Finding Carlton

Location: Madison County, Oak Run Township, Ohio

Carlton Enzy Gregg -- my great, great, grandfather -- was much easier to "find" than his grandson Carl was, although he still has secrets he is keeping.

Carlton Enzy Gregg (CEG) was born September 18, 1813. Oddly, I am writing this on September 18, his 194th birthday. He was born in Pennsylvania, but came to Madison County, Ohio, with his mother and two brothers in 1829. He bought a grist mill, married several times, and was "generally respected for his good qualities" and was a "staunch democrat." His first son by his second wife, named John, is the father of my grandfather Carl, and the person who purchased the cemetery lots that led me to find Carl.

The Gregg's have left a mark in this part of Ohio. There are numerous cemetery plots in local cemeteries, and the grave markers are large and prominent, indicating the family was not without means. I found two streets named for my ancestors -- a Gregg Road in West Jefferson, and Gregg Mill Road that crosses Oak Run at the place where CEG's mill was located. He is mentioned in several history books, as a mill owner, a township trustee and a township supervisor.

Finding the site of the mill was ridiculously easy -- I located a Map of Oak Run Township in 1875, and there his property was, seemingly carved out of land owned by Eliza Chrisman. So I went on a road trip. The road that used to run to the mill is still Gregg Mill Road although the mill is long gone. If you know a mill was once there, you can still see traces of the mill race.

So here is one of the remaining mysteries: One of CEG's three wives was Rebecca Chrisman, my great, great, grandmother. It seems reasonable to assume that she and Eliza were related and that the property came to CEG because of his marriage. But I can't link Rebecca to Eliza (who was very wealthy, having a quarter of a million in land and property in 1870), and, while I don't have the exact date when CEG built the mill, it seems that it was before he married Rebecca. Rebecca died at age 25, probably in childbirth, and her grave is quite plain. Maybe she was a relative of Eliza, and CEG met her after he was an established millwright. Maybe the name is a coincidence. Maybe the story lies elsewhere.

CEG was married three times -- the first marriage to Adaline lasted 11 months, and ended in her death. There were no children. The second, to Rebecca, was for four years, and they had three children. The third, and longest, was to Winnie and lasted 22 years, and ended with Carlton Enzy's death at age 79. They also had three children. There are some other researchers who have attributed additional Gregg children to CEG by other women, but he was only married these three times. He and Winnie share a grave site on a hill in the country:

I still don't know where John (Carlton's son, Carl's father, and my great grandfather) ended up -- he wasn't in the plots he purchased in Michigan, and I didn't locate his grave here -- but I'm leaving that particular mystery for another trip.