This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: GREENE, EDDY, HARRIS, MASON, KELLER Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/nZB.2ACE/312 Message Board Post: The Hood River News, Hood River, OR., June 19, 1918, page 1 COL. A.R. GREENE IS CALLED BY DEATH Col. A.R. Greene, who had for the past year been a resident of Hood River, died Saturday at his home on Prospect Avenue. The funeral was held privately at the home the following afternoon. Rev. M.L. Hutton, pastor of Riverside Congregational Church, officiated, while Rev. J.H. Harding, Col. Greene’s former pastor at Stevenson, sang “Tell Me the Old, Old Story.” The services at the grave were in charge of Canby Post, G.A.R.. Col. Greene had any eventful and interesting career. Brought up on a farm and familiar with the hardships and privations of a pioneer, the coveted most a life as a tiller of the soil; nor did three years hard service in the army destroy the lure of the farm with its broad acres and fields of waving grain. Like many another young and ambitious man of that period he had incurred obligations in the purchase of land and stock which were impossible of adjustment in a day and the panic of 1873 wrecked his fortunes overnight. Nothing daunted he went to Kansas City and applied for a job. For several years he found employment on the Daily Journal newspaper of that city. During his service he traveled all over the West and saw the first stakes driven in some of the most famous of mining camps of the country. Then he went on to the lecture platform and covered a circuit embracing the states of Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. While thus engaged in he! was elected to the Kansas State Senate and served four years in that the body, taking a leading part in the enactment of the present law for the proper control of the railroads of that state, for a law to vitalize the prohibitory amendment to the constitution and for legislation to give the agricultural college its proper position among the higher educational institutions of the state. At the end of his senatorial term he was appointed inspector of the general land office, a position he still held for two years. Upon the accession of President Cleveland, Col. Greene resigned, believing that his position should be held by a person in sympathy with the administration. This he did voluntarily, although Secretary Lamar urged him to remain. The love of newspaper work induced him to buy a country paper and take up the congenial employment of an editor, but before he had completed his second year at this, he was unanimously elected a member of the board of railroad commissione! rs of his state. At the end of the term he was re-elected and served continuously for six years. To escape the ills that are incident to sedentary life, he found time during the six years to stump the state in three campaigns, to occupy the various chairs in the Grand Army of the Republic from adjutant of a Post to Department Commander; to serve as mayor of his town and to lecture in a dozen counties for the benefit of libraries and literary societies. Then he became private secretary for a member of Congress and spent two years in Washington. After this he was reinstated as inspector of the General Land Office, the administration having again become Republican. In this position he traveled from Puget Sound to Florida, examining the 120 land offices and scores of offices of surveyor’s general. 1900 he was called in from the field to organize and become the first chief of the Division of Forestry. In recognition of his valuable services in the opening of the Kiowa-Commanche lands in Oklahoma, he was promoted to be special inspector for the Secretary of the I! nterior, a place of the most intimate relationship and confidence in all affairs of administration. While in disposition Green unearthed the gigantic land frauds in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Idaho and Kansas and secured the indictment of many prominent officers of the United States and that of the several states named, together with capitalists, adventures and grafters generally. Many of these were convicted and served prison sentences. The last petition under the general government held by Col. Greene was that of superintendent of Platt National Park in Eastern Oklahoma. This is a famous health and pleasure resort, visited by an average of 25,000 persons annually. Here he built roads and bridges and planned and platted lawns, flower gardens and playgrounds; built bandstands, pavilions and pleasure boats and entertained many notables of the land, including Congressmen, Senators, Governors, Generals, rail-road magnates and money kings. Finally the life became! a trifle to strenuous for comfort with the mercury at or above one hu ndred degrees for months at a time and after three years of service there Greene resigned and returned to the Pacific Coast, which has been his home ever since. Colonel Greene was a man of strong character and impressive personality. He possessed many sterling qualities and to know him was to admire and love him. Besides his widow, he is survived by five children as follows: Mrs. Lewis E. Eddy of Berwyn, Md., Mrs. Jessie G. Harris of Vancouver, Wash.; Arthur A. Greene of Sacramento, California; Mrs. Henry F. Mason, Topeka, Kansas, and Mrs. Carrie G. Keller of Hood River. ----------------------------------------- The Hood River Glacier, Hood River, OR., June 20, 1918, page 3 COL. A.R. GREEN BURIED SUNDAY The funeral services of A.R. Green, civil war veteran and for many years a prominent citizen of Portland, who passed away Saturday afternoon, were held Sunday afternoon, interment following at Idlewilde cemetery. Members of Canby Post, G.A.R., were pall bearers. Rev. M.L. Hutton officiated. Mr. Green, known to all his comrades as Col. Green, a native of Illinois, was 76 years old. He served during the Civil war with the 9th Kansas Cavalry. Mr. Green, whose wife survives, moved from Stevenson, Wn., to Hood River two years ago. The following sons and daughters survive: Mrs. Julia E. Eddy, of Berwyn, Md.; Mrs. J.G. Harris, of Vancouver, Wash., where she teaches at a school for the blind; Arthur M. Green, formerly dramatic critic of the Oregonian, who is now connected with the Sacramento, Calif., Union; Mrs. H.J. Mason, of Topeka, Kansas, wife of Supreme Judge Mason, of Kansas, and Mrs. Carrie G. Keller, of Hood River. Two of Mr. Green’s nephews, Heil Green, a linotype operator on the Oregonian, and Charles Green, member of a company of the medical corps stationed at Vancouver Barracks, were here for the funeral services. This was posted for reference only. I am not related to, nor am I researching this family. If you have additional information about the person or event listed above, please post it as reply to this message.