Charles Augustus “Gus” Gregory Sr.

Got some information on Gus Gregory from one of his Great Grandson’s. Pretty interesting story, as I expect most people who live over a century have.

Charles Augustus Gregory, Sr. was born Nov. 29 1881, and died Apr 29 1986. That’s 104 years for those counting. He was not a Bass descendant, but his first wife was and so his many descendant are as well.

Sheila Josephine Gregory [Bass] b. Jun. 11 1887 d. Nov. 7 1922, was Gus’ first wife, was the daughter of Bennett B. “Shug” Bass and Mary Frances Bass [Padgett]. The couple is listed as having 5 children.

Below is a transcript of Gus’ 103rd birthday flyer.

“The electric light bulb, just developed by Edison, and a new machine called a telephone, which had recently been invented by a man named Bell, were still very much in the news. Chester a Arthur was the newly elected 21st President of the thirty-eight states wen a brand new baby boy (whom we will call Gus) was born in Sylvester, Georgia, to William and Martha Gregory. The year was 1881.

Toddling around Mama’s feet, Gus probably heard Mom and Dad discussing the cotton crop that year and how unfair those carpetbaggers were! And what was that about a man named Ulysses S. Grant just dying? To Daddy, he seemed to be a very important man! That same year, the boy began to hear a lot of talk about a big statue. Some people said it looked like a big Tall lady holding a torch and they thought it was going to be put in New York Harbor. Well, for a small lad of five, this just wasn’t as interesting as listening to all the stories about Indian fighting out west. Why, only ten years ago a hero named General Custer had been killed in a big Indian battle, and now there was talk that Geronimo was going to surrender!

Life for this small boy continued as usual any child in the south, and time now had him in grade school. He listened as his teacher told about a Johnstown Flood that had just happened up north somewhere. At 15 years old, one imagines, his desire for adventure ran wild when he heard stories about all the gold being discovered in the Klondike on the Yukon River. Or how exciting it would be to travel with a national hero called Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. So MANY things were happening these days to excite a person! News had also arrived in Georgia that some type of new machine had been made that, when gasoline was put into it, one could actually ride around in – all without the aid of a horse! They were calling it an automobile. (Gus had his first encounter with and automobile while hauling some cotton on the back of a wagon for his dad. He recalls it was about two weeks before his sixteenth birthday. When asked what his reaction to it was, he replied, “It scared my horse and made me mad!”

The country had now entered into a brand new Century, and following a short stay in college and then a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy, a young Gus sought to achieve his fortune in the turpentine business. Big news for the Gregory family that Gus had now married. (On the national news scene, two brothers by the name of Wright over in North Carolina were working with a flimsy wood, wire, and cloth contraption trying to make it fly up in the air like a bird!)

Back to more realistic things… Gus now moved his wife and growing family to Round Lake, Florida, where he continued in the turpentine business. Across the street from the Gregory’s lived a family by the name of Byrd. Their twelve year old daughter, Pauline, recalls what good friends her mom and dad were with the Gregory’s. Pauline, remembers Gus Gregory being one of the first to come when her dad died, and how he later, as Round Lake’s Justice of the Peace, even married her mom and stepdad. Pauline also recalls his being a Church-going man and Sunday School teacher way back then.

Misfortune struck, burning down the turpentine business, and the Gregorys moved away to Jupiter, Florida. Here, tragedy struck again, and Mrs. Gregory died with cancer.

The following years found Gus, now in his mid-40s, working for DuPont in Virginia, then the shipyards in Key West and Panama City. While in Panama City, Gus, then in his early 60’s, was invited to a family reunion to renew old acquaintances he had known 20 years earlier when he and his family had lived at nearby Round Lake. At this family reunion, Gus saw a little girl, Pauline, who had once lived across the street from his family in Round Lake. This little girl had now become a beautiful woman- a woman who had married, but fate had now already made a widow. Gus was smitten with her beauty, and within a year they were married.

The ensuing years found the couple living in Virginia and back to Florida again. Having Been together for the past 39 years, the rest is current history.

The couple moved to Orlando in 1975. Gus has remained active and up until five years ago worked every day in the foster grandparent program.

Today we are proud to salute this man… on who is proud to be the father of four children, the grandfather of eight and the great-grandfather of 20, and the great-great-grandfather of 8. A very unique person whose life has spanned an entire century in the history of man. ONE HUNDRED YEARS… just think of it… it simply leaves one speechless!!”

The young girl in the image below is Corinne Olive [Gregory], who celebrated her 103rd birthday on Dec. 3 2019. To my knowledge she is the youngest daughter of Gus and Sheila Josephine Gregory [Bass].

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