The Ghost of Black Star Canyon: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Ghost Story”

Local Ghost Story Turns Out to Have a Family Connection

James Gregg: 1867-1899 (Maternal Second Cousin Twice Removed)

 

Living in south Orange County, we are familiar with Black Star Canyon, which lies fourteen miles northeast into the Santa Ana Mountains from our home in Lake Forest. And we were also familiar with the stories that claimed the canyon was haunted—it’s a popular spot for Ghost Walks and Ghost Tours, especially around Halloween. However, I was stunned to discover that one of the main ghosts reputed to haunt Black Star Canyon was ancestor James Gregg!

Black Star Canyon Road, photo by Justin Johnsen, WikiCommons

So who was James Gregg and why do people believe he haunts the canyon?

James Marion Gregg was born at Fort Concho in Texas to parents John Henry Gregg and Susannah Vaught Hargrave in 1867. His father was working for the U. S. Cavalry at the time. The family eventually moved west by covered wagon to California, settling in Los Angeles County. James had four brothers and one sister; he was the second oldest child.

John Gregg acquired several tracts of land across a wide swathe of territory, including walnut groves in the Whittier area and orange groves near Santa Ana. Among his properties was ranchland near Orange, in what would become Orange County. James Gregg and two brothers, Samuel and Augustus, were basically emancipated by their father in their teens so they could manage the Santa Ana/Orange area properties while he oversaw the Whittier area land. The brothers also attended college at USC in the late 1880s.

James Gregg married Gladys “Louise” Strong during the late 1880s; I have found no record thus far of the marriage, but it was prior to their daughter’s Gladys’ birth in June of 1890. Among James’ responsibilities was running the Gregg family ranch, raising cattle and horses. In February of 1899, he had arranged to pasture some of his stock—seven cattle and four horses--at a property called Hidden Ranch in Black Star Canyon. The ranch was owned by three partners, George Howard, who lived on the ranch, and brothers Thomas “Luther” and Henry Hungerford, who lived farther north in Norwalk.

Hidden Ranch

James had sold a horse to George Howard; the sale price had only been partly paid. James arrived at Hidden Ranch on June 9, 1899 with his brother-in-law Decateur Harris and a teenage employee, Clinton Hunt, to collect his stock and pay for the pasturage. The Hungerfords were at the ranch that day, and James suggested his pasturage bill be offset by the amount still owed from the horse sale. The Hungerfords, who had not been part of the horse sale deal, objected strongly. There was a lot of arguing before the men all went to bed, the Hungerfords and Howard in the ranch house, and the Gregg group camping outside.

The argument resumed in the morning and involved “the use of oaths”. According to witness George Howard’s account in the Anaheim Gazette, when Howard came out of the house after breakfast, he saw James Gregg was holding a shotgun, and when Luther Hungerford threatened to get his own gun, James vowed “You get a gun and I’ll kill you.”

Both Hungerfords got their weapons and a gun battle ensued. Howard said it ended when Henry Hungerford emptied both barrels of a shotgun at Gregg. The reporter wrote,

“Gregg had been down on one hand and one knee while Henry was shooting at him. Evidently he was badly wounded…As Hungerford disappeared into the house, Gregg called to Harris saying ‘Dick, come here, I’m shot’.”

According to Howard, as Harris tended to Gregg he said that Gregg “made a fool of himself; it is all his own fault.” Given Howard’s relationship with the Hungerford brothers, I take that quote with a giant grain of salt.

The Hungerfords saddled their horses and rode to Santa Ana to turn themselves in to the sheriff—they could tell James’ wounds were lethal. Meanwhile, Harris loaded James Gregg into his wagon and started back through the canyon to find a doctor, who met the wagon near the picnic grounds at the bottom of the canyon. The sheriff and district attorney soon arrived to take James’ deathbed testimony.

Meanwhile, someone had ridden ahead to notify James’ wife, and she rode up with her father and her little daughter. The scene was tragic.

“Mrs. Gregg recognized her husband’s wagon from afar. She saw it slowly descending the hill and believed her husband was dead. She leaped from her father’s wagon and ran weeping to her husband’s side.”

I can only imagine Louise Gregg’s fear and the terror of little nine-year-old Gladys as they desperately drove to find James.

The doctor found James riddled with bird and buckshot—32 buckshot and 51 pellets of birdshot. James had a fatal liver wound, and died at 4 p.m. at the home of a neighboring farmer. James was 32 years old.

The Hungerfords were brought to trial that fall, and were found guilty of murder by a jury. 

However, the judge set aside the verdict and demanded that the district attorney bring more evidence. As the D.A. had already presented statements from the dying man and the testimony of several witnesses, this was a ridiculous demand. The District Attorney had no further evidence to supply, so the judge freed the Hungerfords. There were hints in press coverage that gossip suggested the judge had accepted a bribe, but no one produced any evidence of judicial wrongdoing. At least one newspaper columnist defended the judge’s decision, so it must not have been as cut-and-dried as one might have expected. The gunfight’s witnesses agreed that both James and Luther Hungerford fired nearly simultaneously, so there probably was an argument for self-defense. However, the gunfight was still two against one, and the brothers continued firing after Gregg had sunk to his knees, wounded.

There was a considerable public outcry about the judge’s decision, which led to his losing re-election a year later.

Supposedly this injustice is why the ghost of James Gregg haunts Black Star Canyon. His spirit can’t rest until his killers are punished. People claim to have heard him moaning in the canyon’s gloom.

If James Gregg’s ghost really existed, it could take comfort in the fact that his death is still remembered nearly 125 years later. His spirit truly lives on in popular imagination. In addition, he has plenty of ghostly companions—he is just one of several ghosts reputed to haunt the canyon.

James should rest a little easier this week, as I’m sure dozens of people learned about his short and tragic life this past weekend. Tour guides were out in force leading spooky Halloween walks through Black Star Canyon. I’m sure James’ story provided a few chills and thrills. In addition, James could take pride in being the only ghost I’ve discovered in the Aird family tree.

Sources:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Star_Canyon_Road.JPG Photo by Justin Johnsen.

Newspaper articles from Newspapers.com.