DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's got the story, and here's how I tell it. Now, some lives stretch across so much Texas ground that you almost have to step back just to take in the whole picture — and Darius Gregg is exactly that kind of man. Born November 8, 1804, in Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Kentucky, he didn't wait long to find his way to the frontier.
He arrived in Texas in 1827, and in 1831 he received a land grant in Austin's second colony. That right there tells you something — he was here early, planting roots when Texas was still figuring out what it was going to be. Then came the autumn and winter of 1835, and Darius Gregg was in the thick of it.
He fought in the Siege of Bexar, October through December of that year, and he was there for the Grass Fight on November 26. That name alone ought to make you curious, and the marker lets it hang there just like that — the Grass Fight, November 26, 1835, and Darius Gregg was present. In 1840 he married Susan Speed Bowen, and he kept on building.
Through the 1850s and into the 1860s he was working as a surveyor in Houston — measuring out the land, drawing the lines that tell a growing city where it begins and ends. From 1862 to 1863 he was surveying for the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad, which is about as Texas a mouthful as you're going to find. He held land in Denton, Grimes, and Harris counties — not a man who stayed put in one corner of the map.
And he gave, too. Land and money, both, to Methodist church programs. He died March 28, 1870, but his name didn't go with him.
Gregg Chapel in Houston was named in his honor. A surveyor who drew lines across Texas in more ways than one.
What the marker says
(Nov. 8, 1804 - Mar. 28, 1870) Born in Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Ky. Arrived in Texas, 1827. Received land grant in Austin's second colony, 1831. Fought (Oct.-Dec. 1835) in Siege of Bexar, including the Grass Fight (Nov. 26). Married Susan Speed Bowen, 1840. Was a surveyor in Houston, 1850s-60s; for Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad, 1862-63. A landholder in Denton, Grimes, and Harris counties; gave land and money to Methodist church programs. Gregg Chapel in Houston was named in his honor.