Source: A History of Central and Western
Texas, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and
New York, 1911, Volume 1,
Pages 357-358.
Jack
McGregorJack
McGregor took part in the founding of his home town of
Ballinger on the 29th of June, 1886, and since that time he has been one of its most prominent business men. He was born at
Stratford, Ontario, Canada, a son of the late Alexander
McGregor, from
Scotland, and a pupil of the University of Edinburg. On emigrating to Canada he located at
Stratford, and came to
Texas with his family in 1876, first stopping in
San Saba county. In 1877 he came to
Concho county and engaged in the stock business on the open range. He died in the city of
Ballinger in 1898, a well known and highly respected man, and particulary well known throughout the old cattle country of western
Texas.
Jack
McGregor, with his brothers,
Duncan, Peter, and Robert, was reared on the frontier and in the live stock business, and they put up the first wire fence in
Concho county, it being of the old smooth wire, before barbed wire had come into use. Jack
McGregor was for several years a member of the firm which composed the Western Mercantile Company, its secretary and treasurer, and that was the pioneer business of
Ballinger, it having started with the town. At the organization of the
Hall Hardware Company in 1901, Mr. McGregor became one of its members, and this company took over the hardware business founded the year the town was started, and it had for several years been conducted under the firm name of
McAlpin and Company. Mr. Hall has since retired from the company and Mr. Tom
Ward is now its president. Mr. McGregor being its secretary and treasurer. The
Hall Hardware Company has one of the largest retail hardware, implement and vehicle houses in western
Texas, and it is a thoroughly successful establishment. Its stores and warehouses are on the same site upon which the original store was established in 1886, the south side of
Hutchings avenue, between Eighth and Ninth streets. Mr. McGregor is intimately identified in every way as a public-spirited citizen in the continued growth and development of
Ballinger and its trade territory. He is one of the directors of the First National Bank.
He married, in
San Saba county, Miss
Cordelia Fentress, a daughter of the late Dr. D.W. Fentress, a pioneer citizen of that county and a member of the famous
Fentress family of
Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. McGregor have three children - Malcolm
McGregor, Miss
Armour McGregor and Alexander
McGregor