I have no connection to this family but am posting an article I found in the November 24, 1951 issue of the Rockland, Maine Courier-Gazette:
"HOLE IN DOUGHNUT
"Here's another 'hole in the doughnut' story, this time from the Boston Herald:
'Capt. Hanson Gregory, outward bound from Camden, Me., didn't like the look of the weather. There was wind in the lowering clouds. Soon it would take all his skill and strength to steer his vessel through the crashing, mountainous waves.
'When a sailor came to tell him that supper was ready, the captain shook his head. He couldn't leave the wheel.
'Bring me a bucket of coffee and a dozen or so of the fried cakes my missus sent along of us,' the captain ordered.
While the sailor steadied the wheel, the captain gulped the coffee and set to work hungrily on the circular fried cakes that looked like big solid biscuits. Then he saw a great wave galloping for the little vessel like a runaway horse. He would need both hands to hold the wheel when that struck! But what could he do with the fried cakes?
'Hastily Capt Gregory speared the fried cakes on a spoke of the wheel . . . and invented the hole in the doubghnut!'
"That reporter was hard up for a story."
I checked further and can tell you this about Capt. Hanson Gregory: He died on July 8, 1898 in Glen Cove, Maine at the age of 93 years, 4 months. He was the widower of Mary Barrows. He was the son of John and Elizabeth (Simonton)Gregory. His parents were both born in Maine, John in Rockland, and Mary in Cape Elizabeth. He is buried at the Achorn Cemetey in Rockland, Maine (2nd Avenue).
And in another issue of the paper (unfortunaely undated) appeared the following obituary. It goes only SLIGHTLY over the top in the last paragraph (which NEVER gets old going through these old papers - lol).
Gregory, Elizabeth (Simonton)
Jan. 13, 1772 – Nov. 4, 1857
Tribute to the memory of the late Mrs. Elizabeth Grergory of Camden
Died, in Camden, Nov. 4th, of Paralysis, Mrs. Elizabeth, wife of Capt. John Gregory, aged 85 years, 9 months and 22 days.
The great age, eminent worth and extensive connections of Mrs. Gregory make it proper to render a brief tribute to her memory through the medium of the Gazette.
She was the daughter of James Simonton, and was born in Portland. The whole of her married life, extending through a period of more than 65 years, was spent in Camden and in the same house in which she died. She seems to have been pecularily blessed by Divine Providence in respect to her own vigorous constitution and uniform health, in respect to her family connections, and in respect to all the circumstances of her lot in life. Her husband yet survives, in the 89th year of his age, and enjoys a measure of health and strength seldom granted to a person of his age. Eight out of nine children also still live and were all present to participate in the solemnities of her funeral. Besides these she leaves 50 grandchildren, 71 great-grandchildren, and 4 of the 5th generation. Mrs. Gregory was one of those women whose sphere of activity and usefulness was the domestic circle, whose heart was centered in her home, and whose ambition was to diffuse sunshine and peace all around her. She possessed by nature a quiet and even temper, a mild and gentle disposition, and her heart overflowed with kindness and sympathy towards her own family and all whom her influence could reach. Seeking always to promote the happiness of those around her and to lessen and mitigate the ills she could not wholly present, she was, of course, the object of love and veneration to all. No one could visit her house without being impressed with her amiable, unassuming manners, and with her uniformly courteous and christian spirit. The evening of her life was as tranquil and peaceful as its hitherto prosperous and even tenor might have led us to expect. It is a reason for gratitude that she was spared so long, that she suffered so little acute pain during her last sickness, that her husband and children were permitted to minister to her wants and soothe her dying pillow, and that she met daily with composure, perfectly resigned to the will of her Heavenly Father. It was her wish to die in the day tiime and that the weather might be pleasant on the day of her funeral, and both of these desires were granted. She also selected a text for the discourse to be preached at her funeral, and it was singularly appropriate to the occasion, both as an admonition to the living and as a tribute to the memory of the deceased. It was as follows: 'A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.' (Eccl. VII.I.).
For three months she was weak and helpless from paralysis and for a few days previous to death was insensible. Death came at last as a relief, and after having been for so many weeks daily expected, its approach was gentle and almost unobserved. She came to her grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in its season.
"Along the gentle slope of life's decline
She bent her gradual way, till full of years,
She dropped like mellow fruit into the grave."
The work of death is always melancholy, at however late a period it may come, and under however favorable an aspect. The rupture of so many ties - the breaking up of the associations of 65 years and the habits of a life-time - habits of daily intercourse - habits of thought and feeling; - the dissolution of the strongest, tenderest, holiest of human relations, which have been cemented by mutual cares, sympathies, joys and sorrows through so long a period, - all this work of death can not but deeply affect the heart and give it a shock which seems like undermining the solid foundations of the earth. Yet where, as in the present case, one dies in a good old age, in the midst of her children and friends, with the respect and veneration and love of all, in the exercise of serene trust in God, and in peace with all the world, we can only bow in submission to the Divine decree, and say, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord;" for He is equally good and faithful when he gives as when he takes away, equally benignant and merciful in bestowing favors and in resuming them to himself again."