Dallas-Lee County IA Archives Biographies.....Greene, Benjamin 1819 - 
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Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896)

HON. BENJAMIN GREENE is numbered among Iowa's pioneer settlers and has been a
prominent factor in political, business, and social circles. He is a man of
marked personality, a recognized leader, and no consideration of self-interest
has swerved him from what he believed to be the path of duty. He is
pre-eminently a self-made man, and by his native abilities has risen step by
step to a position which commands the respect and excites the admiration of all.

   Mr. Greene is a native of Otsego county, New York, born March 4, 1819, and
his ancestry can be traced back to the nobility of England. He is of both
English and Welsh descent. One of his ancestors, who belonged to a noble family
of England, served in the army of Cromwell. He bore the name of Clark, which he
afterward changed to Greene in order to avoid being killed at the time he fled
to South Carolina to save his life. He was the possessor of a sword that had
been used in eleven pitched battles, and which Napoleon was to have had as a
souvenir. Members of the Greene family also lived in Rhode Island in early
Colonial days, and Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary fame, who served under the
immediate command of George Washington, was an own cousin of Silas Greene, the
father of our subject.

   Silas Greene was sixteen years of age at the time when the war for
independence was brought to a close. A short time before the cessation of
hostilities, although only a boy, he went as a soldier to Block island, where he
was wounded and suffered many hardships. He married Deborah Brown, who also
descended from one of the old New England families that was established in
America early in the seventeenth century. In 1800 they removed to Otsego county,
New York, where they spent their remaining days, the father dying at the very
advanced age of ninety-two years, while his mother died at the age of eighty
years. In the family were twelve children, of whom three sons are still living,
one brother having reached the advanced age of eighty-seven years.

   At the age of sixteen Benjamin Greene entered upon his business career as
teacher of a public school. He had acquired his own education largely through
his own efforts, never attending school but three months after the age of
fourteen years, yet he was studious, ambitious to learn and made the most of his
opportunities. At the age of eighteen he went to the home of a brother in
Belvidere, Illinois, where he remained for four years, and then returned to New
York, where he studied law and taught school until 1846. Seeking a broader field
of labor and opportunity he went South and traveled through Mississippi, and not
finding any suitable situation he returned North by boat up the Mississippi
river to Keokuk, Iowa, where he followed the profession of teaching until early
in 1849,—the date of his arrival in Adel, which has since been his home. He was
among the first settlers in this section of the State, and since that time has
been prominently identified with the work of development and progress in Iowa,
his name being inseparably connected with the history of this community.

   In the fall of 1848, before locating in Adel, Mr. Greene was married, in Van
Buren county, Iowa, to Miss Permelia C. Sturgis, who was born in Smyrna, New
York. Mrs. Greene is a daughter of A. B. and Emily (Hogland) Sturgis, both of
whom were members of old New York families. Five children were born of this
marriage and the family circle yet remains unbroken. Ada became the wife of Hon.
Wm. S. Russell, of Perry, by whom she has four children; Sturgis H., who .is
engaged in the practice of law at Portland, Oregon, is married and has three
children; Mary is the wife of John B.  White, a prominent attorney of Adel;
Emma, who married Dr. W. J. Williams, of Adel; and Arietta is the wife of George
W. Clark, an attorney of Adel.

   In January, 1849, Mr. Greene opened a little shop of general merchandise in
Adel, the first store in the town, which he conducted for about five years, then
sold out. He had previously made a claim to 320 acres of land and purchased a
squatter's claim to 320 acres. When he came to Iowa he had no intention of
buying land, but here met a recent settler who was so anxious to return East
that he told Mr. Greene he might have the land and pay for it when he could. He
was finally persuaded to make the purchase, and in later years this property was
developed into a beautiful farm and home, where Mr. Greene still resides. As an
evidence of the fertility of this land, it is worthy of mention that after forty
years of cultivation it produced 100 bushels of corn per acre, in 1895! His
business interests have ever been managed with excellent ability and his
straightforward, honorable dealing has secured him the confidence of all.

   In this connection it may be mentioned that Mr. Greene, with others, took a
prominent and active part in the organization and projection of the railroad
running from Waukee to Adel, now known as the Des Moines & Northwestern. To this
enterprise he gave his best efforts, contributing liberally from his means and
was instrumental by his influence in materially adding to the subscription
lists, by energetic work among his personal friends and others. These successful
efforts so thoroughly displayed his business capacity and acumen that his
associates honored him with the first presidency of the road.

   Mr. Greene has also been prominent in public affairs. His political support
was given to the Whig party in early life, and he cast his first presidential
vote for General Harrison in 1840. On the organization of the Republican party
he joined its ranks, voting for John C. Fremont, in 1856. He has since been a
stalwart advocate of the party, doing all in his power to promote its growth and
insure its success. He has no sympathy with the intrigues of modern politicians,
and those who win popularity and support by underhand methods are careful to
keep their policies unknown to him. He demands the same honor in political life
that he does in a business career. In 1852 and in 1856 he was elected to the
Lower House of the Legislature, and as a statesman fully discharged the trust
reposed in him, laboring for the best interests of the general public. He was
also School Fund Commissioner of Dallas county in an early day, and for several
years was president of the school board of the independent district of Adel. The
cause of education has ever found in him a stalwart friend. For many years he
was president of the board of Supervisors of Dallas county. Other local offices
he has filled, with credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. He
is a ripe scholar, who over the field of literature has widely roamed, gathering
the best that can be culled from the works of authors, both of the past and the
present. He is a profound thinker and his decisions are logical and the result
of careful deliberation. In all the relations of life he has been an honorable,
upright gentleman. He never acts except from honest motives and in all his
varied relations in business affairs and in social life he has maintained a
character and standing that has impressed all with his sincere and manly purpose
to do by others as he would have others do by him. He is broad and liberal in
his opinions of religion, inclining to agnosticism, and in his splendid library
may be found the works of Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Spencer and other advanced
thinkers of the past and present.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."'—MACAULAY.

"Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant,
of all things."—CARLYLE

"History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896


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