Gunnison County CO Archives Biographies.....Green, Chester A.  September 2, 1844 - ?
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Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Postmaster and hotel keeper at Iola, Gunnison county, and in that

neighborhood conducting a large and flourishing ranch and stock industry,

Chester A. Green has found the favors of fortune by seeking them where they were

to be found, and compelling them to come forth at the bidding of his sterling

worth, honest industry and persistent and commanding efforts wisely applied.  He

was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, on September 2, 1844, and is the son of

Allen J. and Emma P. (Cleveland) Green, natives of New York state who became

residents of Ashtabula county in early life and were reared, educated and

married there.  They were teachers in the public schools of the county before

their marriage, and after that event the father became a farmer and also worked

at cabinetmaking.  The father died in Ohio and the mother is now living at

Gunnison, this state, aged eighty-one years.  Orphaned by the death of his

father when the son was but little over a year old, the latter was tenderly

reared by his mother, whose constant attention to his wants and wise counsel

were the forming influences of his character, and are among his most pleasant

recollections.  She valued education for her children highly, and sent him to a

good academy at Kingston to complete his after a thorough course in the public

schools.  He was a schoolmate of the late United States senator, Hon. Benjamin

Wade, of Ohio, and some other men who won distinction in professional or public

life.  After leaving school he worked for a time at the trade of a machinist,

having a decidedly mechanical turn in both metal and wood work.  In 1867 he went

to California, and in that state he lived twenty-one years, working as a

machinist and engineer in the summer months and bookkeeper in winter.  While so

employed he made for himself a cabinet tool chest with twenty drawers, which he

still owns, and which is a beautiful piece of workmanship as well as a most

convenient depository for tools.  It contains thirty different kinds of hard

wood, all polished and artistically finished, the raw material of which cost him

one hundred dollars, the cabinet being now valued at five hundred dollars.  As a

specimen of the skill he has for and the work he can do in the higher, lighter

and more graceful lines of his handicraft it is worthy of special admiration and

mention, showing that had he chosen to devote himself to ornamental construction

in wood and metal work he might have attained the rank of an artist.  He also

has a one-horse-power engine of the old style which he made almost wholly by

hand several years ago.  In 1888 he became a resident of Colorado, and locating

in Gunnison county, engaged in the cattle business, which has since occupied his

time and energies on an expanding scale and with cumulative profits.  He owns

one hundred and sixty acres of land, one hundred of them under irrigation and

good cultivation, and runs a herd of some two hundred fine cattle.  His ranch is

on the Gunnison river and along the railroad at Iola, where he also keeps a

hotel and is postmaster.  The location is one of the picturesque places of the

state, a long, narrow valley surrounded with grand old mountains and containing

as fine trout fishing as can be found in the world.  Many sportsmen spend time

at this resort, and business men and others also make it the place of their

summer outings.  Mr. Green has yielded to the genius of the place in providing a

good hotel for its visitors and ten cottages in addition for those who prefer to

keep house.  With these he has a profitable business while ministering to the

comfort and enjoyment of hundreds of his fellow men. It goes almost without the

saying that he is a popular and widely known boniface, and that his activity in

promoting the welfare of his community is highly appreciated by its people.  On

Thanksgiving day, 1878, he united in marriage with Miss Minnie A. Lewis, who was

born and reared in San Francisco, where her parents, John R. and Fannie M.

(Fotheringham) Lewis, natives of New York, were pioneers.  Mrs. Green died in

1901, leaving four children, Abbie F., Emma J., Minnie A. and Chester A.  Their

father is a stanch Republican and active party worker.  Fraternally he belongs

to the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows, holding his

membership in each in California.  It should be stated to his credit that

although he has been mainly a man of peace, and in the work of the world belongs

to the department of construction, during the Civil war, when Cincinnati was

threatened by Morgan’s invasion of Indiana and Ohio, in obedience to the call of

the Governor for minute men to defend the city, he was a member of the Squirrel

Hunters’ Brigade that responded to the call, and now, when the momentous

conflict is fading into the shade of history, he often shows his honorable

discharge from this service with commendable pride.  

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/gunnison/bios/green411gbs.txt

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