LESTER DOWNING GREENE

Sacramento County

Biographies

LESTER DOWNING GREENE

LESTER DOWNING GREENE.--Students of genealogy all know that for generations certain family characteristics persist in certain lines to a marked degree, sometimes skipping a few generations, only to return with renewed vigor in later ones. That family of Greenes living on the Sacramento River since 1849 near Courtland and Vorden, of which George Buckman Greene and the late Lester Downing Greene (sometime known as Greene Brothers) are members, is an interesting example of the above-mentioned fact. The ancestry of this family stretches back through the vista of centuries to a Norman source; and in all the changes of time, place, and environment, they display two marked characteristics (varied, of course, with less notable traits), namely, the pioneering instinct – the love of searching out new fields and conquering in the hard places of the earth – and a passion for agriculture.

As all historians know, the Normans were of Scandinavian origin. Before 500 A. D., a band of pioneering and pirating Scandinavians wandered southward from the land of Scandinavia, conquered the Celtic inhabitants of the north of France and settled the fertile and pleasant fields, where they built up a great and hardy nation and became known as Normans, and their land as Normandy – a people, in those times, always to be reckoned with.

A few hundred years later the most enterprising of these people, with their great king, William the Conqueror (who, it is interesting to note, is numbered with the ancestors of this very family of Greene under discussion), feeling the ever present urge of pioneering, crossed the English Channel and conquered the Saxon race of England, mingled with them, and formed the great English nation of later days. When King John (descendant by several generations of William) was ruling in England, there was a certain noble among the members of his court, by name of Alexander, whose ancestor came from Normandy with William. Late revelations of genealogy tell us that this Alexander traced his ancestry to Hugh Capet of France, and Gibbon says that Hugh Capet came of the proudest and most ancient royal family in existence – of lines which trace their lineage to four or five hundred years B. C. Although the records are to be found for those who care to read, we know that such old pedigrees, of necessity, belong in the realm of legend rather than that of history.

However that may be, the person and life of Alexander are matters of history, and he must have rendered his king valuable service, for John bestowed upon him the largest landed estate in all England, the Estates de Greene de Boketon, and he and his heirs were for centuries among the greatest titled men of England. The literal translation from the old Norman of de Greene De Boketon is thus: de, “of”; Greene, “Park”; de, “of “; Boketon, “Bucks” or “Deer” – the “Estates of the Park of the Bucks,” so called because of the enormous forests on his property, abounding in deer. So the new owner became Alexander de Greene de Boketon; but because this name was to long for practical use, the “de Boketon” was soon dropped and the descendants were styled “de Greene,” Several generations later, when England went to war with France, the Greenes, who had intermarried with the descendants of the Angles and Saxons whom their forebears conquered, felt that the “de” was much too French and it was dropped. Thus they became plain “Greene”, and so they are until this day, with numerous representatives in both England and America; but the spirit of the old Norman ancestors persists and crops out here and there through the generations.

The ancient coat of arms of Alexander (one of the oldest in English heraldry) is three bucks trippant or on an azure field. The title persisted in the family until just before the time of Henry V111. Lady Katherine Parr, the last and most unwilling wife of that much-married monarch, and the only wife clever enough to escape the consequences of his fickle and roving fancies, was a granddaughter of the last Lord Greene. Alexander had numerous descendants, and the race has figured largely in the annals of English history, not only as titled people, but as landed gentry.

The progenitor of this branch of the English Greenes in America was Thomas Greene, Sr., of Malden, Mass. He is first heard of at Malden about 1650, but it is known that he came over from England many years previous to that date, probably about 1638. Glimpses are caught of him, and then lost, in various New England towns; but the exact location of his first residence is not yet determined. Although it is known that he belonged to the ancient Greene family whose history is recorded above, still, because like many Puritans he carefully severed all connections with the mother country and apparently tried to wipe out all clues to his birth and ancestry, neither the place of his birth nor the direct line of his descent from Alexander the First is now known. It is to be hoped that family genealogists at present at work upon this problem will meet with success in their quest for more illuminating data.

In the inventory of Thomas Greene is mentioned a “cosleat compleat,” which means a complete suit of armor – a significant term, as such articles belonged only to the gentry. His sons were members and officers of the “Three County Troop,” an especially distinguished company of cavalry. Thomas Greene was a farmer, and so far as is known nearly all his sons and grandsons were engaged in the same occupation. With the fourth generation in America commenced a diversity of livelihood. A large proportion of his descendants have been physicians or apothecaries.

Thomas Greene, Sr., had a farm of sixty-three acres in the north part of Malden, now Melrose. Up to 1858 a part of this farm remained in the possession of his decendants and may quite possibly be in their possession to this day. His first wife’s name was Elizabeth, and after her death he married Frances Cook, a widow with several children. Two of her daughters – Sarah and Elizabeth Wheeler – married John and William Green respectively, sons of Thomas by his first wife.

The name was spelled “Greene” by Thomas, Sr., but after his death the final “e” was dropped; and it was not resumed until about 1850, when it was added by certain branches of the family – among them the branch to which the line under discussion belongs. There are therefore belongs. There are therefore descendants of Thomas, Sr., who spell the name with the “e” as he spelled it; and there are others who spell it without, as his sons and grandsons spelled it. Of his ten children this line is – descended from two sons, Henry on the male line and William on the female line.

Lieutenant Henry Green married, January 1671, Esther Hazzey, whose father, William Hazzey, was also an officer in the “Three County Troop.” Henry was selectman in Malden for thirteen years and seems to have been a prominent man, just as his father and brother were. He was a farmer, and leaves considerable property by will to his family. He had seven children, of whom:

Deacon Joseph Green married Hannah Green in 1700. He was a deacon, and a selectman for six years. He leaves property by will to five sons and two daughters, of whom:

Josiah Green the First was born in 1709 and died in 1774. In 1734 he married Ester Thompson, a direct descendant of Edward Converse or Conyers, son of Christopher, Baron Conyers. The family of Conyers is one of the oldest in England, dating its history to the close of the Conquest, when Roger de Coigniers came from Normandy and settled in England. On a female line it traces its ancestry to John of Gaunt, younger son of Edward III of England. Soon after his marriage Josiah settled in Stoneham, where he was constable and selectman for several years. He left two sons, Stephen and Josiah.

Captain Josiah Green the Second was born in 1735 and married, first, Elizabeth Green. She was descended from the fifth son of Thomas Greene – William – who married his stepsister, Elizabeth Wheeler. Having borne her husband eight children, Elizabeth died; and Josiah married, second, Sarah Skinner, by who he had eight more children. This line is descended from Josiah, the son of his first wife.

Captain Josiah Green the Third was born in 1768 and married Susanna Buckman. He was an active and enterprising man and a farmer. The pioneering instinct reappeared in him, for he removed from Stoneham to Salisbury, N. H. in 1800. There he went into business, the firm being known as Smith, Green & Co., Merchants. This was the second store at Salisbury Center and stood a little to the northwest of Hutchinson’s house. In 1808 he sold out his share to Perkins. Soon after his removal there he became connected with the Baptist Church, and through life he was one of its most prominent and useful members. His son Josiah Green the Fourth carries on the line.

Josiah Green the Fourth was born in 1790. In 1817 he married Clarissa Sweetser, daughter of Paul Sweetser and Elizabeth (Smith) Sweetser, prominent residents of South Reading. Like his father, he too conducted a store, and also engaged in the occupation of traveling clock-mender. In those days clocks required constant attention to keep them running and the facilities for getting them to a jeweler were limited. Consequently the traveling clock-mender was an essential person and enjoyed a lucrative income. Josiah Green, who was exceptionally expert, made an excellent income at this business. During his minority he learned the builder’s trade and built some of the largest houses in Salisbury, one of which he occupied over a period of several years. Like his father, he was connected with the Baptist Church and shouldered many of its debts, and gave much to charitable purposes. He had four sons and one daughter, Elizabeth.

Josiah Buckman Greene the fifth, eldest son of the above (we here change the spelling as it was spelled by himself), was born September 10, 1818, in Salisbury, N. H. He married Miss Caroline Beal, daughter of Thomas and Abigail Beal, and grand-daughter of the Reverend Otis Robinson, a prominent New England divine. It is interesting to note that the family of Beal shows a marked gift for mechanical invention, Thomas Beal being considered somewhat of a genius in the line. This gift was transmitted to George Buckman Greene and also the the son of Lester Greene, and in fact all the men of the family in the present generation display it to a greater or less degree. No further sketch of the life of Josiah Greene the Fifth is given here, as a complete sketch of his life and activities will be found incorporated in the life-sketch of his son, George Buckman Greene, elsewhere in this book. Josiah Green the Fifth had by his wife Caroline (Beal) Greene four sons, but two of whom lived to maturity.

Lester Downing Greene was born on the Merritt Island property of his father, Josiah Buckman Greene, in 1854. During childhood he attended the district school at Richland, and later McClure’s Military Academy in Oakland. From his early youth he received excellent training in ranch work; for the sons of California pioneers had to work, regardless of the amount of property owned by their parents. After he had finished his schooling, his first efforts for himself were made in hunting ducks. He was a crack shot; and for several winters, with two partners, he rented the lakes on Merritt Island (now converted into fertile fields) and shot ducks, which they shipped to the San Francisco markets, one winter shipping as many as 27,000 among them. The species were mallard, teal and sprig, and the industry netted a nice profit, with which at the end of several years Lester went south ten miles on the river and purchased from Willard Hazen, who had emigrated to California with his father many years before, the ranch later known as the L. D. Greene Ranch.

At that time Pierson District was not reclaimed and the ranch had but a few trees on it. It required the same self-sacrificing years of patient labor that his father had expended on Merritt Island to put it into the fruit trees which later yielded so excellent an income.

In all farming circles Lester D. Greene was a well known and highly respected member, never shirking any public duty upon which he was called to attend. Like his father and brother, he was prominent in reclamation work and was for the greater part of his life trustee of the Pierson District. In this capacity he was greatly trusted by the people of the district, for whose interests he worked with an unremitting and unselfish zeal, proving himself a most bitter and determined opponent of those who might attempt to circumvent the interests of the property-holders of the district. His death in 1917 was a serious and lamented loss to those old friends in whose behalf he had spent so many earnest and successful efforts. Like his brother and father, he was ever called upon to lead and to do public work; and he even responded, as they did, with cheerful unselfishness to the heavy responsibility it entailed. About 1890, with his brother George, Lester Greene borrowed the necessary money and purchased the first dredger ever worked in that region on the Sacramento River, and one of the first dredgers to be operated in California. George Greene personally ran this dredger, at different times doing each kind of work to be done upon it; and Lester lent him his cooperation in every manner possible. The brothers had a hard fight, for there were many opposed to the innovation, which they believed to be impractical. How Greene Brothers finally demonstrated the worth of their project is a long story, of itself.

It is well-night impossible to tell the story of the life of one of these brothers without telling the life of the other, so closely were they associated and so harmonious were their relation, characterized, as it was, with brotherly affection and loyalty, traits peculiar to the family. Josiah Greene died, Lester inherited the 750 acres of dairy land in the Pierson District upon which until 1905 he operated a dairy. In that year he sold the place to John Herzog, whose heirs still own and run it. Lester Greene also acquired 320 acres of grazing-land near Franklin, and in partnership with his brother purchased 1,000 acres of mountain range. Together they ran beef cattle, dividing the year of feeding between the Franklin Ranch, the mountain range, and the Merritt Island property. Lester Greene attended to the cattle himself, always going with them on the route from one ranch to the other. He also owned and personally trained many fine and blooded horses. His operations in both fields met with success, and he reaped an excellent income from the cattle business. The Merritt Island property was left to the brothers as an undivided interest, and as such they ran it until after 1910 under the name of Greene Brothers. These business transactions were marked, as were all their relations, by the same amiability and consideration for each other. Later they divided this property, Lester receiving the lower front and George the Upper. The original Josiah Greene home is now the property of Fred E. Greene, only son of Lester Greene.

In the high water of 1907, Lester D. Greene suffered severe loss by reason of the inundation of Pierson District, which practically wiped out all of his fruit trees. With the same hardy fortitude which characterizes his race through generations, though a man now well-advanced in years and worn with the strenuous efforts of his life, he set about to replant the land and by the time of his death in 1917 the ranch was again in good bearing condition.

Lester Downing Greene married, first, in 1878, Mary Nicholson McDonnell, daughter of William McDonnell and Eleanor (Graves) McDonnell of Sonoma County. Eleanor Graves, at the age of twelve, had been a member of the famous Donner Party, most of whom starved to death at Donner Lake in early days. She was one of the few to escape. Both her parents and several brothers and sisters perished. Lester Greene had, by his wife, Mary N. Greene, two daughters: Eva Eleanor, now Mrs. Joseph Berry of Berkeley, and the mother of Lester, Eleanor and Lida Berry; and Lillus Ann, now Mrs. P. E. Kelley of Calistoga, and the mother of Phillus Ann Kelley. He had also one son, Fred Elmer Greene, who married Bessie Byrd Humphrey, daughter of A. B. Humphrey of Sacramento and Stockton, by whom he has tree daughters: Mary Elizabeth, Phoebe Byrd, and Doris Isabelle.

Fred Elmer Greene does not inherit the agricultural instinct of his forebears, but he does inherit the marked gift for mechanical invention of the Beal family, which, combined with the pioneering instinct of the Greenes, has resulted in the invention by him of certain new and successful types of road machinery which at the present writing promise to have a material effect upon the industry of road-building. Like his father, uncle and grandfather, he is a vigorous and stanch advocate of an honest deal to the people; and while he is still a young man, he is already known to those who do not favor this policy.

Mrs. Mary N. Greene died in 1908, and lies in East Lawn Cemetery in Sacramento. She left life when it looked especially fair, when her children were grown and the ripe years of enjoyment of their early efforts lay just ahead.

Lester D. Greene married, second, Mrs. Helen Newell of Oregon, who was the daughter of James W. Collins and his wife, Martha Ann (Stowe) Collins, natives of Missouri and Illinois, respectively, and members of pioneer families in those states. Mr. Collins owned half a section of land in Oregon, which he improved and farmed for many years. He died at the age of sixty-three, a lamented member of the community in which he had lived. Mrs. Collins had died at the age of forty-six, leaving a large family of children, of whom Helen was the eighth. She received her education in Oregon, at Jacksonville. She had two children by her first marriage: Irene, now Mrs. Russell McMullen of Sacramento, and the mother of a son Russell Melvin McMullen; and Melvin Newell, who makes his home on the ranch near Walnut Grove, with his mother. The father of Mrs. McMullen and Melvin Newell was a son of Major Cicero Newell, a soldier in the Western Army during the Civil War and a widely known and highly respected man He spent his last days at Portland, Oregon, dying at the advanced age of eighty-one years.

Lester Downing Greene died in Sacramento, February 5, 1917, at the age of sixty-three years, and lies in East Lawn Cemetery in a plot which also contains the other deceased members of his family

After the death of her husband, Mrs. Helen Greene, now Mrs. Bernay, continued the operation of the ranch herself, and has proved herself a capable farmer and a most able business woman. Her home is one of the beautiful residences along the banks of the Sacramento River, the ranch consisting of 135 acres of the original L. D. Greene place.

Transcribed by Patricia Seabolt.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 447-452. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.