The Nashville Poultry Market, owned by Bob Gregg and George Tucker, used the money made from selling poultry and eggs to fund free delivery throughout Nashville.
Editor’s note: This is part two of a biographical interview with Bob Gregg by Richard ‘Dick” Reed that appeared in the Brown County Democrat Dec. 5, 1973.
The second part of Bob Gregg’s story finds Gregg and his brother-in-law in Harlingen, Texas where they were working in a packing house owned by a former Hoosier school teacher, Levi Snavely. Snavely became president of the Citrus Fruit Growers Association.
Our story picks up in 1928 when Gregg and his brother-in-law, Gilbert Mercer, came back home to Brown County. After returning, Gregg worked four years for Ora Hickey, in the poultry business in Morgantown, Indiana. “Ora was a mighty fine man to work for,” Gregg said.
“During that time, we lost our little boy, Robert Keith Gregg,” he continued.
“He was 4 and a half years old. That was in December 1929. Our daughter LaDonna was born the summer before he died.”
LaDonna Gregg Morse lives across the drive from her dad in a former Will Vawter studio. Bob lives in the Vawter house and has a third building he uses as an office and workshop. It’s the building Mr. Vawter lived in while he was putting up the other two. Their property is on Locust Lane, which dead ends north of Mound Street. It runs from Gould Street north, behind the lumber company. Others who live up there include Dr. Harry M. Smith, Vi McCoy, Alberta Shulz and Marianna Walters. LaDonna works for the Gibson’s at the Colonial Room and Grandma’s Pantry. She was divorced from Stanley Morse after they had two children.
Bob says, “When I was nearly 50 years old, I helped raise a granddaughter and a grandson. They both always called me ‘dad’ or ‘daddy.’ My grandson Robert S. Morse lives on Anna Maria Island in Florida. His wife is the former Wanda Matlock. They have a 5-year-old son, Robbie, who was born about a year before they moved to Florida. Bob worked for the general telephone company but quit to build houses. He built himself a duplex. My granddaughter Marsha Ann married Fred Stiles and they have the Little Acres, south of Ed Lucas’s filling station. She’s got a boy, Charley, my great-grandson. He’s a little over a year old now and probably the best known one-year-old in the county.
“Charley’s so smart and friendly and lovable that no one can resist him. They take him everywhere and he’s always welcome. I’m always bragging about him. It’s become sort of a joke the way I find excuses to say, ‘did I ever tell you about my great-great grandson, Charley?’
“Well, getting back to the poultry market, I worked there from 1929 to 1933, bad Depression years, and I sold a few Chevrolets on the side. It was tough going, even with bread at a nickel a loaf and milk six cents a quart. Fifteen cents worth of steak would feed the whole family. In the spring of ‘33 my wife and daughter and I went to California. The banks were closing. We couldn’t get our money for hauling the school kids and the market owner couldn’t carry us. My brother-in-law wrote me that the gas station where he worked at San Pedro could use another man, so we drove out there. It took us seven days and I had less than $2 left, out of the $50 I started with. It was borrowed from George, who had sent me a money order.
“George and Mildred, Grethel, LaDonna and I lived together out there, and I worked at the gas station from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. seven days a week. George was on the day shift. Then they got me to selling motor oil that I picked up at Long Beach. I made all the filling stations and garages and sometimes sold three tanker loads a day on a commission basis. Some days the previous salesman hadn’t sold a gallon. The boss wanted to set me up with an oil depot, but I couldn’t stay out there.
“I had to come home in the fall of 1933 because I still had the school bus contract in Morgan County. I also went back to work for the same man at the poultry market. In the spring of 1934 George and I decided to start in the poultry business, for ourselves down here at Nashville. We had an old frame building where the Shell Station and Village Pharmacy are now. We rented from Tom Ayers for $10 a month. Tom was teaching school and practicing law, at the same time.
“In December of 1938, Tom decided to quit teaching and set up a law office in our building. So, George and I bought the two lots where Roberts Brothers are now, and we built a filling station there.”
Submitted by Pauline Hoover, Brown County Historical Society
Submitter’s note: The picture of Bob Gregg’s Gas Station, submitted with part one of the Bob Gregg story, was located here in Nashville, where Roberts Brothers Lumber Company was and is where the Historical Society parking lot at Van Buren and Gould streets is located today.
