A. S. GREENLAW

     Among the county officials of Sacramento county is numbered this gentleman, and his reputation is unimpeachable.  Applying honest business principles not only in his ordinary business affairs, but also in his politics and in the discharge of his official duties, he has won the confidence of the public in a high degree.  That a trust committed to his care will be administered honestly and with ability there is never a doubt. His business and political career in Sacramento is a guarantee that he will acquit himself in any position in which he may be placed with credit, and to the satisfaction of those most interested. While a community might sometimes have been anxious as to the course its public officials would take upon vital questions, not a doubt has ever been entertained as to where Mr. Greenlaw would stand when the moment for action came, for he is ever found on the side of reform, progress and the right.  Such men, it is needless to say, are not too numerous; men who inspire confidence in our large cities; men who in their unswerving conservative uprightness and fearless defense of the right are  the balance wheel in the often seemingly reckless whirl of the political machinery.  The history of the county treasurer of Sacramento county cannot fail to prove of interest to many of our readers, for he is both widely and favorably known.

     A.S. Greenlaw was born on his father's farm in Waldo, Maine, August 29, 1832, and  is the son of Alexander and Catharine (Staples) Greenlaw.  The father was born in Bristol, Maine February 18, 1799, and died in Northport, that state, at the ripe old age of eighty-one years.  He was reared on his father's farm, received a common school education and at the age of twenty-two removed to the county of Waldo, where he married Susan Staples, by whom he had one son.  After the death of the mother he was again married, his second union being with Catharine Staples, who was born in Oxford county, Maine, June 9, 1798 and died in Northport, in the Pine Tree state, at the age of seventy-two years.  By the second marriage there were three daughters and six sons.  At Waldo the father followed agricultural pursuits until after he had educated his children, when he retired to a quiet life, making his home with his son William, in Northport, Maine.  He was a member of the Methodist church and took a very active part in its work. The paternal grandparents of our subject were Alexander and Susan (Cox) Greenlaw and the maternal grandparents were Luke and Sarah (Cox) Staples.  On the paternal side the ancestors can be traced back to William Greenlaw, a native of Scotland, who crossed the Atlantic, taking up his abode in the town of Bristol, Maine, in the early part of the seventeenth century.  Among his descendants were those who loyally fought in the colonial army, notably under Arnold in the invasion of Canada.  The Staples family were descendants of early settlers of Oxford,county, Maine, and the Cox family was founded in Franklin county, that state.  Among its representatives were those who engaged in the privateering service in the Revolutionary War.  The father of our subject served as a substitute in the war of 1812, being too young to enlist in the regular way, and the three brothers of our subject "wore the blue" in the Civil War.  It will thus be seen that the family has ever been noted for its loyalty and patriotism and the record is one of which the present generation may well be proud.

      In the public schools of his native state Mr. Greenlaw, of this review, obtained his preliminary education, which was supplemented by a course in the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, in which he graduated in June 1852.  He taught mathematics in the seminary for two years, and in April, 1855, started for California, and through the succeeding five years was engaged in mining and trading.  He took up his abode on a fruit and dairy farm near Sacramento in 1860, and for twenty-three years was successfully engaged in horticultural pursuits.  In 1883 he was elected to the position of county treasurer, which position he filled for two years, and in 1885 he resumed the dairy business, which he conducted with success until 1893.  In that year he was made deputy treasurer under Edward Lyons.  Upon the death of Mr. Lyons in 1897, he was appointed to serve the unexpired term, and in 1899 was elected to the office, which he is now acceptably filling.

      Mr. Greenlaw has been twice married.  On the 26th of June 1861, he wedded Amanda Smart, who died on the 20th of November, 1879.  She was the daughter of Jesse and Nancy (Clough) Smart.  Her father was born in Troy, Maine, in 1802, was married in 1822, and died in Sacramento, California, in December 1860, while his wife, who was born in Camden, Maine, in 1802, died in Troy, Maine in 1841. They were the parents of ten children. Mr. Smart obtained his education in the common schools and afterward located on a farm in Troy, Maine, but his last days were spent in the Golden state.  He three times represented his district in the Maine state legislature.  The children of Mr. and Mrs. Greenlaw were:  Flora M., born August 10, 1862, is the wife of Henry Grupe and they have on daughter Eunice Louise; Alice L., born June 9, 1864, is the wife of Charles E. Mack, and has two children Charles E. and Elwood; Horace born February 20, 1868, died in March 1872; Jessie born January 22, 1872, died in April 1896; Amy L., September 25, 1873; Lester A., November 21, 1875; and Edna I., October 9, 1877.  After the death of his first wife Mr. Greenlaw was again married, Mrs. Templeton Corlis becoming his wife on the 13th of October, 1883.

      Mr. Greenlaw cast his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont in 1856, and has been a stalwart advocate of Republican principles ever since, doing all in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of his party. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and socially he in connected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights of Pythias, and The Patrons of Husbandry.

 

Source: “A Volume Of Memoirs And Genealogy of Representative Citizens Of Northern California” Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. Chicago. 1901. Pages 213-215.

 

 

Submitted by: Betty Tartas.