The Alaska daily empire., 1914-09-28
APPRECIATION SKETCH
 OF ATTORNEY GENERAL

EINolNNAN NAAsN4'
 Thomas Watt Gregory was born November 6, 1861. in the little village of Crawfordsville. in Lowndes county, state of Mississippi, few miles from the Alabama line. His father was Dr. Francis Robert Gregory, who was born in Mecklenburg county, Virginia, and educated at Emory and Henry college in southwestern Virginia. Dr. Gregory as a physicion, also entered the Confederate army as captain. served in the S5th Mississippi and died shortly after the battle of C6rin' tn. His mother was Mary Cornelia Watt, of Columbia, South Carolina. Both families were of English, Scotch ard Irish blood.
 The subject of this sketch, being left at a tender age as the only child of a widow, grew up in the family of his maternal grandfather, Major Thomas Watt, who was planter of prominence in oktibbeha county, Mis- sissippi.
 At the close of the war, Major Watt sod his large plantation and moved to Starkville, Mississippi, and lived there for a few years. and then pur- chased plantation in what is now Clay county, Mississippi. A few years later he sold this plantation and nov ed to the town of West Point, where young Gregory grew to manhood. He attended the village school participate e. in the village sports, learned to swim in the Tombigbee river hunted and fished along the banks of its tri. butaries, and grew up living an out door life, of which he has always been extremely fond. He belonged to the village debating society and took an active part in its proceedings. At the age of fifteen he went to boarding school at Culleoka, in Maury county, Tennessee, and there prepared for college. In 1881 he entered the south W, stern Presbytery university at Clan ksville. Tennessee, and finished the course in 1883, being the first student ever graduated from that in stitution in two years, winning the orators medal and other honors. The following year he was special stu dent at the University of Virginia, where he won the Jefferson debators' medal. In the fall of 1884, he went west and located at Austin, Texas, graduating from the University of Texas law department in 1885, and beginning the practice of law in Aus tin in the fall of the same year. Up to 1900 he practiced alone, when he formed partnership with R. l.. Batts under the firm name of Gregory and Batts, and in 1908 Judge W. L. Brooks retired from the bench and entered the firm, and the firm name became Gregory, Batts and Brooks. He was regent of the University of Texas for eight years, and declined the ap- pointment of assistant attorney-gen- eral of Texas in 1892. and appoint. ment to the state bench in 1896. He was one of the trustees of the Aus tin Presbyterian theological seminary, and has taken an active interest In educational and church affairs. He was married to Miss Julia Nalle, of Austin. on February 22. 1893, and has four children: Jane Gregory, aged 20, who graduated last spring from the University of Texas; T. W. Gregory, Jr.. n W r years old and preparing for college at Lawrenceville. New Jersey; Nalle Gregory, 15 years old, now a student at Shenandoah military academy Winchester, Virginia; and Cornelia Gregory, aged '.
 Mir. Gregory has never been a can. didate for any office, but has taken an active interest in almost all the poll. tical contests which have taken place in Texas during the last 30 years. He was delegate to the national demo. cratic convention in St. Louis in 1904, and represented his state in commit tee on credentials. He was a delegate from the state at large to the Balti. more convention, and was one of it's vice-presidents. He has always main tained that the duties of \a private citizen are as onerous as those of the public servant, and that the duty of actively participating in the discus sion of political questions and in at- tempting their solution cannot be properly avoided by any man. His life has been that of a lawyer and he is known as such. The firm of Greg. ory and Mats was specially employ ed by the State of Texas to prosecute it's great suit against the Waters Pierce oil Company, a part of the Standard oil trust and recovered a judgment forteitlng the right of this corporation to do business in Texas. winding up it's affairs through the in. of State receiver, sell ing out its entire plant and rendering a judgment for penalties in favor of the State for little less than $2,0OO,- poo. This judgment for penalties is believed to be the largest ever sus- .ained in the United States or perhaps was collected and the mon.