Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 254 - 255 

AARON T. GREENE, who, it is believed, is the third oldest settler of Salem Township, came to Southern Kansas when a large proportion of its soil was still in an uncultivated condition, and by his thrift and energy became an important factor in developing the resources of one of the richest tracts of country of the Southwest. A native of Belmont County, Ohio, he was born April 5, 1847, and is the son of John and Isabella (Fuller) Greene, the former deceased and the latter still living in Belmont County.

      The parents of our subject were also natives of the Buckeye State, and reared a family of seven children, of whom six survive: Mary J. is the wife of John Fulton, of Belmont County; Aaron T.; James T. is farming in Poweshiek County, Iowa; George H. is in Monroe County, Ohio; Hannah E. is in Belmont County; Louisa A., the wife of John Gillespie, and Lydia, the wife of John Smallwood, are both residents of Harrison County, Ohio; John W. died in Belmont County when eighteen years of age. The parents were early settlers of the Buckeye State, and endured in common with the Ohio pioneers the difficulties and dangers of life in the wilderness, and eventually reaped their reward in the possession of a good homestead and the comforts of modern life.

      The subject of this history was reared to man's estate in his native county, where he received a fair education in the common school, and having made the most of his opportunities was qualified for a teacher, which profession he followed first in this county in the Independent School District No. 40, of Salem Township, which school he also had the honor of organizing. He arrived here in the fall of 1870, and homesteaded the east half of the northwest quarter, and the west half of the northeast quarter of section 21, which at that time had not come into market. A year later he filed his application and was among the first men of the township to prove his claim. He has since made several removals, and finally, in the winter of 1881, settled on his present farm.

      Mr. Greene now owns eighty acres of good land and his wife is proprietor of another eighty acres, the latter comprising the home farm. This lady in her girlhood was Miss Nettle T. Culver, and was born in Harrisburg, Pa., Sept. 16, 1848. She was first married in this county to Lewis Winslow, now deceased, and on the 5th of January, 1880, became the wife of Aaron T. Greene. Her parents, Charles and Bethiah (Van Loon) Culver, are natives of Pennsylvania, and at present are residents of Woodson County, this State. Their family consisted of ten children, namely: Amanda, E., now the wife of George A. Wass, of Chicago, Ill.; Elijah, of Boone County, Iowa; Nettie T., Mrs. Greene; George Y., of Allen County, this State; Grant E:., of Atchison; Sarah A., Mrs. James Stradley, of Des Moines, Iowa; Jennie, wife of Nathan G. Holt, of Woodson County; John C., a teacher in that county; Mary C., Mrs. Frederick Berry, of St. Paul, Minn., and Willard A., of Woodson County, this State, and also a teacher by profession. 

     The parents of Mrs. Greene, when the latter was a child but a year old, left Pennsylvania and took up their residence in Lake County, Ind., whence they removed three years later to Porter County, that State. From there, in 1870, they came to Kansas. Mrs. Greene was first married in Indiana, Sept. 16, 1865, and by her union with Lewis Winslow became the mother of five children, namely: Charles A., Ella B., Leon L., Albert J. and Grace A. Mr. and Mrs. Winslow came to Kansas in 1870, settling first in Allen County, whence they removed a year later to Salem Township, this county, where Mr. Winslow pre-empted 160 acres of ]and, in the improvement and cultivation of which he was engaged at the time of his death, on the 13th of March, 1876. Mr. Winslow had contracted a severe cold in the army, which finally terminated in consumption.

      Mr. Greene, politically, is one of the most reliable members of the Republican party, and has served as township Clerk, and been otherwise identified with its local interests. He is now Clerk of his school district, and takes a lively interest in the matters pertaining to the progress and development of his adopted county.

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