Sacramento County
Biographies
WILLIAM
R. GREEN
WILLIAM R. GREEN.--A rancher
whose well-earned experience has enabled him to speak with authority on California
agricultural conditions, is William R. Green, widely known for his trim acreage
at Wilton. He was born near Jackson,
in Amador County,
on October 22, 1881, the son of William Orange Green and his good wife, who was
Miss Francis Gebhardt before her marriage, and was a
native of Germany, while Mr. Green
came from New York. He came out to California
when a lad, accompanying his parents, who settled in Amador
County; and there he followed
farming most of his life. He died at the
age of seventy-one, living to be three years older than his wife; both were
highly esteemed for what they actually were, and were mourned in their
departure. They had seven children: Ida, Mayme, Rose,
William, Charles, Ethel, and Hazel.
William
R. Green attended the Jackson
district school and thereafter, until he was twenty years old, helped his
father. Then he became an employee of
the Standard Electric Company, now absorbed by the Pacific Gas & Electric
Company, at Electra; and he teamed for them in Amador
County for three years. He then purchased a livery stable at Jackson,
which he conducted for the following five years, and when he sold out, he
purchased his present ranch of seventy-five acres at Wilton, known as part of
the Putney Ranch, and moved onto that property in 1911, wince which time he has
conducted a first-class dairy there. He has at present about twenty-six milch cows, and raises alfalfa. He is a Republican in matters of national
political import, and stands pat on the platforms of the G.O.P., as being best
for the farmer.
At
Stockton, on May 9, 1910, Mr. Green was married to Miss Ellen Alta Gritton, a native of Volcano, Amador County, and the
daughter of George A. and Margaret (Johnson) Gritton,
the former a native of Knox County, Illinois, and a son of George Gritton, a native of Kentucky. George Gritton came
to California in the gold rush, and mined for a few
years; and then he got into public work in Amador
County, served for four years as
coroner and public administrator, and was then elected to the office of
treasurer of the county, and held that office for sixteen consecutive
years. He had just been re-elected for a
term of four years, when his death occurred, and he passed away in his
sixty-sixth year. He was a
highly-esteemed citizen, and left a very enviable record as a public
official. Mrs. Gritton,
the mother of Mrs. Green, was a native of Helsingland,
Sweden, and a daughter of William and
Ellen Johnson, and came to the United States
with her parents when she was two years old.
They first settled in Illinois, and later, in
1859, came to California and settled in Amador
County, and there Margaret was
reared and educated. She still resides
with the Greens on the Wilton
ranch, enjoying life at the age of seventy-two.
Mrs. Green has a sister, Lucy Georgia Gritton,
who also makes her home on the Green ranch.
Four children have blessed the married life of Mr. And Mrs. Green; and
they are Duan, Evan, Donna and Donald Burton by
name. Mr. Green belongs to the Jackson
Lodge of Odd Fellows, and to the Encampment at Sutter Creek.
Transcribed
by Priscilla Delventhal.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History
of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 899-900.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 P. J. Delventhal.