Amos Gregson, Minister at St. Paul’s 1880’s

Amos Gregson was the first son born to Rev. Julius Cicero Gregson and his first wife, Harlina “Hollan” Briles. It is most likely that he was named in honor of his paternal grandfather, Amos Gregson (born about 1770 and died about 1845) who lived east of Lexington, North Carolina. (This location was first in Rowan County and later in Davidson County after it was formed from part of Rowan).

Amos married Martitia S. Dicks on September 3, 1865 in Randolph County, North Carolina. He was an ordained minister and is credited with starting several churches – some in Randolph County and one in Durham, North Carolina. Gregson Street in Durham is named in his honor. It runs beside the original site of Main Street Methodist Church, a church which the Duke family, of tobacco fame, built and where he was the first minister (see Wikipedia article on “Duke Memorial United Methodist Church”). Reverend Amos Gregson was also part owner of Naomi Mills which was located in the Randleman, North Carolina area. He was minister of Saint Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church in the 1880’s and 1890’s and made his home in Randleman, North Carolina during that period. After his wife, Martitia, died in 1916, he went to live with his daughter, Nancy Beatrice Gregson, and her husband, Charles Nathaniel Steed, in York County, South Carolina. In 1926 in Rock Hill (York County), South Carolina, Rev. Gregson passed away and his body was returned to Randleman to be interred beside his wife’s at Saint Paul’s.