My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM F. GREEN. The prosperity of a community is often reflected, as a face in a mirror, by the condition of the local bank; and the banking facilities of a locality often decide whether business shall be active or sluggish. William F. Green, the venerable but active and energetic cashier of the bank of Sherman, realizes all this and does much to promote the business interests of his village. He is a son of William and Martha (Tomlinson) Green, natives of Lincolnshire, England, and was born in the town of Chautauqua, this county, March 3, 1832, two years after the arrival of his parents from their mother country. William Green was a carpenter by trade, and when he first reached America he made a short sojourn near the city of Utica and followed his trade, but in 1831 he came to this county, and after a short residence in the town of Chautauqua he settled permanently in Sherman. He was born in 1803, and married Martha Tomlinson in England. In 1856 and 1857 he was supervisor of the town of Sherman, and he died March 25, 1862, when fifty-nine years of age, leaving five children.

William F. Green spent the first fourteen years of his life in Chautauqua county, and was then sent to Oneida county, where he lived with an uncle. He was educated at the public schools and the Oneida Castle academy, and such was his proficiency and aptitude for absorbing knowledge that he was among the foremost scholars of the school. He attended there for six years and then took a clerkship in Henry Ransom’s grocery and dry-goods store at Sherman. He remained there until about twenty years of age and then went to work for Isaac E. Hawley, a prominent dealer at Sherman. Upon attaining his twenty-third year he embarked in the general dry-goods business on his own account and conducted it for about five years, at Oneida Castle and Taberg.

He married Martha T. White, of Taberg, Oneida county, and they have had one son, Israel W. They left Oneida county and came to Sherman and engaged in the dry-goods business with his brother, I. T. Green, for several years; afterwards moved to Northeast, Pennsylvania, and then returned to this county and settled again in Sherman, where he engaged in the butter, cheese and grocery business, afterwards moving to Jamestown and remaining some two years, where Mrs. Green died in 1883; he then again returned to Sherman, and in 1884 Mr. Green married Hattie S. Underhill, of Rochester, Minnesota, and from that date until 1889 he was engaged in the wholesale produce business. Mr. Green assumed the duties of cashier in the Bank of Sherman during the month of February, 1890, succeeding Mr. W. F. Smallwood, who had officiated as such since its opening, on November 6, 1884. It has always been a prosperous institution and, although an individual corporation, it represents a capital of $200,000. Associated are A. Calhoun, Hiram Parker and James Vincent — all solid and responsible men.

William F. Green, although becoming advanced in years, retains the vigor of his earlier days and transacts the business of his bank with the system and skill of a National bank. He is punctual and prompt in all his business transactions, and the increasing volume of business of the institution, whose business he directs, attests the appreciation and confidence of the public.