Nettie E. McGregor
Nettie E. McGregor
Born
Nov. 20, 1876
Died
Feb. 10, 1896
A precious one from us has gone
A voice we loved is stilled
A place is vacant in our home
Which never can be filled
Photo Credit: Rosa G. Gonzales
First it should be noted that a name used by many of the members of this family has two variants used almost equally in documentation—“Steward†and Stewartâ€. Nettie E. McGregor is one of four young people buried in Old Bayview Cemetery with their parents, John Steward (1838-1903) and Frances Jane McGregor (1844-1908). Their paternal grandparents, John Steward McGregor, Sr. (1805-1889) and wife Mary Ann (1810-1891) were also initially buried in the cemetery. However, they were later removed to Rose Hill Cemetery subsequent to its establishment in 1914. Nettie’s father is John Steward McGregor, Jr. who was born on 28 February 1838 and was 13 years old when he left from London with his parents to sail for Texas in 1852. His family initially settled on the Nueces River at a spot near a conspicuous clump of large trees known as the “Mottsâ€. Nuecestown developed there, and other English families settled in the vicinity—the Wrights, Noakes, Orchards, Reynolds, and Howards. Nettie’s paternal grandmother was the former Mary Ann Thomas, daughter of Sir Walter Thomas of London. Nettie’s mother was Fannie Oliver, sister of D. M. Oliver and E. R. Oliver who lived in the Oso community about 12 miles southwest of the city of Corpus Christi. The Oliver family had their own family burial ground on their property near their homes on the Oso. While her obituary says that Fannie was a native of Red River County, Texas, she usually reports in census records that she was from Mississippi or Missouri. The parents of Nettie married 31 July 1868 (Nueces County Marriage Records, volume C page 373). Nettie was born some years later after her parents had already lost two children in infancy. In the 1870 census her parents were still living near the senior McGregors and the Terrell family (Mrs. Wm. B. Terrell is Nettie’s aunt Flora S. McGregor) in the Nuecestown vicinity. However, by the 1880 census the family, including Nettie, is listed as living near Fannie’s family in the Oso community. The Terrells also moved with the McGregors to this community, probably after the notorious Raid of 1875 that terrorized the residents of Nuecestown and nearby communities along the Nueces River. In the census record of 1880 (ED 117, p. 41D) Nettie is listed as “Nellieâ€. She is three years old with two older brothers, John and Edward, and a younger sister, Rosey who is only 9 months old. Nettie died as a young lady, a little more than 19 years old in February of 1896. Three of Fannie McGregor’s offspring would precede their mother to the grave, and a fourth would die only two years after this mother. However, three of John and Fannie’s children lived to an older age. Their sons John and Thomas both died in 1929 and are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell