Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Green, William Lowthian September 13, 1819 - December 7, 1890
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J. Orr orr@hawaii.com September 9, 2009, 2:19 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Published by Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd., Territory of Hawaii, 1925
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

WILLIAM LOWTHIAN GREEN, Statesman and Merchant. A career which proves the 
adage, “Truth is stranger than fiction,” is outlined in the interesting life 
story of the late Hon. William Lowthian Green, who, after high adventure in 
both South and North America, came to Hawaii as a common sailor, broken in 
health and fortune, and became a commercial power and one of the most 
distinguished statesmen of the Hawaiian Monarchy.
  The eldest son of Joseph and Mary (Childs) Green, born in Doughty Street, 
London, England, on Sept. 13, 1819, Mr. Green’s childhood was spent in the 
north of England and he was educated in private schools of Liverpool and at 
King William’s College, Isle of Man. Early in life he went to South America in 
connection with his father’s business and while there crossed the Andes and 
Cordilleras on horseback, a notable feat in those days.
  After a few years he returned to England and about the year 1844 conceived 
and executed the idea of engaging in the South American Atlantic coastwise 
trade with a power-driven ship. His craft, the “Flecha,” was the first screw 
steamer to reach the Atlantic coast of South America, but he was ahead of the 
times and the venture proved financially unsuccessful. Later, he joined the 
throng of adventurous spirits who rushed to California following the discovery 
of gold there in 1849.
  Mr. Green’s health failed after some time in the goldfields and in 1850 he 
determined to go to China, but being without means he shipped before the mast 
on a vessel bound for the Orient. The ship called at Honolulu, and Mr. Green, 
unable to withstand the hardships of a sailor’s life, and having letters to 
prominent residents of Honolulu, presented his credentials and was very kindly 
received by Robert Cheshire Janion, who gave him employment with Starkey, 
Janion & Co., a leading business house and predecessor of the present 
important firm of Theo H. Davies & Co.
  A few years later Mr. Green was admitted to partnership and the firm name 
became Janion, Green & Co. During this period Mr. Green took a leading part in 
establishing the Honolulu Iron Works. Some years later the partnership of 
Janion and Green was dissolved and Mr. Green entered business on his own 
account.
  In Jan., 1862, Mr. Green married Anna, the eldest daughter of Dr. Robert 
McKibben of Honolulu, by whom he had two children, a daughter, Mary E. G. (now 
Mrs. J. N. A. Williams), and a son who died in infancy.
  Mr. Green was prominent in official, civic and social life, was for a time 
acting British Commissioner and Consul General, President of the Chamber of 
Commerce of Honolulu and one of the founders of the British (now Pacific) 
Club, probably the oldest organization of its kind in the United States west 
of the Missouri River.
  Mr. Green was greatly interested in and worked whole heartedly for the 
Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. He was a member of the King’s Privy 
Council in 1874; Minister of Foreign Affairs from Feb. 18, 1874, to Dec. 5, 
1876. It was during this period that the long drawn out negotiations with the 
United States culminated in the Treaty of Reciprocity which was signed by King 
Kalakaua, and countersigned by W. L. Green, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, on 
June 17, 1876. Mr. Green was a member of the Board of Immigration; Minister of 
the Interior ad interim May 28 to Oct. 31, 1874. He was President of the Board 
of Health, Commissioner of the Resources of the Kingdom, 1876, Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, Sept. 22, 1880, to May 20, 1882, and was again called to the 
King’s Ministry, at a critical time from July 1, 1887, to July 22, 1899, when 
he retired from office on account of physical disability and a general 
breakdown, and died at his residence in Honolulu, Dec. 7, 1890, at the age of 
71, mourned by all who knew him.
  Mr. Green is best known abroad as a geologist, having made a special study 
of volcanoes and volcanic phenomena. His published volumes, “The Vestiges of 
the Molten Globe,” have attracted wide attention, and have established for him 
a permanent name in scientific circles all over the world.


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