the Otis-King division was not warranted. Tired of the wrangling, all Linn Kingites joined the Hopewell Meeting except for Gregg's family. Given the circumstances, Gregg made a wise decision and (as the surviving trustee) deeded the Linn MH property over to Hopewell Friends. He sat in the gallery at Linn the remainder of his life, though he was never a member of the Hopewell (Iowa) meeting.
When the Conservative division took place in Iowa, Gregg travelled in the ministry among the new Conservative meetings. He became a member of the Iowa Conservatives and was a Representative to the second Iowa YM session after the division (1878). He continued to be active in Iowa YM affairs the remainder of his life. Caleb Gregg died in the Hopewell community in 1882.
Sources: EAQG 4:396, 581, 1059 |
