Col. Ed Green. While Colonel Green’s home and interests have been centered in Kansas for a number of years, he is hardly less well known in the State of Illinois, where he was reared and where he spent many active years, and in fact throughout the country and even abroad the name of Col. Ed Green is one of the most prominent associated with the breeding of short-horn cattle and of fine trotting horses. His home is now at Howard, Kansas, and he owned several ranches in that section of the state.
Colonel Green was born at Indianola, Illinois, October 8, 1865. His paternal ancestry goes back to Major Green, his great-grandfather, who served with that rank in the Revolutionary war. Major Green was a brother of the still more famous Gen. Nathaniel Green, one of the most distinguished leaders of the Revolutionary forces. Colonel Green’s grandfather was Ebenezer Green, who was born in Virginia, went as a pioneer farmer to Ohio and died in that state before Colonel Green was born.
L. W. Green, father of Colonel Green, was born in Lake County, Ohio, in 1831. He grew up there, and in 1859 removed to Indianola, Illinois. There he became a successful farmer and stock raiser, and he, too, as well as other members of the family, gained more than local reputation as the breeder of fine horses and cattle. He died at Indianola, Illinois, in 1913. He was a republican in politics, and was a man of Christian principles, though not a member of any church. L. W. Green married Euphama Jane Sandusky. She was born in Indianola, Illinois, in 1841, and died there in 1904. Her father, Abraham Sandusky, was a native of Virginia, and was descended from a family of people who originated in Poland and came to America in Colonial times, locating in Virginia. Abraham Sandusky’s parents were pioneer settlers in Kentucky, and Abraham grew up near Paris, Kentucky, was married there, and subsequently removed to Indianola, Illinois, where he homesteaded a tract of land and also bought other lands, becoming a very prominent farmer and stockman. In the early days he handled the ordinary native American cattle, but he secured some of the first short-horn stock that was ever imported in America. All his sons became prominent as short-horn breeders. Abraham Sandusky married a Miss Blackburn. She was a close relative of George Washington, and through her Col. Ed Green can claim perhaps the closest lineal relationship with the father of our country. Abraham Sandusky died at Indianola, Illinois, in 1868.
Col. Ed Green was the oldest of his parents’ children. His sister Adda died at Indianola in 1911. Lu, Jr., is a breeder of thoroughbred stock and a farmer at Indianola. Uz also lives at Indianola and is a farmer and stockman there.
Col. Ed Green was educated in the rural schools of Vermilion County, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois at Champaign, taking the veterinary course and also receiving military instructions. He had for years been known among all his friends and associates as Col. Ed Green. After his college course and his return home he began exhibiting short-horn cattle at fairs, and also became proficient as a successful trainer of trotting horses. He remained in Illinois in that work until 1900, when he removed to the vicinity of Denver, Colorado, continuing the same business there. In 1906 Colonel Green came to Florence, Kansas, and in 1912 to Howard.
Besides his home on Pine Street Colonel Green owned a ranch of 900 acres 3½ miles southwest of Howard, a half section of land half a mile east and half a mile south of Moline, and 500 acres at Indianola, Illinois. He owned city property both in Howard and Emporia. His farm lands he uses for diversified farming and for the care and feeding of his live stock. For many years Colonel Green had been raising shorthorn cattle and trotting horses, and his name is widely known all over this country and through Canada, England and Scotland. He is a member of the American Short-Horn Breeders’ Association and the American Shropshire Breeders’ Association, and belongs to the Kansas State Grange. He had exhibited his cattle for twenty-six years in America’s show yards, principally at state fairs.
In the various states where he had made his home Colonel Green had participated as a vigorous factor in the republican party. While living in Colorado he was under sheriff, and he served as deputy sheriff at Florence, Kansas. In Illinois he was a member of the State Republican Convention at Peoria, being secretary of his delegation, and he gained distinction by stampeding the convention in favor of Richard H. Yates, who was nominated for governor and subsequently elected. In 1912 and again in 1914 Colonel Green was a candidate for state representative in Kansas.
He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and is prominently identified with Masonry. His affiliations are with Hope Lodge No. 155, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Howard Chapter No. 49, Royal Arch Masons; Newton Commandery No. 9, Knights Templar; Oriental Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Chicago, and Median Temple of the Mystie Shrine at Wichita, of which he is a charter member, having demitted from Medinah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Chicago, and he is also a member of the Eastern Star. Colonel Green is also a member of the Lodge and Encampment and Canton of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a member of the Order of Rebekahs.
Colonel Green is happily married and had a family of children who are growing up to careers of usefulness and honor. In 1897, in Indianola, Illinois, he married Miss Elizabeth A. Baumgardner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Baumgardner. Mrs. Green passed away February 2, 1917. Her father was for many years a farmer at Dayton, Ohio, and her mother resided at Osborne, Ohio. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Green are seven in number: Euphama Jane, born in 1900; Edwin Joseph, born in 1902; Lewis Willmet, born in 1904; Mary Elizabeth, born in 1906; Lowell Oliver, born in 1909; Helen Katherine, born in 1912; and Charles Everett, born in October, 1916.