History of Sand Lake, (Rensselaer County) New York United States of America

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John Milton Gregory, educator, was born at Sand Lake, N.Y., July 6, 1822; son of the Hon. Joseph Gregory. His ancestors were among the first settlers of Norwalk, Conn., in 1753, and are supposed to have come from Massachusetts. He was graduated at Union college in 1846, standing second in a class of ninety-three. He then studied law, and afterward theology, teaching and preaching at intervals. In 1852 he removed to Detroit, Mich., and took charge of a classical school, where he also preached in the Baptist church. In 1854 he was elected president of the State teachers' association and then devoted some years to the organization of county educational societies, holding teachers' institutes, and editing the Michigan Journal of Education. In 1858 he was elected superintendent of public instruction, and was re-elected in 1860 and 1862. He was president of Kalamazoo college, 1864-67, and in the latter year was elected to the presidency of Illinois Industrial university, and of its board of trustees, with the title of regent, and entered immediately on the work of its organization. In the summer of 1869 he visited Europe to make observations upon polytechnic and agricultural schools, and in 1873 went to Vienna as commissioner to the World's fair. He served as one of the judges at the Centennial exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, and was commissioner from Illinois at the Paris exposition of 1878. He resigned the regency of the Illinois Industrial university (University of Illinois after 1885), in 1881, and removed to Washington, D.C. He was a member of the civil service commission. 1883-85, and studied social-economic problems in Europe, 1885-89. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Madison university in 1864. Besides his editorial work he is the author of many addresses and contributions to the press. He published: The Map of Time (1866); The Handbook of History (1866); A New Political Economy (1882); and The Seven Laws of Teaching (1883). He died in Washington, D.C., Oct. 19, 1898.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Sand Lake, (Rensselaer County) New York

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