Bio: S. W. Greening., Desoto Parish La.
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, The
Southern Publishing Company, Nashville & Chicago, 1890
Submitted by: Gaytha Thompson


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The following is a brief sketch of the career of Mr. Greening, a man whose
present substantial position in life has been reached entirely through his own
perseverance, and the facts connected with his agricultural operations and
their results show what a person with courage and enlightened views can surely
accomplish.  He first saw the light of day in Dallas County, Ala., on July 26,
1839, and his early schooling was obtained in that State and in Louisiana, his
parents, J. J. and Sarah (Warren) Greening having removed thither in 1847. 
The former was born in South Carolina dn the latter in Georgia, and after
coming here they settled near Pleasant Hill, in De Soto Parish, where the
father was a member of the police jury for a number of years.  He made a
purchase of two or three small claims, but entered the most of his land, and
became the owner of some 1,000 acres.  He afterward made a purchase on Red
River, in De Soto parish, which was about the year 1853, and on this farm he
died in 1873, having in early life been a student of West Point and a member
of the Alabama Legislature for several terms.  He was quite prominent, both as
a politician and agriculturist, and although he raised a company for the
Mexican War he did not enter the service.  His wife is still living, being in
her seventy second year.  She bore him fourteen children, two sons and four
daughters now living, and of this family the subject of this sketch is the
eldest.  He has been a resident of Louisiana since he was eight years of age,
and has witnessed the growth and development of this country from wilderness
of cane brake and woods to finely cultivated fields of cotton and waving
grain.  He obtained a good education in Centenary College, of Jackson, La.,
and the most of his early youth was spent on his father's plantation.  In 1861
he left home and enlisted int he Pelican Rifles of De Soto, first company of
his parish, but after serving a little over two years with the Second
Louisianan Regiment in Virginia he was captured at the battle of Antietam, but
was soon after paroled.  He took part in many of the engagements in Virginia,
and after the close of the war he returned home and embarked in merchandising
in Mansfield, a calling he continued to follow for a about eighteen months. 
He then went to Red River and farmed for two years, but the two successive
overflows of 1867-68 completely ruined him financially.  In 1869 he moved to
where he now resides, and by the excise of good judgment and by hard and
persistent toil he has become the owner of 525 acres of land, a considerable
portion of which is under the plow.  His marriage, which occurred in 1866, was
to Miss R. D. Bullock, a native of Alabama, by whom he has had ten children:
R.D. (A physician), Julia, J. M., Reba, S. W., Jr., C. D., Rufus, Virginia,
Adolphus and Vivian.