One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXIX  

GREEN

In close association with the MEDBOURNs on the Burr Oak Flats was the family of JOHN and NANCY GREEN. One of the daughters, Mary Elizabeth, became the wife of one of the MEDBOURN sons, Thomas. Mary was the second girl in a family of eleven children, seven girls and four boys.

The GREENs came from Jennings County, Indiana, and set­tled in Union Township. They were an old and numerous family in the hills of southern Indiana. In the late 'fifties or thereabouts, they came to this vicinity,

JOHN GREEN died prior to 1895, the year of his wife's passing. NANCY J. GREEN was born in 1820 and died July 16, 1895, at the age of seventy-five. John was a brother of JAMES GREEN, who settled in the Long Point and "lit­tle lake" section of the township. John took up land on the Burr Oak Flats.
Seven of the children of JOHN and NANCY GREEN were living in 1914, two boys and five girls:

Amos R. of Union Township

Something of the life of AMOS RILEY GREEN, one of these boys, is known to us. He was born in Jennings County, November 23, 1858. In early manhood he united with the Christian Church. In 1879 he was married to MARY ELLEN MCKINZEY. To this union was born one child, who with the mother preceded the father and husband in death.

In 1890 Amos married IDONA QUINN of Culver. To this union six children were born, two of whom preceded their father in death.

Amos R. Green passed away, February 14, 1915, at the age of fifty-six. He died at his home one mile northeast of Culver and a little north of Culver Military Academy. He had lived in this neighborhood for at least thirty-­five years. Surviving him were his wife and four children, three daughters and one son:

Dora Marie
Alice Christina
Mrs. MYRTIE MANSFIELD
Lossie

Samuel of Rochester
Julia, wife of DAVID JOSEPH, of Culver
Mary, wife of THOMAS MEDBOURN

MARY MEDBOURN was a kindly person, and when in 1901 Lannie and EMMA SAYGER died suddenly and left a six-year-old boy, Herman, in a strange land and homeless, she took this lonely son of her sister into her home and adopted him.

MARY MEDBOURN was a loyal church worker and was a charter member of the Methodist Church of Culver.

Thomas MEDBOURN was married to MARY E. GREEN, daughter of JOHN and NANCY GREEN, June 21, 1866. The Greens were also early settlers of this region. There was a family of eight children:

Dorcas
Willie
Etta
Clara
Elizabeth
Jesse
Charles Myrtle married CHESTER ZECHIEL

Louisa, wife of GEORGE SPITLER, of Argos
Lottie, wife of JACOB CASEY, of Argos
Lola, wife of JAMES WOOD, of Hoxie, Arkansas
Emma, wife of LANNIE SAYGER, of Hoxie, Arkansas,

LANNIE and EMMA SAYGER died suddenly in 1901 and left a six-year-old boy

Herman
Sarah , died in the South many years ago

The girls are all dead today. One of the four boys alone remains, and that one is Samuel, whose age is now eighty-eight. He spends the winters with his daughter in Detroit and his summers at Chicago Heights. Samuel's wife is also living. Of the rest of the four boys, Amos and Richard died some years ago, while the other boy was drowned when a young lad in Jennings County, Indiana.

JAMES & Emeline Green

The other Green family to be counted among the early settlers of Union Township is that of James and Emeline Green. James came from Jennings County, Indiana, in about the year 1859. Apparently he came while still a single man, for he was married to Emeline Blanchard, September 9, 1860. When he first came to the west shore of Lake Maxinkuckee where Long Point is located, there was no one established there. He bought all the land between Maxinkuckee and the little lake, including all of Long Point, the gravel pit property and adjacent acreage.

The original GREEN homestead is still standing to this day, but not on its first site. It is now on the rise of ground between the two lakes. The house originally stood close to the lake, where the railroad right-of-way is now. We are told that the railroad came through in such a hurry, moving northward to terminate a while at Marmont station that construction work had reached the house before the movers could get it moved. In fact, the tracks came pretty close to being laid right under the house, which was hurriedly moved out of the way and back on the hill where it now stands, today untenanted.

When JAMES GREEN settled at the southern base of Long Point and for a considerable period thereafter, he did not anticipate that his waterfront property would at some future date be in such demand by prospective, summer cottagers as to command rich prices. So it was that, before the great inrush of the "lake people", he without ado and complacently thinking his deals successful sold good-sized lots to folks for about fifty dollars apiece. Some he almost gave away. His son got one for doing some extra chores. It was not so many years later that those self same "cheap" lots were in great demand for prices ranging into the thousands.

On Long Point in the 'seven­ties, JAMES GREEN had twenty acres of land left, and between the two lakes 83.47 acres.
JAMES GREEN was born in Jennings County, Indiana, March 14, 1834, and died in Union Town­ship December 20, 1911, at the age of seventy-seven. The children of JAMES and EMELINE GREEN were eight in number, six sons and two daughters. Two sons and one daughter preceded their father in death. Surviving him were his wife; four sons, one daughter:

Joseph
John of Colorado
George of Tennessee

his wife, MARGARET E. PORTER, whose family was of this section
Stanton, descendants now living in Union Township.

Frank of Culver;, Mrs. CHARLES MYERS of Culver

and one sister. JAMES GREEN united with the Baptist Church at Marmont in 1866, and later, upon his removal from this village, transferred his membership to the 'Methodist Church. In 1894, he was received into the fellowship of Grace Reformed Church of Culver, where he remained a faithful member till his death.