Transcribed and provided by a descendant of Margaret and David Gregory- Tracey Saucy .

Restore Headstones of Earliest Settlers
By Jim Sloan 
Hamilton Journal News  Nov 27, 1948                         Updated 7/2009
 
	 "A little to the left of State Route 4, Middletown pike, as one drives toward Middletown, and just this side of the bridge over Gregory Creek, on the Harry Davis farm, is a wooded knoll.  There, overlooking the valleys of Gregory creek and the Great Miami river, is the grave of the second white woman to enter this area.
	Margaret Gregory was the wife of David Gregory, whose grave is beside her own.  Gregory, it is believed, kept an outpost of Fort Hamilton, watching the up-river approaches to the fort.  It is known, at least, that soldiers from the Fort Hamilton garrison helped him to clear the land for his home.  When David Gregory died in 1802, and Margaret in 1821, they were buried on the knoll near their home.  Rough creek stones undoubtedly were used as the first markers for their graves. 
Son Remarks Graves
 
	In 1866 David Hiram Gregory, the youngest son of David and Margaret, returned to more suitably mark the graves of his parents.  For this work he employed a stonecutter, Aaron Potter, who, by coincidence, was the son of the only white woman to precede Margaret Gregory into the region.  On the stones were inscribed poems which Hiram Gregory is believed to have composed.  The inscriptions, still legible, read:
	DAVID GREGORY
	DIED
	JULY 9, 1802
	AGED 34 YEARS
	Here lies the man never known to falter
	When sickness and death drew on the halter
	Who like the Samaritan by the Divine
	Poured on the balsam, the oil and the wine
	
	and
 
	MARGARET
	WIFE OF
	DAVID GREGORY
	DIED
	AUG. 12, 1821
	AGED 66 YEARS		
	Here lies the woman, the first save one
	Settled on Miami, above Fort Hamilton
	Her table was spread and that of the best
	And Anthony Wayne was often her guest.
 
	In the years since the erection of the monuments, the burial ground has been neglected.  Few people ever went there, and the graves were untended.  The underbrush grew into a thicket, and then no one went there at all.  The location of the historic graves was all but forgotten, although the story of their existence persisted.  For twenty years, more of less, they were only a legend, a story which must be true, but which was unproved.
	Then, three years ago, Mrs. Emma Drake told Dr. H. Lee Good, whose home is nearby on the Liberty-Fairfield road, about the graves.  Doctor Good, a member of the Butler County Historical Society, knew the story, but had never seen the graves.  Mrs. Drake, a resident of the section, had been taken there, as a child, by her father.  She and her husband had tried several times, in recent years, to locate the graves, but without success.  Doctor Good showed interest, and a new search was undertaken, ending when the stones were found buried under the leaves and loam of the thicket.  With the permission of Harry Davis, the owowner of the farm on which the graves are located, the stones were carefully uncovered and placed by the graves.  Circumstances however, preventing their restoration until very recently. 
 
Scouts Lend Help
 
	A few days ago the work of restoration was resumed.  The project was mentioned to Gilbert H. Urick, Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troup 17, sponsored by the First Presbyterian church.  The Scouts, always ready to undertake any job of civic merit, responded.  Mrs. Karl W. Heiser, an authority on the history of this region, and also a member of the historical society, accompanied the group.  Mrs. Heiser contributes the weekly articles on Hamilton and Butler county history that appear in the Journal-News.
	Mrs. Heiser, Mrs. Drake, Doctor Good, Jess Bowman who works for Doctor Good, and Scouts Gilbert Urick, Jr., Bob Kienzle and Eugene Miller set about the task of clearing away the underbrush and gathering fragments of the stones.  Margaret Gregory's monument was found intact, and the head and foot stones were placed horizontally on a foundation of stone and concrete and surrounded with the same materials as is shone in the photograph.  So placed, they should be relatively secure from further damage.  David Gregory's marker has suffered greater damage, and the foot stone and fragments of the head stone have not been found.  When these missing pieces are located this monument will be encased in the same fashion as the other, and another of our fast-disappearing historical landmarks will have been saved for posterity.  
 
NOTE - A photo accompanies this article: 
"As the accompanying story reports, the group pictured is restoring headstones of David Gregory and his wife, Margaret, two of the earliest known residents of Butler county.  Left is the David Gregory headstone, right that of Margaret Gregory.  
Pictured are those active in their restoration:  Standing, left to right, Scout Gilbert Urick, Jr., Emma Drake, Scout Eugene Miller, and Mrs. Alta Harvey Heiser, famed Butler county writer and historian; kneeling: Scout Bob Kienzle, Jess Bowrman, and Dr. Lee Good."