Mills County, Iowa
Family History Stories
Manly Webb Green
Manley Webb Greene was born in Wilton, Maine on May 2, 1824, the
6th and youngest child of Guy Green and Hannah (Gould) Green. The
Greens and Goulds descend from old New England families, having
emigrated from England in the mid-1600’s. They resided in eastern
Massachusetts for around 160 years before removing to Maine in 1792.
Maine was still part of Massachusetts at that time, not becoming a
state until 1820. The family name was traditionally spelled Green but
became Greene sometime in the 1800's. It is not known exactly when or
why the spelling was changed but the extra 'e' first appears in Iowa
in the 1840's. Also, the name Manley appears as Manly on earlier
documents.
It is believed that our subject was named for a brother of
Hannah, Manly Gould, that died in infancy in 1804. Webb was the maiden
name of Hannah’s mother Mary. Hannah was the oldest of 11 children
born to Noah Gould and Mary (Webb) Gould. She was born in
Tyngsborough, Massachusetts on April 12, 1785 and died July 23, 1854
in Mills County, Iowa. Guy was born on August 23, 1778 in
Tyngsborough, Massachusetts and died in late September or early
October 1844 in Nauvoo, Illinois. Guy and Hannah had 6 children:
Adeline (1812-1852), Abigail (1814-1878), Guy, Jr. (1816-??), Noah
Gould (1819-1871), Silas Marchant Hillman (1821-1858), and Manley Webb
(1824-1860).
Guy Green and some of his sons, including Manley, went west
around 1840, possibly as part of the continuing Mormon migration. In
the 1840 US Census he is found in Delaware County, Ohio with his wife
and 2 sons ages 15-20, presumably Manley and Silas. Guy's two
daughters, already married by then, stayed in Maine and remained there
for the rest of their lives. There is no record of any involvement by
Guy or Hannah with the LDS church in Illinois or Iowa. Manley,
himself, may have eventually dropped out of the LDS church, since
there are no records indicating further involvement with either the
LDS or RLDS churches once he was in Iowa.
Manley tarried a few years with the LDS group in Illinois in
the early 1840's. He was baptized into the LDS church, Macedonia
Stake, on November 2, 1844. In an autobiographical reminiscence
appearing in a January 1895 issue of The Millenial Star, the LDS
church newsletter, John Lyman Smith states that "During the winter [of
1842-43] I attended school taught by Manley W. Green and seldom missed
a word or lesson". This was in Ramus (later known as Macedonia),
Illinois, about 22 miles east of Nauvoo. Manley's name appears on the
"Seventy Quorum Membership 1835-1846," Seventy being a priesthood
office. Manley married his first wife Eliza Canfield in Hancock County
on November 6, 1845. A few weeks earlier his brother Noah had married
Sarah Gaylord in the same county. Manley and his wife left Macedonia,
Illinois on May 8, 1846 with a party of LDS members from 11 families,
33 persons in all. They crossed Iowa and eventually settled at the
Perkins Macedonia encampment on the banks of the West Nishnabotna
River in Pottawatamie County, just a few months before Iowa became a
state. This information is from "A Legacy of Blessings" by William C.
Perkins, Pioneer and Patriarch. Manley's brothers Noah and Silas also
ended up in southwest Iowa. It is not known what happened to Guy Jr.
Apparently Eliza Canfield Green died shortly after her marriage
to Manley. There is no record of any children born to this union.
Little is known about Eliza or her family. She was listed on the
membership roll of the Nauvoo Relief Society, having joined on June 9,
1842. There were other Canfields living in Nauvoo and Hancock County
at that time, but it is not known if they are related. She was with
Manley when they left Nauvoo for Iowa in May 1846 and that is the last
record of her.
On April 25, 1853 in Linden, Atchison County, Missouri, Manley
married Maria West, daughter of Nathan A. West, a Mormon pioneer and
early settler in southwest Iowa, and Mary (Hulet) West. They had three
children:
(1) Albert W. Greene was born in Glenwood, Iowa on July 31, 1855,
and died on October 21, 1857 aged two.
(2) Charles Marion Greene was born on May 3, 1858 in Glenwood, Iowa
and died in September 1929 in Omaha, Nebraska after a long career with
Standard Oil in an unknown capacity. He never married.
(3) Katherine Mary Greene was born on October 7, 1860 in Glenwood,
Iowa. Sadly, Manley had died on June 18 of that year and so did not
have the privilege of knowing his only daughter. Katherine, known as
"Katie," grew up in Glenwood and married Hardin H. Wilkins there in
1879. She divorced him in Omaha in 1901, then married Judge Hanlin
Biggs Williams in 1904 in Bellingham, Washington. He died in 1907; she
died on January 3, 1911 in Seattle, Washington.
Manley and his new bride moved to Glenwood, Mills County, Iowa
in April 1853, the same month in which they were married, where he got
a job as a clerk in the store of a Mr. Nuckolls. They occupied a “shed
room†at the rear of the store as a dwelling. Manley eventually went
into partnership with Thomas E. Tootle, purveyors of General
Merchandise. According to their logo, Tootle, Greene & Co. were
"Dealers in Dry Goods, Groceries, Boots, Shoes, Hats Caps, Clothing
&c." The store was located on the west side of the public square in
Glenwood. The store also had a branch in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, just a
few miles away across the Missouri River. In fact, Manley was one of
the organizers of the Town of Plattsmouth in 1854, along with 5 other
men, including Nuckolls. In November 1854, this company proceeded to
lay out and plat the city. This was long before Nebraska was even a
state; it was a territory at the time. Manley was a Mason and was
Secretary of the Glenwood Lodge in 1855-56. He also was an officer in
1856-57, having been elected as either Secretary or Treasurer.
Apparently Manley was an early-day land speculator, buying up
large chunks of land and then parcelling them out in smaller
transactions to new residents of the young town (many land
transactions in his name are recorded in the old Deed Books at the
Mills County Courthouse). In addition to land dealings and his main
occupation as a merchant, he had a part interest in a ferry operation
that made daily crossings of the Missouri River. There were no bridges
yet in those early years. Two of his brothers, Silas and Noah, also
lived in southwest Iowa. Silas operated a stage in the area and Noah
also operated a stage station for a while, later taking up farming in
Fremont County, just south of Mills County.
Manley W. Greene died at his home in Glenwood on June 18, 1860 at
the age of 36, four months before the birth of his daughter Katherine.
The cause of death was heart disease. Apparently he knew the end was
near, since just one month prior to his death he had made out his last
Will and Testament. He was buried with the honors of the Masonic
Fraternity. His obituary says the following about him: "He was one of
the most popular and successful merchants in the West, and at one time
almost monopolized the trade of this county". He is buried in Lot 5 at
Glenwood Cemetery, near his brother Silas who died in 1858 at the age
of 37.
Maria married again on June 15, 1862 to William Kempton, a
prominent Glenwood lawyer and land agent who had been a friend and
business associate of Manley Greene. Maria had three children by this
marriage: Shelby, Jerome, and Bertha Kempton. William Kempton died in
1899 in Glenwood; Maria died in April 1917 in Omaha, Nebraska, at the
age of 84 after an interesting life that included traveling with her
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nathan West, as part of the great Mormon
movement, and later as the wife of Manley W. Greene, and seeing
western Iowa grow from pioneer beginnings through the last half of the
19th Century.
Source: Biography submitted by John Wilkins
|