Biography - Charles E. Gregory

HON. CHARLES E. GREGORY. The profession of law is well represented in North Dakota, and practical skill and theoretical knowledge place many in the foreground, and a prominent place among that number is accorded the gentleman herein named. He has been associated intimately with the development of the state and is one of the pioneer attorneys and enjoys a growing professional patronage both in his own home, and from abroad.

Our subject was born in Nauvoo, Hancock county, Illinois, in 1858. His father, Edwin Gregory, was an American, and was a farmer by occupation. The family has been in America many generations and have served in all the wars of this country, the great-grandfather, Peter Gregory, serving in the Revolutionary war. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Annie Lane. She was of Scotch descent and her family settled in America prior to the Revolution.

Mr. Gregory was the eldest in a family of three children, and was reared in Rochelle, Illinois, and attended the public schools there, and later graduated from the State University of Illinois, with the degree of B. A. He later graduated from the Union College of Law in Chicago, in 1880, with the degree of B. L. He went to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1880 and was employed in the office of Senator Frank Pettigrew, and in 1882 went to Carrington. North Dakota, where he established a law and land office, and was appointed clerk of the district court. He was active in the organization of Foster county, and took a homestead where the town of New Rockford now stands, and it was largely through his efforts that the county was divided into Foster and Eddy counties. In 1887 he went to Minot, and there engaged in the practice of his profession exclusively, and while residing there was elected states attorney of Ward county, and served two terms, and then served four years in the state senate. He held the office of grand chancellor of North Dakota in the Knights of Pythias lodge while there, and was prominent in social and business affairs of that region. He went to Fargo, North Dakota, in 1895, and practiced law there until the spring of 1898, when he enlisted in the Rough Riders, and was commissioned captain of Troop G, of Grigsby's Rough Riders. During the time of their encampment in Georgia they met with severe losses by disease, and at times there were hardly enough well men to care for the sick. He served five months, and then returned to North Dakota, and took up the practice of his profession in Dickinson in the summer of 1899. He enjoys an increasing practice and is one ot the rapidly rising attorneys of the state.

Our subject was married, in the summer of 1899, to Helen JL. Drake, a native of Marshall, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Gregory are the parents of one child, who bears the name of Helen, and was born at St. Paul, Minnesota. Mr. Gregory was a candidate before the Republican convention for nomination for attorney general of North Dakota in 1894, and in 1900 was the nominee of the Republican party for state's attorney of Stark county. He is prominent in secret society circles and is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Masonic fraternity, and has passed the thirty-second degree in the last named order.

Extracted 26 Dec 2019 by Norma Hass from Compendium History and Biographies of North Dakota, published in 1900, page 1151.

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