McGregor, Alexander 1804-1858

MCGREGOR, GARDNER

Posted By: S. Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 1/6/2022 at 18:16:02

DIED - At McGregor, on Sunday, December 12th, 1858, at 10 1/2 A.M., of a long and painful illness, Alexander McGregor, aged Fifty-four years and seven months.

The deceased was born at Wilton, Saratoga County, New York, May 23d, 1804. He emigrated to Chicago in 1822, thence to Prairie du Chien in 1833. His removal to the place which bears his name and in which the last part of his life was spent, occurred in 1847.

He was attended in sickness by the best medical aid of the country, surrounded by an affectionate family, a large circle of most valued friends, and died as calmly as if going to sleep.

In the arrangement of his extensive and somewhat complicated business, he was assisted by a favorite brother, Duncan McGregor, of Wilton, N.Y.

The Funeral services will take place today at one o'clock, at his late residence.

Alexander McGregor was our friend, and it would afford us a melancholy gratification to detail the difficulties and privations he encountered in the early settlement of this country, and the energy and manliness with which he has met the responsibilities of pioneer life, but we are not furnished with the data, and hence this notice can not be historical, though the subject of it eminently merits and invites a minute biographic article.

Knowing our deceased friend to have been a man of unquestioned integrity, [illegible] to the application or to the reception of flattery, we dare not insult his memory by the use of smooth terms of exclusive praise. In the estimation of the world and doubtless of himself, he was not faultless, but whatever errors of life may be remembered against him are properly attributed to a moral constitution that asked nothing but the Right and submitted to nothing that be regarded as Wrong.

The compromise of interest or principle was unknown to a nature that deliberately took a position, believed to be correct, and inflexibly maintained it. Many men are said to have died unregretted. Their conduct has been such that no eye moistened with the tear of sorrow, looked upon the last sad office that [illegible] humanity could render - no interest, except that caused by the remembrance of their wrongs, was awakened in the hearts of the multitude!

Not so here - the inhabitants of the town will long regret his early decease, the friends and neighbors of many years will mourn the loss of a tried friend, while anguish unutterable will possess the hearts of his bereaved partner and her orphan boys, when the gentle voice and eloquent eye of the departed one present themselves to the keenly searching ear and eye of Memory.

Alexander McGregor was a warm friend, an open foe, a kind husband, an indulgent father a law-abiding citizen and an honest man. As a matter of interest to the public we may state that his sickness was borne and Death met with a fortitude unexcelled in the records of Earth's greatest heroes.

A friend suggests, and we agree with him most decidedly, that the business houses of the city be closed at One o'clock to-day (Wednesday) as a mark of respect to the memory of our late fellow-citizen, Alexander McGregor. The procession will probably leave the house for the place of interment, at 3 o'clock.

~Weekly North Iowa Times, December 15, 1858; pg 2

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The Funeral - We would not reopen the wounds which the death of our late fellow citizen and friend has occasioned, but we deem it proper to inform the public that the funeral procession on Wednesday last was the most imposing tribute of regard ever offered to a citizen of this portion of Iowa. The cortage was half a mile in length, numbering fifty to seventy teams and carrying nearly 1000 people - the Hotels and Business Houses were closed, and draped in mourning and a general sadness was exhibited by all.

In this connection we may state that our exchanges all speak in terms of very high respect of the deceased - below is a notice from the Dubuque Express & Herald:

Death of an Old Citizen - Alexander McGregor, the Proprietor of the town of McGregor, died on Sunday last, aged fifty years. The cause of his death was cancer in the stomach.

Mr. McGregor was originally a resident of Saratoga, N.Y. He came to Iowa in 1835, and has since been a citizen of the State. He located the town of McGregor - has been engaged in other improvements in various sections, exhibiting throughout infinite enterprise and indomitable, tireless energy. He was of the strictest integrity, and of strong impulses - one that never took a half way or hesitating position on any matter. By this he gained devoted friends and strong enemies - both of whose feelings he could most fully reciprocate, each in its kind.

He leaves behind hosts of warm friends and admirers. Of his family, there are a wife and two children.

~Weekly North Iowa Times, December 22, 1858; pg 2
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Notes:
- He was first buried in the McGregor Family Cemetery, on a hill above his residence. Several years later his remains, and those of an infant son were disinterred by his wife Ann (Gardner) McGregor and reburied in the Lower Town cemetery, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin (aka Evergreen cemetery)