Father Confers Adulthood on Three Minors: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “New to You”

1882 Legal Notice that Father Would No Longer Support Three Teen Sons

Susannah Vaught Hargrave Gregg: 1842-1923 (First Cousin 3x Removed)
John Henry Gregg: 1836-1891 (Husband of First Cousin 3x Removed)
Samuel Gregg: 1865-1888 (Second Cousin 2x Removed)
James Gregg: 1867-1899 (Second Cousin 2x Removed)
Augustus Hugh “Gus” Gregg: 1869-1952 (Second Cousin 2x Removed)

 

Nineteenth century newspapers contain the occasional surprise, from the amusing, such as articles about community controversies, to the seriously disturbing, such as casual references to racist attacks and Ku Klux Klan meetings. However, I had never seen anything like the newspaper legal notice published over the course of several days in the summer of 1882 by John Henry Gregg.  He was publicly announcing that he was no longer responsible for three of his minor sons and that he was basically making them “adults”. What in the world?

The text of the notice, published each of three days in August 1882 in the Los Angeles Times, reads as follows:

“Know all men by these presents: That I, John H. Gregg, of Los Angeles County, State of California, by reason of the provisions of section two hundred and eleven of the Civil Code of California, and in consideration of the natural love and affection which I have and bear for my children, Samuel Gregg, James M. Gregg and Augustus Gregg, do hereby relinquish to said children the right of controlling them and receiving their earnings during the remainder of their minority, and I do hereby, so far as in my power, invest them with all the rights, privileges and authority of adults.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this 24^th day of August, A. D. 1882.

John H. Gregg”

This type of notice was certainly new to me! I immediately checked the ages of the three young men in August 1882: they were John’s three eldest children, and were 17, 15 and 13 years of age! What did this notice mean? Was he actually kicking out a 13-year-old child to fend for himself? Where were the boys to go? How were they supposed to earn their keep? What would prompt such action by a father?

Who was John Henry Gregg? John was born in Texas in 1836, and married a granddaughter of Elias Guess Smith, Susannah Vaught Hargrave, in Hopkins, Texas on September 26, 1859. (That would make Susannah the first cousin of Rev. Willis Smith)

When the Civil War broke out, John enlisted in the 23^rd Regiment of the Texas Cavalry on July 10, 1862. He served in the Confederate Army as a private in the cavalry until March 5, 1865.

Following the war, John and Susannah moved their family to Fort Concho near what is now San Angelo, Texas. The fort was the base of the United States 4^th Cavalry, so possibly John continued as a cavalryman, but now for the United States rather than the Confederacy. The 1870 census listed him as a “stock driver” which, according to Wikipedia, was one of the tasks of the 4^th Cavalry, serving as protective escorts to stock herds as they crossed Indian lands on their way to market.

By 1880, the family had relocated. According to information one of John’s grandsons provided in a newspaper article years later, the family left Texas in a covered wagon, moving to California where they bought a walnut orchard. From there, they began expanding their land holdings and moved into ranching and farming in the Los Angeles basin. By the 1880 census, they lived in Santa Ana Township in what is now Orange County. The non-population schedule of the 1880 census shows that John owned 46 acres of land near Santa Ana worth $2000, and that he had five acres of orchard or meadow, and a few hundred dollars’ worth of stock.

So what happened in 1882 that prompted John to publish this bizarre legal notice? I at first assumed that John Gregg and his wife Susannah Hargrave Gregg were impoverished, desperate to feed their six children, and decided to send the three oldest sons out into the world in the hopes they could support themselves. However, my research indicates that John actually owned a considerable amount of land in what is now Whittier, North Hollywood, and Orange County. He was a rancher, raising cattle and also orchards of nuts and fruit. The family does not appear to have been destitute.

Additional property owned by John Gregg in 1880s near Whittier

I next tried to research Section 211 of the California Civil Code. I believe he was referencing what is now called the California Family Code, but it has been amended extensively since 1882 and I cannot find any online references that show the code as it would have read in 1882. All I can tell is that the section had something to do with child custody. This makes sense, as John Gregg was essentially giving up his parental rights to these three children.

But how could something so extreme have been legal, even in the more rough and tumble era of the 1880s? And what happened to the poor young men?

To my surprise, I found a Los Angeles Herald newspaper article dated June 11, 1888, listing all the students at the seminary of the University of Southern California—USC. Among the students were Samuel, James and Augustus Gregg, with their hometown listed as Fulton Wells. So how did the young men go from being tossed out by their father to college students? And where was Fulton Wells?

Google told me that Fulton Wells is now a neighborhood in Rancho Santa Fe, near Torrance, about 16 miles from the USC campus. I wonder how the young men travelled to school, or did they were live on campus during 1888? 

I have been unable to find records indicating where the boys were living between 1882 and 1886. I also found no indication that John Gregg’s sons were estranged from him, as both James and Augustus managed and eventually owned properties their father had acquired. Was the Fulton Wells property also owned by their father?

I have one hypothesis for John’s strange newspaper notice that is a kinder, more humane possibility than abandoning his sons. John owned land in at least three quite separate locations—miles apart and hours away in an era of horse and wagon travel. Perhaps he “emancipated” his three eldest sons in order to place them in charge of one or more of his properties. By granting them the rights of adults, they could handle any ranch-related business that arose without having to consult him. I am hoping this was the real explanation for the strangest newspaper legal notice that I have ever run across.

I will be adding additional blogs on the fates of John and Susannah’s children.

Sources:

Los Angeles Herald. June 11, 1888. Accessed through Newspapers.com.

Los Angeles Times. 15 Sep 1882 Legal Notice. Accessed through Newspapers.com.

Los Angeles Times. 18 Dec 1890. Accessed through Newspapers.com.

Los Angeles Times. 2 Feb 1891. Accessed through Newspapers.com.

1880 Federal Census. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1276/images/31560_204073-00022?pId=1728567

1870 Federal Census. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/7579590:7163?ssrc=pt&tid=81812584&pid=262382596284