"The Ghost of Annie McGregor Tells the Amazing Story of the Clan of McGrew"

Now that the "Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk" that takes place in early October here in Sonoma County, California, in the little town of Sebastopol is over for the year, I thought I'd publish the script that I wrote and acted this year for all of you to read. I am also including a photo of me as "Annie McGregor"...

"THE GHOST OF ANNIE MCGREGOR TELLS THE AMAZING STORY OF THE CLAN OF MCGREW"

by Jean F.

You may be wonderin’ why an ancient, bonnie, McGregor shade of a lassie like m’self would be tellin’ you the story of a family named McGrew and well you should. Aye. But all will become clear in the tellin’...

In the 1600s, King Edward, proclaimed the mighty MacGregors of County Fife on Firth of Forth “too patriotic for the safety of the throne” and, forbiddin’ the name of MacGregor ever to be spoken again, he banished the poor lads. So, they were called “The Nameless Clan” and scattered to the four winds. The southern arm of the MacGregors took the name “MacGruder” which became “McGrewer”, and, after that, simply “McGrew”.

Thus began the often tragic -- but always colorful -- saga of the Clan of McGrew.

Havin’ a wee spot o’trouble there in Scotland, William McGrew fled with his family to Northern Ireland where they were shunned by the Irish, makin’ the song of promise of the vast, open lands here in the New World sound that much louder to his son, Robert’s, ears -- so, when himself first set foot upon your bonnie shores in 1729, he was still awearin’ the blue Scotch bonnet -- the Glengary cap.

Family historians fairly agree that all o’the American McGrews were the descendants of Robert’s sons: John, Finley, William, Alexander and James who settled in Pennsylvania. From there, the McGrews -- along with all o’ the other sturdy pioneers of their time -- drifted westward.

Ye, perhaps, have heard the story of “Dangerous Dan McGrew” but, I’ll wager, you’ve not heard the stories of “Black Bill” or “Red Bill” McGrew until this very night.

To be sure, Black Bill started out honorable enough: His father, Col. William McGrew, was a hero of the Creek Wars who was ambushed and killed by the Indians at Bashi Creek in Alabama in 1813 when Black Bill was a wee bairn.

Later, Black Bill’s mother, Nancy Hainsworth McGrew moved to Texas after being denounced by local regulators as a “Jezebel” for harboring mixed Indians and borderers amongst her clan.

After managing to evade the law for quite some time, “Black Bill” and his cousin “Red Bill” McGrew were finally acquitted of charges that they’d murdered two young lads named Kemp in Alabama in 1835. Unfortunately, Black Bill died a short time later as a result of the treatment he'd received while in prison.

“Red Bill” dropped out of sight but, some years later, a bonnie McGrew cousin from Sabine, Texas, told the strange story of a cousin named “Red” who showed up at her house one night, unannounced, with a gunshot wound and a friend seekin' refuge. Seems the two were on the run with a saddlebag full of gold. Sometime during the night, “Red” left the house and returned without the saddlebag -- or the gold -- and died the next morning. The gold was never found…

Black Bill’s son, William J. McGrew, was raised by his stepfather, Eg Oliver, who was shot from his horse in the town square of Montgomery, Texas, after being arrested for assault with intent to kill, escapin' from the jail and ridin' back into town in defiance. The Galveston newspaper capped its report on his death by sayin': “Thus perished a man, who, by his reckless and lawless course of life has been a horror to some and respected by but few.  May the memory of his many errors be buried with him.”

Even though William J. McGrew’s two Oliver step-brothers were rabble-rousers known to shoot up the town, rob and steal, the word was that he, himself, was “a Republican appointee by day, a KKK by night and a horse thief in between”, he nevertheless gained appointment to the office of county attorney of Montgomery County, Texas.

But, when the Olivers relieved the nearby Cartwright family of one of their more handsome examples of horseflesh, a vigilante posse was formed and went after them with the intent of puttin' an end to the problem once and for all.

The ensuing gunbattle went on for hours over several blocks and, when all was said and done, the bodies of both Oliver brothers and their half-brother William J. McGrew were taken and laid out on Mrs. Oliver’s front porch.

So deep ran the resentment of the local townsfolk against the Olivers and Wm. McGrew, that they refused to allow any of them be buried in the hallowed ground of the Montgomery Cemetery and, so, they were interred just outside the cemetery gates.
 
And it’s said that, on certain moonlight nights, you can find the ghost of Wm. McGrew walkin' the perimeter fence of the Montgomery Cemetery -- tryin' to find a way inside…

Beannachd leat! And, perhaps, we’ll meet again out here amongst the moors…