Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 10

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 824

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I > Part 10

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In 1865 the legislature imposed upon the com- missioners of Central Park the duty of laying out that portion of the island lying north of One Hun- dred and Fifty-fifth street. It was while he was directing the work of laying out Central Park and Upper New York that Mr. Green first called at- tention in a serious and deliberate manner to the desirability of the union of the towns and cities now popularly known as the Greater New York. The first result of Mr. Green's recommendation of the consolidation was the annexation in 1873 of Morrisiania, West' Farms and Kingsbridge. Mr. Green presented to the legislature of New York in 1800 a notable brief. advocating consolidation. A referendum in 1804 resulted in a favorable vote in all the four counties concerned. The commission to draft the charter was appointed by the state. June 9. 1806. with Mr. Green as chairman. The charter as drafted became a law November 1, 1897. The new city was established January 1, 1898, and May

22, 1898, Mr. Green appeared before the legislature by invitation to receive congratulations for his work in forming the Greater New York. A thoughtful address was given by him. A medal was struck off as a memorial and presented to Mr. Green Oc- tober 6, 1898, and by general consent also he has come to be known as "The Father of Greater New York."

Mr. Green's connection with the New York · library system is interesting history. He was one of the executors of the will of his law partner, the late Samuel J. Tilden, and was one of the origi- nal trustees, three in number, appointed in the will to add to their number and establish a great free library in New York. Mr. Green's efforts resulted in saving much of the property for the libraries when all was involved in contests and litigations. It was his scheme to bring about the union of some of the great libraries in New York, and he quietly secured the legislation necessary with the final re- sult of consolidating the Astor, Lenox and Tilden foundations in the formation of the New York Public Library, which, Mr. S. S. Green says, "through the assiduous and valuable labors of its well known and accomplished librarian, Dr. John S. Billings, by means of subsequent consolidations and aided by a munificent gift from Mr. Andrew Carnegie and by city appropriations. bids fair to become one of the most important institutions in New York."

Mr. Green first became prominent in the whole country of which New York is the metropolis, by his work in the office of comptroller in behalf of good government during the exposure of the frauds of the Tweed ring. This office he held for five years, till in 1876, he became executor of the will of William B. Ogden. the railroad king of New York and Chicago. Had Mr. Tilden been declared president of the United States, Mr. Green would undoubtedly have been in the cabinet. He was one of the original trustees of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge. In 1890 the legislature ap- pointed him a commissioner to locate and approve the plan of the great railroad bridge across the Hudson river which is to join Manhattan Island with the rest of the country. He was elected to the constitutional convention in 1894.

He was a member of the New York Historical Society, the New York Genealogical and Biographi- cal Society and many other societies devoted to geography, history, the fine arts, science and philan- thropy. He became a member of the American Antiquarian Society in October, 1889, and left that society $5,000 in his will. He also bequeathed $5,000 to Clark University in Worcester, and $1.000 to the Isabella Heimath, a home for aged women in New York. In politics he was a Democrat. although he was not in agreement with the majority of his party in his position on the tariff. He was a Pro- tectionist. He was killed November 13, 1903, by a crazy man just as he was entering his home in New York. He never married, but lived in his own home. Park avenue, New York.

He was the owner of the old homestead on Green Hill, where he made large purchases of land de- stined it seems to benefit the city of Worcester, where he was born, as greatly as his service in the Park Board of New York benefited the city of his adoption. He enlarged the old house by cutting it in two, moving back the rear portion and building between the front and back of the old building a fine mansion, thus securing in the middle of the house large and higher rooms on the lower floor and suits of apartments for himself, his brothers and sisters upstairs. Later a spacious porch and

WORCESTER COUNTY

veranda were added in front. His deep affection for his family and reverence for his ancestors were frequently shown. "He always carried his brothers and sisters and their children and grandchildren in his heart," writes Mr. S. S. Green, "and no one of them ever suffered for the lack of a home or the comforts of life. Mr. Green placed a mural bronze tablet in the interior of the church at Greenville in remembrance of its first pastor (his ancestor), Thomas Green. Had I given him encouragement to believe that it was fitting to single out one from the thousands of young men who did service in the civil war for especial and lavish commemoration he would, I am sure, have engaged St. Gaudens, or another sculptor as distinguished, to have made a statue of his nephew, William Nelson Green, Jr., to be placed in an appropriate position in Worcester."

It should be said of Mr. Green, as of his brothers to whom reference is made elsewhere, that they were descended from the Bournes of the Cape, from Governor Dudley, of the Massachusetts Bay colony, and from Rev. John Woodbridge, a brother of Benjamin Woodbridge, whose name stands first on the roll of graduates of Harvard College. He was also descended from the three Tillies and John Howland, passengers on the "Mayflower."

His character has been described by the New York Tribune, which said of him at the time he was appointed deputy comptroller : "Incorruptible, inaccessible to partisan or personal considerations, immovable by threats or bribes, and honest by the very constitution of his own nature" and as fitted for the office by "long experience in public affairs, strict sense of accountability and thorough methods of doing business." Hon. Seth Low, mayor of New York at the time of Mr. Green's death, said of him: "It may truthfully be said that to no one man who has labored in and for the city during the last fifty years is the city under greater and more lasting obligations than to Andrew H. Green. The city itself, in some of its most beautiful and endur- ing features, is the monument of his love; and the city may well cherish his honored name with the undying gratitude that is due to a citizen who has made it both a greater and better city than it was."

(VII) John Plimpton Green, son of William E. Green (6), was born in Worcester, January 19, 1819. He studied medicine in New York and practiced there for a time. He removed to Whampoa, China, thence to Copaipo in Chile, South America, where he spent most of his mature years, practicing medi- cine. He died January 6, 1892, at Green Hill.

(VII) Samuel Fisk Green, son of William E. Green (6), was born at Green Hill, Worcester, October 10, 1822; died there May 28, 1884. He studied medicine and practiced for a time, but when a young man went to Batticotta in the Island of Ceylon as a missionary physician for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He spent almost a quarter of a century in ministering personally to the wants of both the bodies and souls of the Tamil population of the Island. After his return to Green Hill, he continued to translate medical treatises into the Tamil language until his death. Besides practicing medicine in Ceylon he established there a medical school, and his pupils

were very numerous. He is given the credit of creating the medical literature of the Tamil language. He married, May 22, 1862, Margaret Phelps Wil- liams. Since his death his family has been occupy- ing the mansion at Green Hill. His children were : Julia E., born January 1, 1864; Lucy Maria, Febru- ary 26, 1865; Mary Ruggles, September 22, 1867; Nathan Williams, March 13. 1871.

(VII) Oliver Bourne Green, son of William E. Green (6), was born January 1, 1826. He and his

brother, Martin Green, of Worcester are the only survivors among the eleven children of Squire Green. His early education was received in the school house at the corner of Thomas and Sum- mer streets. For a few winters he taught school, but the building of steam railroads attracted him and he obtained a position as rodman on trench survey for the New York & Erie Railroad, and for a few weeks assisted in the preliminary surveys. What he himself calls his first position, however, was on the Worcester & Nashua Railroad, where, begining as rodman, he learned the art and science of civil engineering in the way it was then taught, by experience. He next went to the Hudson River Railroad and took part in the survey of what has since become one of the greatest railroads in the country. He was particularly strong in field work and he obtained more than his share of that part of the engineering. After the Hudson River job, lie became resident engineer in charge of part of the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He was stationed in West Virginia in the section containing the Welling tunnel, one of the longest on the road. It is about thirty miles from the Ohio line. He stayed there two years and a half until the road was completed and in operation. He was occupied for a time in the survey for the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Xenia Railroad, only part of which was built at the time. He accepted the dif- ficult task of engineer of a division on the Missis- sippi Central Railroad, of which his brother, Mar- tin Green, was later the chief engineer. He spent the years 1853-54-55 in the south. In 1857 he was engaged in the dredging and contracting business with his brother, Martin Green, and later for over thirty years on his own account. He did much of the construction along the Lake front, more than any other contractor. He had many city contracts for breakwaters and in the park system of Chicago. He built a mile of the Lake Shore drive. One of his best known jobs was done in 1877 for the Sturgeon Bay Canal Company. He constructed the canal which connects Green Bay with Lake Michi- gan and saved all the lumber vessels that enter Green Bay at least two hundred miles on their round trip.

Since 1867 Mr. Green has lived at 403 LaSalle avenue, Chicago. His house was burned there in the "great fire," but he rebuilt later. He continued in active business until 1898, when he turned his business over to his son, Andrew Hugh Green. Mr. Green is a member of the Western Society of Civil Engineers and is one of the oldest members. He is a member of the New England Congregational Church of Chicago. He is a Democrat in politics with a belief in the Republican principle of pro- tection that made him what he calls an Eclectic.

He married, August 28, 1855, and in 1905 cele- brated his golden wedding in the mansion on Green Hill. It was a notable event socially, from the gathering of the relatives and several old school- mates and other friends who had not met for years.

His wife, Louise Pomeroy, was the daughter of Hazen and Lois Pomeroy. She was born in Stan- stead, Canada, and he met her while making the survey of the Mississippi Central Railroad. She was a school teacher there. Their children are: Mary Pemeroy, born April 26, 1857, lives with her parents. Olivia, born December 10, 1859, married Wyllis W. Baird, and they have two children : Warner Green Baird, a student in Cornell; Katha- rine L. Baird. Andrew Hugh, born November 26, 1860, graduated at Harvard University in 1892, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1896. He took over his father's business, with which he was thoroughly familiar, and having introduced

WORCESTER COUNTY

some of the newest methods and latest machinery, sold it in 1901 to advantage, and has been travel- ing since then.

(VII) Martin Green, son of William E. Green (6), was born in Worcester, April 24, 1828. The room in which he was born in the homestead at Green Hill is the same in which his father was born and died, and in which his ten brothers and sisters were born. He received his schooling in the old school at the corner of Summer and Thomas streets, when Warren Lazell was the teacher of the English department and Charles Thurber of the Latin department. He took a course at Little Blue Seminary at Farmington, Maine. His father in- tended to have him go to college, but he was at- tracted to the profession in which his brother Oliver was making good progress, and he started his career as civil engineer as chainman in the survey for the Hudson River Railroad, where his brother was also employed. He was promoted rapidly and became a proficient civil engineer. When the sur- vey was completed to Greenbush, he returned to the old home at Green Hill, but went to work for the Worcester & Nashua Railroad Company. When the work was done on the Nashua road he accepted a position with the Pennsylvania Coal Company Railroad. He was occupied here for three years in surveying and building gravity railroads in Lui- zerne county, Pennsylvania. When the work was done he was offered the superintendency of the road. He returned to Worcester but was called to take the position of division engineer on the New York & Harlem Railroad. He was in charge of the construction of the line from Millerton to Copake. When the work was donc he was selected as chief engineer for the Lehanon Springs Railroad Company. This road was to run from Chatham, New York, to Bennington, Vermont, through a rough and hilly country and presented some dif- ficult engineering problems. The work was left unfinished on account of the financial troubles of the railroads involved in the great frauds of Robert Schuyler, who had been president of sixteen rail- road companies.

Mr. Green was then appointed chief engineer of the Mississippi Central Railroad, which had been begun all along the two hundred and sixty-seven miles of its length, and was left by his predecessor in the greatest disorder and confusion. Some sec- tions he found built a one-fourth mile out of the proper course, so that it taxed his resources to build eurves and schemes to save the work already done. He found the engineering force grossly incompetent. When he left this railroad was substantially com- plete, but so anxious were the planters, who were directors of the road. and the president to keep him that they offered him what was at that time a very large salary, $20.000 a year, to remain. And after he had actually left, they sent a delegation to New York to see him. and another to Chicago to try to persuade him to come back. No stronger testimony to the value of his work as a railroad engineer need be cited. To his natural gift for this kind of work he added great physical strength and vigor. and he gave all his energy to the performance of the work, whatever it might be, that he had in hand. The Mississippi Central is now a part of the Illinois Central Railroad. As first constructed by Mr. Green it ran from the junction with the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. six miles north of the Ten- nessee line to Canton and Jackson, Mississippi. It was a very important railroad in the southern in- terests. He had the honor to run the first loeo- motive ever run in the state of Mississippi.

Although Mr. Green received offers of positions as chief engineer from three other railroads, he

persisted in his purpose when leaving Mississippi and went to Chicago, where he was employed first to study the question of a tunnel under the Chicago river, to gather statistics and make plans. He pro- ceeded with the work of building the Chicago tun- nel and remained with the work until the coffer dams were built. He then went into business on his own account as contractor and dredger. At that time one of the prime necessities of commer- cial Chicago was the widening and deepening of Chicago river and the construction of proper wharves for shipping. He had the contracts for the dredging of the river from the lake to the old Rush street bridge. He took out the old government light houses and government barracks and the old fort. The river was made about five times its original width. He also improved the north branch of the river as far as Ward's rolling mill, and the south branch for about twelve miles. He was in Chicago in its first great period of development, and of that work he took a large and im-

portant part. In

1867 his Chicago

business and went to Peshtigo, Wisconsin.

for the Peshtigo Lumber Company, in which

William B. Ogden was interested, with whom Mr. Green was associated during much of his active business life. This company owned one hundred and seventy-six thousand acres of lumber land. As manager of this vast property he had to erect saw mills and grist mills and build two large ships for the lumber trade. He was in Peshtigo three years. He built the ship canal at Benton Harbor, Michi- gan. This canal gave steamships access to Benton in the heart of the peach country. He owned a line of boats and when the work was completed his line took during the season forty thousand baskets to Chicago every night. Besides his steamship line he built and owned saw and grist mills at Benton Harbor.

Before the great fire in Chicago he returned and was interested with his brother in the contracting business. The fire caused him to over-work and break down. On May 23, 1872, by advice of his physician, he returned to Green Hill, Worcester, Massachusetts, to rest and recuperate. The life in Worcester attracted him and he remained here, developing the Green Hill estate to its present state. He removed, November 13, 1905, to No. 974 Pleasant street, where he has since lived. Mr. Green has never cared to join secret societies and clubs. He is a member of Central Congregational church. Worcester. He served three years on the Worcester park board and for about three years on the board of trustees of the State Lunatic Asylum at Westboro, Massachusetts.

He married. December 25. 1850, Mary Frances Stewart. of the New York Stewart family. She was born in New York city, December 25, 1821, and died at 4 Melville street. Worcester, April 20, 1005. Their children are: William Ogden, born in Chicago, September 26. 1860; Samuel Martin, born at Benton Harbor, Michigan, April 13, 1864.

(VIII) John Green, of St. Louis, Missouri, son of James Green (7), was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. April 2, 1835. He was fitted for col- lege at the Worcester Classical and English high school; entered Harvard College, 1851; was grad- uated, A. B .. 1855: S. B., 1856: A. M., 1859; M. D., 1866. He studied medicine at Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, under the direction of Profs. Morrill and Jeffries Wyman; also at the Massachusetts Medical College in Boston: and from 1858 to 1860 in Lon- don. Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. He was admitted a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society. on examination in 1858. He was elected a member of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1856,

IL-JUN .IC . RY

Martinguen

TTON

PUBLIC LIBR . RY

Samuel Swith Green.

WORCESTER COUNTY

and member of the council, as curator of Com- parative Anatomy, in 1857; in the latter year hie accompanied Prof. Jeffries Wyman on a scientific expedition to Surinam (Dutch Guiana). He began the practice of medicine in Boston in 1861. He was a member of the Boston Medical Association ; the Suffolk District Medical Society, of which he was elected secretary in 1865; and of the Boston Society for Medical Observation. He was appointed a delegate to the American Medical Association, from Boston, in 1864 and 1865. He held successively the positions of attending physician and attending surgeon at the central office of the Boston Dis- pensary. During 1862 he was in the medical service of the Western Sanitary Commission and of the United States Sanitary Commission, and was for several months acting assistant surgeon in the Army of the Tennessee.

In 1865 he went again to Europe for the pur- pose of continuing studies in ophthalmology, in Lon- don, Paris, and Utrecht. In 1866 he removed to St. Louis, Missouri, where he has since resided and practiced his profession. He is a member of the American Ophthalmological Society, elected 1866: one of the original members of the American Otological Society, founded 1868; and a member of the International Ophthalmological Congress since 1872. He was a member by special appoint- ment of the International Medical Congress held in Philadelphia in 1876, and was secretary of the sec- tion of Ophthalmology. In 1867 he was appointed lecturer on Ophthalmology in the St. Louis Summer School of Medicine: in 1868, professor of Ophthal- mology and Otology in the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons, which position he held during the two years of existence of that institution ; in 1871 lecturer on Ophthalmology in the St. Louis Medical College: in 1872 ophthalmic surgeon to the St. Louis Eye and Ear Infirmary, and consulting ophthalmic surgeon to the St. Louis City Hospital ; and, in 1871 ophthalmic surgeon to St. Luke's Hospi- tal. In 1886 he was elected professor of Ophthal- mology in the St. Louis Medical College (later the Medical Department of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri). He is president of the St. Louis Ophthalmological Society. He is a member of the St. Louis Academy of Science, of which he was president in 1895: member of the board of trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden (Shaw's Garden), since 1895; member of the Missouri Historical So- ciety ; member of the American Antiquarian So- ciety ; member (and first vice-president) of the St. Louis Society of the Archaeological Institute of America ; etc. He has contributed scientific papers to leading medical journals, to the "Trans- actions of the American Ophthalmological Society," "Transactions of the American Otological Society," "Proceedings of the International Ophthalmological Congress" (London, 1872, and New York, 1876), "Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences," etc. The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Washington University in 1905, and by the University of Missouri in 1906. He is a charter

. member of the University Club of St. Louis; mem- ber of the St. Louis Club. the (discontinued) Ger- mania Club, the Liederkranz Club: of the Round Table Club: and member (president from 1890 to 1906, now honorary president) of the Harvard Club of St. Louis. He is also a member of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and of the Society of Colonial Wars.

Dr. Green married. October 23. 1868, Harriet Louisa Jones, daughter of George Washington and Caroline (Partridge) Jones, of Templeton. Massa- chusetts : of this marriage two children, John (born at Templeton, Massachusetts, August 2. 1873), and

Elizabeth (born in St. Louis, December 3, 1878), are living in St. Louis. His home is at 2670 Washi- ington avenue, St. Louis, Missouri.

(VIII) Samuel Swett Green, was born in Wor- cester, Massachusetts, February 20, 1837. He is a son of the late James Green (7), and a nephew of Dr. John Green (7), the principal founder of the Free Public Library, of Worcester.

His descent from Thomas Green (I), who came to this country early in the seventeenth century, has been described already, and an account of his ancestors in the line of the Greens has been given above. Mr. Green's mother was the late Elizabeth Green, daughter of Samuel Swett, of Boston and Dedham. Through her mother, a daughter of Dr. Jolin Sprague, of Boston, she and the subject of this sketch are descended from an even earlier resident of the Massachusetts Bay Colony than Thomas Green, namely, Ralph Sprague, who came to Charles- town in 1629. from Upway, Devonshire, England. Through his great-great-grandfather, Gen. Timothy Ruggles, of Hardwick, Mr. Green is also descended from Rev. John Woodbridge, one of the earliest settlers of Newbury, and from Mr. Woodbridge's wife's father, Thomas Dudley, the second governor of the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Rev. John Woodbridge was the brother of Rev. Dr. Benjamin Woodbridge, whose name stands first on the list of graduates of Harvard College. Through the same ancestor, Mr. Green is descended from John Tilley, his wife and his daughter, Elizabeth, wife of John Howland. These four ancestors came to this coun- try in the "Mayflower."

The first school attended by Samuel S. Green was that of Mrs. Levi Heywood. Her school was discontinued, however, before long, and he was sent for several years to another infant school, kept by the late Mrs. Sarah B. Wood, afterward a resi- dent of Chicago, the wife of Jonathan Wood. From that private school he passed, upon examination, into the public grammar school on Thomas street, which, during his studies

there was under the charge

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Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. I, Part 10

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 824

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 824