John Jones Gresham was born in Burke County, Georgia, January 21, 1812, the son of Job and Mary Jones Gresham. He attended school at Waynesboro and Richmond Bath, Georgia before entering the University of Georgia in 1830. After a private study of law, he was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1834 and opened a practice in Waynesboro but soon moved to Macon. In the 1840s, Gresham relinquished his law practice to devote more attention to other matters, including his farm. He was elected mayor of Macon in 1843 and 1847. A Presbyterian, Gresham was made a ruling elder in 1847. In 1850, he established the Macon Manufacturing Company and served as its president.

Following the American Civil War, Gresham briefly practiced law with his son Thomas but soon turned his attention to politics and business. He was elected to the state senate in 1865 and to two terms in the state house of representatives. He was heavily involved in education at the local and state level, serving as treasurer of the Macon Free School, president of the Alexander Free School, member of the Macon County Board of Education, president of the University of Georgia board of trustees, director of the Theological Seminary at Columbia and trustee and treasurer of Oglethorpe University. He also served as director of the Southwestern Railroad and the Central Georgia Bank.

Gresham married Mary E. Baxter (daughter of Thomas W. Baxter of Athens, Georgia) on May 24, 1843. They had five children: Thomas B., Minnie Gresham Machen, LeRoy W., and two sons who died in infancy. Gresham died on Octobert 16, 1891, while visiting his daughter in Baltimore. His wife preceded him in death. They are buried in Macon's Rose Hill Cemetery

Thomas B. Gresham married Tallulah (or Lula) A. Billups on October 15, 1869 in Morgan County, Georgia. By 1891, Gresham was living in Baltimore with his second wife, Bessie Johnston Gresham, and practicing law.

LeRoy Gresham, the son of Thomas B. and Lula Billups Gresham, was reared in Baltimore. He studied law and briefly practiced in Baltimore before entering Union Theological Seminary in Richmond in 1903. He married Mary Jessie Rhett in Baltimore that same year. In 1909, Gresham became pastor of Salem (Virginia) Presbyterian Church, a position he would hold through 1946. He died in 1955.