Chester Green Biography

	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. 
	Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1898. Pages 491-493

	Scan, OCR and editing by Joy Fisher, jfisher@sdgenweb.com, 1999.

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CHESTER GREEN is a prominent and highly esteemed farmer, residing on section 25, 
Oxford township, Hamlin county.  Mr. Green was born April 4, 1843, in Lowell, 
Vermont.  His father, Milton T. Green, also a native of Vermont, was born in 
1809, and was a millwright by trade. In 1849 he removed to Columbia county, 
Wisconsin, and went into business at Lodi, where he remained until 1856.  He 
then settled in Ironton, Sauk county, the same state, and after living there for 
nine years went to Iowa and then to Jackson county, Wisconsin.  In 1882 he 
removed to Brantford township, Hamlin county, South Dakota, and after farming 
there for several years made a trip to Iowa, where he died in 1894.  He was 
married in 1821 to Charlotte Tilerson, in Vermont, and thirteen children were 
born of this union-five sons and eight daughters-nine of whom are now living, 
our subject being the sixth in point of birth.  Mrs. Green is still living at 
Irving, Wisconsin, at the advanced age of eighty-five.  Chester worked as a farm 
hand near Ironton and Madison, Wisconsin, for about a year before the war, and 
on the 7th of December, 1861, enlisted in Company I, Fourteenth Volunteer 
Infantry, being mustered in at Fond du Lac.  He went south with his regiment in 
the spring of 1862, and after participating in the battle of Shiloh took part in 
the battles of Corinth and Iuka Springs and also the siege of Vicksburg and the 
occupation of Natchez.  After his term had expired he re-enlisted December 11, 
1863, in a veteran volunteer company and served through the Atlanta campaign and 
the battle of Nashville, also assisting in the pursuit of Hood's army, the siege 
of Spanish Fort and the campaign about Montgomery.  He was on detached duty at 
the headquarters of the Second Brigade, Sixteenth Army Corps, from January 26, 
1865, to August 29th of the same year, and was soon afterward discharged. He 
returned to his home in Wisconsin and bought a farm in Jackson county, remaining 
there until 1881, when he removed to Goodwin, South Dakota, and two years later 
to his present farm in Hamlin county, which he had secured upon a soldier's 
declaratory. He now owns one hundred and sixty acres of land, all under the 
plow, and has a very well improved and prosperous farm.  Mr. Green is 
independent in politics, though he leans toward free-silver Republicanism.  He 
has held a number of township and school offices, and is a member of the G. A. 
R. post of Watertown, and the Methodist church.

In 1867 our subject was married to Miss Mary Jane Crawley, a daughter of Michael 
Crawley, who was captain of a company during the war.  Mr. Crawley was born in 
Ireland in 1817, and in 1847 married Deborah Graham in his native country.  The 
match was a rather romantic one, the parents of both being opposed to the young 
people's matrimonial intentions, chiefly because the Crawleys were Catholics and 
the Grahams uncompromising Protestants. Cupid's arts, however, are stronger than 
such ties as these, and the young folk straightway eloped and were married soon 
after coming to the United States.  Mrs. Crawley in the course of time embraced 
the Catholic faith, and is now living at La Crosse, Wisconsin. Her husband died 
at Springfield, in the same state, in 1883.  Seven children were born of this 
unexpected though happy union-two sons and five daughters-our subject's wife 
being the eldest, her birth having occurred in 1849.  Mr. Crawley settled in New 
York soon after coming to this country, and remained there for some years.  He 
then removed to Springfield, Jackson county, Wisconsin, where he worked first as 
a mill hand and subsequently as a farmer.  On the 16th of November, 1861, he 
enlisted as a private in one of the Wisconsin regiments and went to the front, 
being afterward made a corporal sergeant and first sergeant, and upon re-
enlistment a captain.  In addition to serving in nearly all of the expeditions 
with our subject, he was in the Red river campaign, and throughout the war 
distinguished himself both as a soldier and a commander.  He was mustered out 
October 9, 1865, and returned to Wisconsin, where he remained until his death.

Mr. and Mrs. Green are the parents of eight children.  Warren E., the eldest, 
who was born March 10, 1869, is now farming for himself in Hamlin county.  Alice 
May, born May 16, 1871, is now the wife of E. H. Baxter, a Hamlin county farmer, 
and has two children.  Dora, who was born March 28, 1873, is married to N. W. 
Meadows, a farmer living in Hamlin county, and is the mother of two children.  
The names and dates of birth of the other children follow:  Clara, April, 1880; 
Latie, January, 1882; James M., April 14, 1885; Kota, May 23, 1888, and Gracie, 
September 6, 1891.