BIRTH: 22 February 1883, Jefferson County, Alabama, USA
DEATH: 25 Jul 1951, Hobbs, Lea County, New Mexico, USA
FATHER: James Hangey Crotwell (1848–1917)
MOTHER: Mary Elizabeth Abernathy (1847–1917)
SPOUSE: William Pinkney Gregory (1873–1943)
When Mollie Viola Crotwell was born in September 1883 in Jefferson, Alabama, her father, James, was 35, and her mother, Mary, was 36. She married William Pinkney Gregory on January 4, 1898, in Milam, Texas. They had ten children in 25 years. She died on July 25, 1951, in Hobbs, New Mexico, at the age of 67, and was buried in Merkel, Texas.
The Life of Mollie Viola Crotwell
A Texas Mother, Matriarch, and Keeper of a Family’s Heart
Mollie Viola Crotwell was born on 22 February 1883 in the warm, wind‑swept country of Milam County, Texas, a place where cotton fields stretched toward the horizon and families lived close to the land. She was the daughter of James Hangey Crotwell and Mary Elizabeth Abernathy, a Tennessee‑born woman whose quiet strength and frontier practicality shaped the rhythm of her children’s lives. From her mother, Mollie learned the skills that defined rural Texas womanhood — cooking over a wood stove, sewing by lamplight, tending gardens, and keeping a household steady through hardship. These early lessons would become the foundation of the life she built as a wife, mother, and matriarch.
Mollie grew up in a world where children learned early to help — gathering eggs, tending gardens, hauling water, and doing the endless small tasks that kept a household running. She learned to cook on a wood stove, to sew by lamplight, and to make a home feel warm even when money was scarce. These skills would become the backbone of her adult life.
A Marriage in Milam County
On 4 January 1898, at just fourteen years old — young even by frontier standards — Mollie married William Pinkney Gregory, a steady, hardworking farmer ten years her senior. Their marriage license was issued in Milam County, and from that day forward, Mollie stepped into the role of wife, homemaker, and soon, mother.
The early years of their marriage were spent in the countryside of central Texas, where William farmed and Mollie kept the household running. She bore her first child that same year, beginning a family that would eventually include ten children, each one a thread in the tapestry of the Gregory legacy.
A Mother of Ten
Mollie’s life was defined by motherhood — not in a quiet or symbolic way, but in the daily, physical, unrelenting work of raising a large family in rural Texas. Her children came in steady succession: Mary Etta, Edna Mae, Willie, Charlie, Arthur Burk, Mildred, James Percy, Robert Rufus, William Richard, and finally Alberta, born in 1924, the baby who would one day carry the Gregory story into a new generation
Mollie cooked for a dozen people every day, washed clothes by hand, tended gardens, nursed sick children, and kept the household running through droughts, storms, and the Great Depression. She was the kind of woman whose strength was so constant that her family rarely noticed it — because it was always there.
Life in Taylor County
By the 1920s and 1930s, the Gregory family had moved west to Taylor County, settling near Merkel, a small town surrounded by open plains and cotton fields. Life there was hard but steady. William farmed; Mollie kept the home; the older children married and moved out; the younger ones grew up in the shadow of the Depression.
Neighbors remembered Mollie as a woman who worked without complaint, who kept her home warm and welcoming, and who always had room at her table for one more plate. She was the quiet center of a large, bustling family.
Widowhood and Later Years
In 1943, Mollie lost her husband of forty‑five years when William died in Merkel. She was sixty years old, with several children still nearby and others scattered across Texas. She remained in Taylor County, living near her grown children, visiting grandchildren, and continuing the routines that had shaped her entire life.
Mollie died on 25 Jul 1951. She was buried beside William in Rose Hill Cemetery in Merkel, the town where they had spent their final decades together.
Legacy of Mollie Viola Crotwell
Mollie Viola Crotwell left behind:
- Ten children
- Dozens of grandchildren
- A family that carried her strength, her steadiness, and her quiet resilience into the next century
Her life was not marked by dramatic events or public achievements. Instead, it was marked by the kind of everyday heroism that built families, communities, and the fabric of rural Texas life.
She was the woman who held the Gregory household together — through births, losses, moves, droughts, and wars.
Parents
FATHER: James Hangey Crotwell (1848–1917)
MOTHER: Mary Elizabeth Abernathy (1847–1917)Marriages
William Pinkney Gregory (1873–1943) married 4 Jan 1898 in Milam, Texas
Children
- Mary Ettie Gregory (1899–1984) married Charles W Simpson (1876–1960)
- Edna Mae Gregory (1901–1986) married George Edward Miller (1890–1972)
- Willie Gregory (1904–1961) married William Edmond Fagan (1896–1968)
- Charlie Faye Gregory (1909–1977)
- Arthur Burk Gregory (1910–1967) married Hazel Gray (1913–1998)
- Percy Elmer Gregory (1912–1954) married Lela Bell Steward (1919–1981)
- Mildred Marie Gregory (1916–1981) married Charles Frank Ortiz
- Robert Rufus Gregory (1918–1987) married Zella Wilson
- William Richard Gregory (1922–2012) married Jean —-
- Alberta Gregory (1924–1990) married 3rd Lester Edgar (1924–1998)
Documents
- Birth Records
- Find a Grave > Mollie Viola Crotwell Gregory, Birth: Sep 1883, Alabama, USA
- Marriage records
- Texas, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1817-1965 > Name: Viola Crottle; Gender: Female; Marriage Date: 4 Jan 1898; Marriage Place: Milam, Texas, USA; Spouse: W P Gregory; Film Number: 000981390
- Death records
- Find a Grave > Mollie Viola Crotwell Gregory, Birth: Sep 1883, Alabama, USA; Death: 25 Jul 1951 (aged 67), Hobbs, Lea County, New Mexico, USA
- Burial: Rose Hill Cemetery, Merkel, Taylor County, Texas, USA, Plot: 2nd Addition, Block P, Lot W 14, Space 3
- Census Records
- 1900 United States Federal Census > Texas > Milam > Justice Precinct 02 > District 0068 > William McGregory (24, farmer), and wife Viola McGregory (16) and child Etta McGregory (1)
- 1910 United States Federal Census > Texas > Hill > Justice Precinct 7 > District 0173 > W P Gregory (36, farmer), wife Viola Gregory (27) and children Ettie Gregory (11), May Gregory (8), Willie Gregory (5) and Charles Gregory (2)
- 1930 United States Federal Census > Texas > Johnson > Precinct 4 > District 0017 > Wm P Gregory (age 56, farm laborer) and wife Viola Gregory (age 47), with children Arthur B Gregory (19), Mildred Gregory (13), Rufus R Gregory (11) Wm R Gregory (8), Alberta Gregory (5)
- 1940 United States Federal Census > Texas > Taylor > Merkel > 221-28 > W T Gregory (67; Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 6th grade; Weeks Worked in 1939: 0; Income: $0) and wife Viola Gregory (57; Highest Grade Completed: Elementary school, 4th grade) with son Rufus Gregory (21, laborer)
- Other
- Abilene Reporter-News, Abilene, Texas > Thursday, June 28, 1951 > Obituary for Molly Gregory Gouge
- U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 > Name: Molly V Crottle; Gender: Female; Spouse: William Gregory; Child: Alberta Gregory Gouge
Relation of William Pinkney Gregory to Karen Edgar: grandmother
Page last updated May 20, 2026
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