A good woman and a true, a Christian wife and mother, has gone from among us. Mrs. Anna Maria Gregory, wife of Hon. Dudley S. Gregory, died this morning at her residence, in this city, at half-past one o'clock, being one month more than sixty-six years of age. Her illness had been very brief, and not until yesterday was any serious apprehension felt of a fatal result; a week ago today she was out calling on her friends as usual.
The disease was pneumonia, aggravated no doubt, by masked neuralgia, and, at the last, Mrs. Gregory seemed suffering from such weakness and exhaustion of her vital powers. She has been through life a remarkably active and vigorous woman; was the mother of fourteen children, of whom, we think eight are living; her married life extending over forty-eight years and thirty-eight have been passed almost without interruption in this city.
Of her children, two died after reaching the age of manhood -- George W. Gregory, aged 37 years, May 17, 1864, and Walter Gregory, aged 35, July 30, 1870. Of the surviving children, three are now absent in Europe -- Mr. Charles E. Gregory and Mrs. Gautier, who sailed May 6, and Mrs. Clarke.
The intelligence of the death of Mrs. Gregory will cause widespread and most heart-felt sorrow, not only in this community, where she was so well known, but elsewhere among a large circle of relatives and friends. While the most poignant grief will of course be felt by those who were nearest and dearest to her, he death will not be less sincerely mourned by the many families to whom she has been one of the kindest of friends and most generous of benefactors. She was most emphatically a woman of good will toward all, and her genial temperament, and unaffected and unostentatious kindness made her always most welcome, and she delighted in her conjunction with her large-hearted and honored husband, in doing good to others. Her long and useful life work is ended, and with the tears that will follow her to the grave will be mingled blessing on her memory, and the warmest sympathy for her bereaved family who mourn the loss of her who was perhaps their best and best loved earthly friend.
From the Jersey City Evening Journal May 22, 1871
Funeral of Mrs. D.S. Gregory
Seldom are so many people of different classes and conditions in a community gathered at a funeral, as were yesterday assembled at and around the residence of the honorable D.S. Gregory in this city to attend the funeral services of the late Mrs. D.S. Gregory. The services were held at the house instead of the Tabernacle Congregational Church, of which Mrs. Gregory was a member, in compliance with a request which she had often in her lifetime expressed, that her funeral should be as simple and as unostentatious as possible. But nothing could prevent the demonstration of respect and affection which the last solemn services for the dead in her case called forth. Long before the hour for the services -- two o'clock p.m. -- the spacious mansion was filled, and large groups were gathered in the adjoining square and in the streets who could not gain admittance to the house. There were present of immediate relatives of the family over eighty persons from various parts of the country. All classes of our citizens were represented, the number of ladies being very great. Among the most interesting and touching features of the occasion was the attendance of a large number of old family servants, many of whom have long ceased from active service and are supported by the bounty of the family which had come to bury the wife and mother of the household, and of a still larger number of poor people who have been the regular recipients of Mrs. Gregory's long-continued kindness and charities. As these people passed before the coffin where the dead reposed with the look of placid peace on her countenance, their tears told how keenly they felt the loss of their friend. Among those in attendance we noticed also the officials of the New Jersey Railroad, the officers of the Equitable Life Insurance Company of New York, most of the officials of our Banks and Insurance offices, the operators and employees of the Steel Works and the Ferry Company, and representatives of nearly all the public institutions and the city government. A very large number of the clerks of A.T. Stewart's great store in New York attended in a body. The venerable colonel Joseph Dodd was noticed among other attendants, and also a gentleman eighty-nine years of age, Mr. Gilbert, of Schenectady, who came from home to attend Mrs. Gregory's funeral.
The funeral exercises were brief and simple. The hymn, "Rock of Ages," was sung by a choir under the lead of Mr. W.S. Sherwin. Rev. Dr. C.K. Imbrie read appropriate selections from Scripture. Rev. G.B. Wilcox made a brief, touching and appropriate address, alluding to the deceased in fitting terms, and impressing on the audience the lesson of the solemn event of death. The Rev. Matthias Lusk, the first pastor of the First Reformed Church, offered prayer impressively, and the hymn, "Asleep in Jesus," was sung by the choir, and with the benediction, pronounced by Rev. Dr. P.D. Van Cleef, the formal services were closed. A very long time was required for the passage into and through the front parlor, where the body lay in an elegant coffin, covered with choice flowers, the tributes of affection from many friends, of the throng of people who came to take their last look on earth at the kind face of her whom they mourned. This over, the procession was formed to proceed to Greenwood Cemetery. An interesting incident was the tolling in unison of the bells of the First Presbyterian and St. Matthew's Episcopal Churches. The pall bearers were Hon. A.O. Zabriskie, Hon. B.F. Randolph, Hon. P.C. Dummer, Dr. J.M. Cornelison, J.W. Palmer, Winslow Ames, B.B. Grinnell and M.C. Morgan, all old citizens of this city, and old friends of the family of the deceased. There were thirty-seven carriages in the procession, and a large number of people joined on foot. The whole funeral party was conveyed by a special ferry-boat to the Brooklyn side, and from thence proceeded to Greenwood, where the burial took place in the Gregory family lot. The only services at the grave were prayer by Rev. Mr. Lusk and those who had accompanied the sorrowing mourners while they buried their dead out of their sight, turned away from the beautiful cemetery, feeling that few whose dust there reposes had lived more useful lives, or are more sincerely mourned, than she whom they left to the last long sleep of earth.