BIRTH: 13 Nov 1833, Georgia, USA
DEATH: 14 Apr 1914, Hill County, Texas, USA
FATHER: James Loving Martin (1812–1856)
MOTHER: Permelia —- (1814–?)
SPOUSE: Edward Pinkney Gregory (1827-1909)
When Edna Catherine Martin was born on November 13, 1833, in Georgia, her father, James, was 21, and her mother, Permelia, was 19. She married Edward Pinkney Gregory in 1852 in her hometown. They had nine children in 18 years. She died on April 14, 1914, in Hill, Texas, having lived a long life of 80 years, and was buried in Aquilla, Texas.
The Life of Edna Catherine Martin
Edna Catherine Martin was born in 1833 in Georgia, the eldest daughter of James Loving Martin (1812–1856) and his wife Permelia, a Georgia‑born woman whose name appears in records as Permelia, Parmelia, Arminda, and Amelia — all common variants in the rural South. Edna grew up in a household that moved with the great wave of Georgia families pushing westward into Alabama in the 1830s and 1840s. By the time she was a young woman, the Martins had settled in Benton (later Calhoun) County, Alabama, where her father farmed and built a modest but stable homestead.
Edna’s childhood was shaped by the realities of frontier life: large families, hard work, and the constant presence of kin. She helped raise her younger siblings — Nathan, Elijah, Benjamin, Nonda, and Arminda — and learned the skills expected of a Southern farm woman: spinning, sewing, tending gardens, and managing a household that often included extended family. When her father died in 1856, his will named Edna’s mother Permelia as guardian of the younger children, confirming Edna’s place as the eldest daughter in a family suddenly without its patriarch.
Sometime around 1851–1852, Edna married Edward Pinkney Gregory, a South Carolina–born farmer who had settled in the same Alabama community. Their first child, John Marion Gregory, was born in 1852, followed by eight more children over the next twenty‑five years. The Gregory household grew steadily: Dialtha, Loven, William, Asa, Jane, Fanny, Hiram, and Charles. Edna’s life was one of constant motion — cooking, washing, tending children, nursing the sick, and supporting a husband whose work kept him in the fields or on the road.
When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Edna was twenty‑eight years old and already the mother of several small children. In May 1862, Edward enlisted in the 48th Alabama Infantry, leaving Edna to manage the farm and raise their growing family alone. For three years she lived with the uncertainty faced by thousands of Confederate wives — waiting for letters, hearing rumors of battles, and praying her husband would return. Edward fought at Second Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the Petersburg trenches. Edna bore the burden of his absence with the quiet resilience that defined her generation.
After the war, the Gregorys — like many Alabama families — found themselves in a devastated economy with little opportunity. Sometime in the early 1870s, Edna and Edward joined the great post‑war migration westward, moving their children to Texas, where land was cheaper and prospects brighter. They settled first in Williamson County, then in Milam and Bell Counties, where their children married, raised families, and established the Texas branches of the Gregory line.
By the 1880s and 1890s, Edna was the matriarch of a large, scattered family. She lived long enough to see her children grow into adulthood, to welcome grandchildren, and to bury her eldest son, John Marion, who died in 1891. Edward died in 1909, leaving Edna a widow after more than fifty years of marriage. In the 1910 census, she reported that she had borne nine children, seven of whom were still living — a rare survival rate for a 19th‑century frontier family.
Edna spent her final years in Texas, surrounded by the families of her children and grandchildren. She died in 1914, closing a life that had begun in the pine forests of Georgia, passed through the upheaval of the Civil War, and ended on the open plains of Texas.
Legacy of Edna Catherine Martin
Her story is not one of public record or dramatic events, but of endurance — the kind of endurance that built families, held communities together, and carried generations across the American South. Through her nine children and the many descendants who followed, Edna Catherine (Martin) Gregory remains a quiet but foundational figure in the Gregory family’s history.
Parents
FATHER: James Loving Martin (1812–1856)
MOTHER: Permelia —- (1814–?)Marriage
Edward Pinkney Gregory (1827-1909)
Children
- John Marion Gregory (1852–1891) married Mary Jane Burk (1857–1928)
- Dialtha Gregory (1854–1937) married William Hale (1853-1917)
- Loven Gregory (1857–1923) married Samantha Ann Griffin (1863-1949)
- William M Gregory (1859–?)
- Asa Gregory (1859–1904) married Ellie Gray (1865-1948)
- C Jane Gregary (1865–?)
- Mary Frances “Fanny” Gregory (1866–1950) married James Harrison Blackwell (1858–1932)
- Hiram Harrison Gregory (1868–1947) married Mittie Jeffreys (1875-1976)
- Charles Gregory (1871–1946) married Clemenntine Cockrell (1872-1940)
Documents
- Birth Records
- Find a Grave > Edna Catherine Martin Gregory, Birth: 13 Nov 1833, Georgia, USA
- Death records
- Find a Grave > Edna Catherine Martin Gregory, Death: 14 Apr 1914 (aged 80), Hill County, Texas, USA
- Burial: Prairie Grove Cemetery, Aquilla, Hill County, Texas, USA
- Census Records
- 1850 United States Federal Census > Georgia > Cass > Division 12 > Leven Marten (38, farmer, estate value $6,000), Permela Marten (35), Charles Marten (17, farmer), Edna Marten (16), William Marten (14), Jasper Marten (8), Martha Marten (11), Nathan Marten (5), Elijah Marten (4), Anna Marten (1)
- 1860 United States Federal Census > Alabama > Calhoun > Ranges 5, 6, and 7 > E P Gregory (33, Farmer, birthplace: South Carolina), Edney C Gregory (24, birthplace Georgia), John Gregory (7, birthplace Georgia), Dialtha Gregory (5, birthplace Alabama), Loven C Gregory (3, birthplace Alabama), William M Gregory (10 months, birthplace Alabama)
- 1870 United States Federal Census > Alabama > Lawrence > Mount Hope >E P Gregary (44, farmer, personal estate: $1906) E C Gregary (34, keep house), J M Gregary (17, farm labor), L G Gregary (13), Asa Gregary (10), Mary T Gregary (8), C Jane Gregary (6), H H Gregary (4), Charley Gregary (2)
- 1880 United States Federal Census > Texas > McLennan > Not Stated > 109 > E. P. Gregory (52, farmer), E. C. Gregory (45, keeping house), Lovin Gregory (22, works on farm), Asa Gregory (19, works on farm), Fanny Gregory (14, works on farm), Hiram Gregory (12, works on farm), Charles Gregory (10, works on farm). Hudy Gregory (8), James Gregory (6), Hattie Gregory (3)
- 1900 United States Federal Census > Texas > Hill > Justice Precinct 07 > District 0050 > E P Gregory (72, landlord, owns house), Edna C Gregory (wife, 65) years married: 48
- 1910 United States Federal Census > Texas > Hill > Justice Precinct 7 > District 0173 > Edna Gregory (75, Widowed), living with or near son Loven Gregory and his family
Relation of Edward Pinkney Gregory to Karen Edgar: 2nd great-grandmother
Page last updated May 22, 2026
Search the Staggs Family History site
Staggs Family History 
