"She encountered the hardships and discomforts of pioneer life, devoting herself
unreservedly to the rearing of her children and helping her husband."
WashingtonCounty, Pennsylvania, was created from Westmoreland and Fayette Counties in 1781. Originally it was a part of Virginia. Washington County split into Allegheny, Greene and Beaver Counties.
Elizabeth Green Auld
Captain James Green
Jesse Brewer Photo courtesy of William Griffing
Settlers often built log cabins as their first homes.
Mary Fox Green was born in 1798 in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Bonham and Temperance Fox.
She married Eli Green on March 21, 1822 in Butler County, Ohio. They were married by the Reverend John Durbin. According to A History and Biographical Cyclopedia of Butler County, Ohio, Eli Green and his wife were among the first members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Butler County.
Eli was born in 1798 in Kentucky according to the 1850 mortality schedule for St. Clair township. His son wrote
Father had a nice farm and was well off, but he signed the note of a friend and lost
everything. He then moved to Muncie, Indiana, then back to Roseville which was on
the other side of he Miami River from Hamilton. A long covered bridge with a toll
house at the end connected the two towns.
Father was six feet tall and weighed 200 pounds. He was a fine sight as he carried
the flag in his military company.
Mary and Eli's children were:
Elizabeth Anna Green Auld (1823, married A. E. Auld),
Ruth Green Whitney (1825, married Richard Clark Whitney),
Anne Eliza Green White (1830, married Stephen Beveridge White), Captain James Harvey Green (1833, married Jane Rachel Hervey), and
Ernestine Green Brewer (1841, married Jesse Brewer).
Eli appeared in the 1830 census in Middletown. The household at that time consisted of a man, a woman and four girls (Eli, Mary, James, Anne, Eliza, Elizabeth, unknown).
In 1840 the family was living in Rossville Township, Butler County, Ohio. The household consisted of six members: a man and a woman, one boy and three girls: Eli, Mary, James, Anne, Eliza and Elizabeth.
From an Ohio newspaper in 1840.
Eli died in September, 1849 when he was 51 of cholera in St. Clair Township.
Mary Green appeared in the 1850 census in Rossville, St. Clair Township, Butler County. The household consisted of Mary age 31, Ann age 21, James age 17, Ernestine age 9, and Anna Fox age 21.
After 1850 Mary moved her family to Pawnee/Ogden, Kansas. She built one of the first houses and ran a hostelry for soldiers and teamsters.
Her daughter, Anna Eliza, wrote in "My First Days in Kansas"
Our mother kept house for him [James], and one day she saw a large snake upon the log just behind the clock, which stood on a rude shelf. She couldn't strike it without injuring the clock, and she said that clocks were too scarce to be broken for a snake, so she caught it by the tail, and with a quick and strong jerk dashed its head on the carpetless floor; it didn't hurt the floor but it killed the snake.
William Griffing passed on the story of when Ernestine met her husband, Jesse:
. . . [while living near the territorial state capitol,] Ernestine Greene met Jesse Brewer-- a freighter on the military trail -- who stopped there for food and water. Mention was made of shooting buffalo. After their marriage, they preempted a farm between Three and Seven Mile Creeks in Riley County, Kansas. Jesse built a log house (later used as a granary), then a stone one. A porch was added later. Soon after his marriage, he went to the Civil War. Afterward he farmed, but he contracted tuberculosis and gradually grew weaker. He hired John C. Frey to help him on the farm. John Frey married Jesse's daughter, Eliza. Jesse eventually moved to Arizona for his health and died there.
In 1861, James enlisted as a captain in the Union army. He enlisted because of the Union defeat at Bull Run. He detailed his time in the army in his autobiography.
At the time of the 1870 census she was living with her daughter Ernestine Brewer in Ogden Township, Riley County, Kansas
She died on September 29, 1887 in Kansas City after suffering a paralytic stroke.
Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine. It can be mild, but one in 20 infected persons experiences rapid loss of body fluids leading to dehydration and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within hours.
Ernestine Green Brewer Photo courtesy of William Griffing
Tuberculosis (TB) is a common and often deadly infectious disease. It was called consumption. It usually attacks the lungs and the symptoms are coughing blood, fever, night sweats, and weight loss.
Kentucky was originally a Virginia county and included the lands west of the Appalachians. In 1780, it was divided into Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln counties. Kentucky officially became a state on June 1, 1792.
