Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 410
B. S. GREENE

B. S. GREENE, one of the pioneer settlers of Harrison Township, is a native of New London County, Conn., born at the town of Griswold, February 9, 1832. He is the son of William and Mary GREENE, natives of Connecticut, of English extraction. Our subject is the great-grandson of Major General Nathaniel GREENE, of Revolutionary fame.

Our subject's parents have always made it their home in Connecticut. They were farmers doing an extensive agricultural business. The father died in the spring of 1861, but the mother is still living (1891) at the advanced age of eighty years. They reared a family of nine children, our subject being the only one who came farther West than Pennsylvania. He was reared to farm life, and attended the schools, common to New England, having to walk three miles to attend, and only being permitted to go during the winter season.

Lucy E. GALLUP became his wife, December 29, 1855. She was a native of Connecticut and died June 13, 1858, at the age of twenty years. Two children were born by this union, Orra, wife of James A. MOORE, born November 21, 1856, and now (1891) a resident of Oregon; Lucy G., born June 7, 1858, the wife of Abraham WANGARD, of Omaha, Nebraska.

Mr. GREENE was again married, September 29, 1859, to Miss Harriet KINNEY, of Griswold, Connecticut. She was born in the same place, March 24, 1842. By this marriage union, three children were born -- George W., May 27, 1862, now in the employ of the Central School Supply Company, of Chicago, and a graduate of the Iowa Agricultural College at Ames, Iowa; Sarah A., June 26, 1864, wife of Frank ROGERS, a resident of Dunlap, Iowa; and Frank D., October 27, 1866. He is at present operating his father's farm.

When our subject had attained his majority, he went to work at the carpenter's trade. He followed this trade until he enlisted as a Union soldier in the Civil War, becoming a member of Company D, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, June 18, 1862, and was discharged, August 18, 1865, at Camp Buckingham, Connecticut. Among the hotly contested battles he participated in may be mentioned Brandy Station, battle of the Wilderness, battle of Cold Harbor and battle of Petersburg. He was commissioned while in the State Service of Connecticut, under William A. Buckingham, as first Lieutenant, of Company D, Third Regiment, of State Militia, assuming the rank on the 19th of July, 1858. He was a member of the Militia for nine years.

After our subject returned from the Civil War, he remained in Connecticut until the spring of 1870, when he accompanied by his family, came West and located in Harrison Township, Harrison County, Iowa. After he had lived here about six years, and in the autumn of 1875, he purchased one hundred acres of wild prairie land, on section 22, where he has wrought out for himself and family, a home surrounded with all the comforts known to modern farm life. His hundred and four acres of fine farming land was brought to its present state of cultivation, by and through his own efforts, as when he first took possession of it, it was an unbroken tract of prairie, as was a good portion of the country, surrounding it. Only through years of hard toil and self-sacrifice has our subject been enabled to be so comfortably surrounded.

Politically, Mr. GREENE is a Republican, and takes great interest in educational matters, and has been a member of the School Board. He is a member of Shields Post, No. 83, of the Grand Army of the Republic, at Dunlap, while Mrs. GREENE is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and also of the Farmer's Wives Society.

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