Editor’s note: This is part three of a biographical interview with Bob Gregg by Richard ‘Dick” Reed that appeared in the Brown County Democrat on Dec. 5, 1973.

“George and I also went into the lumber business in 1940. I thought up the name of Brown County Trading Post and when the Black Lumber Company bought us out, they kept the name. We ended up with 11 trucks hauling lumber out of Tennessee, then from Georgia and Mississippi. We got the offer to buy us out on my 50th birthday, Sept. 1, 1951. After that, George and I built the Colonial Restaurant. We also sold cars from the yard, right here. I bought the Will Vawter property in 1944 while George was in the Navy. He got back before Christmas in 1945.

“The lumber company burned, two years after we sold it to Black. Roberts Brothers rebuilt it like it is now. The Roberts Brothers had a lumber business out on the Taggart Hill, where Phil Jackson now has his appliance store. They started while George and I were also in business.

“We began building the Colonial on April 1, 1952, and Mrs. Gretchen Groves was operating the restaurant by September of that year. We had apartments upstairs over the restaurant, we finished those later.

“George and I sold the Colonial Restaurant property on contract. We then built a house in Florida and bought a second farm on the south side of Morgantown. Everything on that farm except house number one was built by us. We still have the farms; Ed Spears had run them for eight years. Everette read run one of them for 17 years before it became Gregg and Tucker, and he stayed for 19 more years. George’s wife, Mildred and I have them now.

“In 1955, James M. Davis asked us to sell Dodge cars for him. Instead, we went into partnership., three ways. Jimmy, George, and I sold cars for ten years, where the Gypsy Pot is now. We also sold Allis Chalmers farm machinery. George and I had begun selling Didges in April 1935, just a year after we began our chicken business. When we took on the Allis Chalmers in the spring of 1936 there was only one tractor of that type in Brown County. It was owned by Louis Snyder and his son Paul.

“We had done quite well with the tractors. I sold three in one afternoon, during February of 1937, complete with equipment. I’d always go late in the day, after super, so we’d be free to talk. And I stayed with the prospect until he got so sleepy, I often thought he might have to sign an order just so he could go to bed. We also put in a lot of hours when the business became Gregg, Tucker, and Davis.

“Dodge had only two associate dealers in the U. S. One was in Kentucky, I was the other-in business for myself after Jimmy and George went into antiques during 1964. In the fall of the year when I bought their parts of the car business. They set up in the Gypsy Pot and I moved my sales office up here. I just wasn’t interested in selling antiques. In 1967 Dodge wanted me to become a direct dealer. I had worked through the Bloomington dealership, and they had gone out of business. I would have to set up a regular agency, but the cost was too high to do that. They wanted $20,000 for one acre out where Hooks drug store is, before the Ramada was up. So, I went ahead working through some other dealers and kept my business up. I sold Dodges for 38 years and sold about 50 cars a year with no showroom or display models.

“I was never in the Gypsy Pot Business. It was all Tucker and Davis. George bought the building from Peggy Davis after Jimmy died in January 1967. The farming George and I did was always on “halves.” The man who lives there furnishes the equipment and does all the work. We supply the land and the buildings, upkeep, taxes, insurance fertilizer, seeds-all that is 50-50. George and I were 50-50 on everything we did together. We still have some rental properties, the office building right north of Bunt’s Barber Shop. The Colonial property is sold on contract. I have three acres on Locust Lane and there’s a little patch on this side of the Nazarene Church that’s still in both our names. We also have a house and lot together on Anna Maria Island, west of Bradenton, Florida, reached by causeways. I’m not moving, I plan to stay right here. I’ve only made one move in Nashville. We lived 10 years in Fred Rigley’s home before we bought this place.

“You asked about the guns on the wall. Yes, I used to hunt, but 12 years ago I fell off a roof and cracked a vertebra and broke my pelvis. So walking is not the best thing I do. When I have time, I like to do woodworking. I make kitchen cabinets, truck racks, grain beds-things like that.

“I’ve been in the third year of selling Texas oranges and grapefruit for the Lions Club. It started out for members only, but others wanted in on it. We opened it up to the public last year and sold 25,000 pounds. This year we ordered 40,000 pounds. That’s 20 tons, a full semi load. All proceeds will be used locally in Brown County, for charitable and community services such as eye check-ups, eyeglasses for needy children, scholarships, Little League, and high school band uniforms.

“I’ve heard it said that our visiting tourists sometimes take advantage of the people here in Brown County. They think of us as quaint and naïve-sort of back-woodsy. But I’ve also heard of some of us ‘natives’ having fun at their expense.”

The end.

Submitted by Pauline Hoover, Brown County Historical Society