My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH E. GREEN, dealer in coal and wood and a successful business man of Carlisle, Pa., with office and yards on West Pomfret street, comes of an old and reliable family of the State.

John Green, his grandfather, came from Ireland when a lad and settled in Cumberland county, Pa., prior to his marriage to Miss Barbara Raudabaugh, who, it is supposed, was born in this county. By calling he was a farmer, and resided in Newton township, Cumberland county, living to be seventy-six years of age. He had a family of seven children, all of whom are deceased. Samuel Green, the father of Joseph E., was born in 1817, in Newton township, near the head of the Big Spring, and died in March, 1892. When a young man he learned the tailoring trade, and followed it until he was forty-five years old, being engaged in the neighborhood of Big Spring for a period of seventeen years. He then engaged in farming in Penn township, continuing there for six or seven years, and for twenty-five years in all carried on farming at various places in Penn and West Pennsboro townships. He was elected to the office of county auditor on the Democratic ticket and served faithfully for three years. In religious belief he was a Presbyterian. He married Mary Kelley, daughter of John and (Vanderbilt) Kelley, of Newton Tp., Cumberland county, who was born in 1821, and died in January, 1903. John Kelley was a member of another old Irish family who settled in the Cumberland Valley at an early date. He also lived many years in the vicinity of the Big Spring, and was engaged at farming. He was familiarly known to his friends as Col. John Kelley. Mr. and Mrs. Green are buried in the cemetery of the Big Spring Presbyterian Church at Newville. They had a family of eleven children: Ellen, widow of Christian Tritt, of Newville; Matilda (deceased), who married Joseph Knettle; Jennie, wife of William Moore, of Harrisburg; Joseph Edgar; John C., a retired farmer of Harrisburg, who married Clara Richey; his twin sister Mary (deceased), who married Alexander Ross; Martha, widow of Alfred Huston, of Dickinson; Bethsheba, who married Joseph Corncrobst, of Harrisburg: Samuel S., twin of Bethsheba, of Plainfield, a retired farmer, who married Nanny Davidson; Margaret, unmarried, a resident of Dickinson; and an infant that died unnamed.

Joseph E. Green was born Oct. 13, 1847, at Stoughstown, Newton township, and was reared upon the farm. During his childhood he attended the country district school, and after he was eleven he does not remember attending, but as he is intelligent and a close observer he is well posted upon current events. When his father began farming he worked for him at that useful occupation until he reached the years of young manhood and was married, after which he worked by the day for two years. When only nineteen he married and began to earn his own living as a farmer, following that calling for twenty-seven or twenty-eight years in Penn township, Cumberland county, during which time he farmed five different places lying within a radius of one mile and all at some point adjoining each other. He has taken an active part in local affairs, serving for eighteen consecutive years as a member of the school board in Penn township, and has always favored the introduction of advanced methods in school work. It was largely through his influence that in the town of Centerville there was established and maintained for a long time during the summer seasons a select high school, which, under competent instructors, prepared many students from different parts of the country for the profession of teaching. Early in his political career he allied himself with the Democrats, and has been one of the active men in his party in Cumberland county. For many years he has been a member of the Democratic central committee. On March 1, 1894, Mr. Green was honored by appointment to the responsible office of deputy revenue collector of the 7th Division by Mr. R. E. Shearer, the collector of the 9th district, and he served most acceptably for five years. Mr. Green established his present flourishing coal and wood business April 1, 1899, and now gives his entire attention to that enterprise, which during the short time of its existence he has built to rather remarkable proportions, through industry, good management and honorable methods. Two years after his appointment as deputy revenue collector, he quit farming, and with his family removed to the town of Carlisle where he has been residing ever since.

On Sept. 21, 1866, Mr. Green married Martha J. White, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca (Vanasdlen) White, and she was born in Penn township in 1846. Eight children have been born to this union: William Hall, who died at the age of twenty-one years, was a school teacher in the public schools for three years, but passed most of his life on the farm. Cora Knettle is at home. John Kelso is county superintendent of schools of Cumberland county. Lydia Bell is at home. Frank Beltzhoover graduated from the Cumberland Valley State Normal School in 1897, at the age of nineteen, taught for one year in Dickinson township and subsequently for five years in the public schools of Carlisle, resigning his position there for the purpose of taking a course in Dickinson College, in which institution he is now a student. Otis Edgar remained on the farm until his parents moved to Carlisle, and since then has been in the wholesale notion business as a traveling salesman, being in the employ of McCullough & Linn, of Carlisle. Mildred Lee and Elva Mary are at home; the last named is attending Carlisle high school. In church matters, most of the family are affiliated with the Presbyterian denomination, and Mr. Green, though not a member, attends services regularly. The family home is at No. 156 West South street, where the friends are hospitably entertained.