a. Francis Pickens Green was born in 1841 or 1842 in Saline County, Arkansas. The 1850 federal census shows his age as 9 and the 1860 census as 18. When he enlisted in Company A (Colquitt’s) of the 1st Arkansas Infantry (CSA) at El Dorado in Union County, Arkansas, on 2 May 1861, he gave his age as 20.[1]
Francis’s service packet states that he was killed at the battle of Shiloh at 9 A.M. on 6 April 1862. His resting place, which is likely somewhere on the battle site, is not marked.
Francis was probably named for Francis Wilkinson Pickens (1807-1869), governor of South Carolina and U.S. senator from South Carolina, who was a multiple cousin of George Sidney Green. Francis W. Pickens’s grandparents Andrew Pickens and Rebecca Calhoun were both related to George S. Green, whose grandmother Mary Calhoun Kerr was a sister of Rebecca Calhoun Pickens. Mary Calhoun married Samuel Kerr, whose mother was, it seems clear to me, Margaret Pickens, an aunt of Andrew Pickens who married Rebecca Calhoun.
In January 2003, Michael Taylor, a descendant of George Sidney Green, emailed to tell me that the descendants of George have for generations passed down stories about his Pickens ancestry. Michael Taylor’s email tells me that his grandmother Minnie White Taylor told him that her mother-in-law Sarah Ann Green Taylor, a granddaughter of George Sidney Green, told her about the Pickens ancestry of George S. Green.
b. John Ewing Green was born 22 March 1843 in Saline County, Arkansas. This date of death is recorded on his tombstone in Cane Creek cemetery at Strong in Union County, Arkansas.
On 4 October 1860, John E. Green married Elizabeth J. Woodall in Union County, Arkansas.[2] As my last posting states, I think that Elizabeth was a niece of Allen J. Woodall who gave bond on 13 July 1857 for John J. Etheridge’s administration of George S. Green’s estate, after Mary Ann Clardy Green married John J. Etheridge following George S. Green’s death.[3] The 1850 federal census shows Allen J. Woodall living next to George S. Green’s family in Harrison township of Union County. By 1860, Elizabeth, who is not in Allen J. Woodall’s household in 1850 and does not appear to be his daughter, is enumerated in Allen’s household in Union County on the census. As did John J. Etheridge, Allen Joseph Woodall came to Union County from Georgia, arriving there not long before John J. Etheridge did.
In a typescript entitled “John Ewen Green 1843-1930 and Descendants” which he composed in 1983, John E. Green’s grandson William Oscar Taylor (1890-1996) provides information about John and his family.[4] William O. Taylor says that there was contention between John E. Green and his step-father John J. Etheridge following the marriage of John E. Green’s mother Mary Ann to Etheridge on 22 February 1857.[5]
According to William O. Taylor, John E. Green enlisted in a Confederate military unit in Arkansas, then had a falling out with his lieutenant and left that unit, re-enlisting in Company E of Louisiana’s 13th Battalion of Partisan Rangers.[6] The service packet for the second enlistment shows John E. Green enlisting in this unit at Monroe, Louisiana, on 15 August 1862 and subsequently being listed as absent without leave.[7]
Following his marriage in 1860 and his Civil War service, John E. Green acquired a portion of his father’s land in Union County and raised his family there, according to William O. Taylor, who also says that John and his brothers Elias and Ben left Union County for a period of time to move to Howard County in southwest Arkansas following the marriage of their brother George in 1876, a marriage of which they disapproved.[8] John and Ben then returned to Union County with Elias remaining in Howard County.
William O. Taylor states that John was a deacon of Cane Creek Baptist church in Union County, in whose cemetery he is buried. He was a “master mechanic” who could “make practically anything out of wood or iron needed on a farm.”[9]
John E. Green’s tombstone in Cane Creek cemetery states that he died 22 December 1930. The tombstone has the inscription, “THERE IS NO PARTING IN HEAVEN.” John’s wife Elizabeth J. Woodall Green is buried next to him with her burial marker stating that she died 21 July 1916, aged 71 years and 9 months. Her Find a Grave memorial page, which I’ve just linked, states that Elizabeth was born in Georgia on 21 October 1846.
In 1976, John’s grandson William Oscar Taylor published a small memoir recounting his growing-up years in Union County. The book, which was privately published, is entitled The Old Timers Did It This Way. Noted Arkansas historian Tom Dillard provided a review and summary of this book in an article published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in June 2014, which notes that the memoir offers a valuable glimpse into what it was like to grow up in south Arkansas not far from the Louisiana border at the end of the 19th century, in contrast to the many similar books written by people who grew up in the mountainous Ozarks section of the state.[10]
Tom Dillard writes,
Writing in a clear and interesting style, Taylor describes how his father built his farm—from clearing the land to building rail fences to planting and harvesting crops. For example, I have never seen a better description of building a “mud-cat chimney.” Stones were sometimes not available in south Arkansas for settlers to use in constructing chimneys, so they made do by making “bricks” from mud-covered wooden sticks.
Taylor is equally good at describing the farming operations that kept food on the table for 10. Cotton was the cash crop, but a large variety of foodstuffs was also grown. I was not surprised by the emphasis on growing corn since it was the staff of life for both man and beast, but I did not realize how important field peas were for feeding both humans and draft animals. And I was surprised at young Oscar’s killing and eating songbirds, a practice which the author said was common among country boys.
Taylor, betraying the important role molasses played on the dinner table, described in some detail how his family grew sorghum cane and processed it into the amber-colored syrup that was used for everything from sweetening coffee to making candy. Similarly thorough descriptions were given for planting, growing, harvesting, and storing sweet potatoes and peanuts, not to mention cotton.
John Ewing Green was named for his father’s brother John Ewing Green, who in turn was named for that older John E. Green’s great-uncle John Ewing Colhoun, a brother of Mary Calhoun, who married Samuel Kerr, the parents of Jane Kerr Green. As a previous posting notes, following their marriage, John Green and Jane Kerr managed the Keowee Heights plantation of Jane’s uncle John Ewing Colhoun in Pendleton District, South Carolina.
Family trees for the family of John Green and Jane Kerr often give John Green the middle name Ewing. I have never seen a document giving John Green’s name as anything other than John Green. The Ewing name came into this family through Jane Kerr’s grandmother Jane Ewing, wife of Ezekiel Calhoun, for whom Jane herself was named.
c. Elias J. Green was born 9 March 1845 in Union County, Arkansas. This date of birth is recorded on his tombstone in Nashville cemetery in Nashville, Howard County, Arkansas.
On 11 September 1866 in Union County, Arkansas, Elias married Paralee A. Coleman, daughter of Richard Coleman and Elizabeth Mosley, South Carolina natives who came to Union County from Perry County, Alabama.[11] The marriage record stated that both Elias and Paralee were 21 years old. The couple were married by Reverend John Pinckney Everett, a Baptist minister whose father George Everett pastored Spring Hill Baptist church at Oakland in Union Parish, Louisiana. As my last posting notes, Reverend John P. Everett also married Elias’s mother Mary Ann Clardy Green when she married John J. Etheridge in Union County on 22 February 1857.
As I noted above, Elias moved to Howard County in southwest Arkansas as a young man, following his marriage to Paralee Coleman. Elias’s tombstone states that he died 25 November 1876. On 30 May 1908, his widow Paralee filed a pension application in Howard County for his Confederate service during the Civil War. The application says that Elias served as a courier for Company G of the 19th Louisiana (infantry, apparently).[12] The pension application gives the same date of death for Elias as is found on his tombstone.
Paralee Coleman Green’s death certificate gives her a birthdate of 30 March 1843 and states that she died 17 July 1924 at Nashville in Howard County.[13] The informant for the death certificate, which does not have burial information, was Paralee’s grandson Ollie Wakefield, son of Elias and Paralee’s daughter Agnes, who married 1) Joseph T. Wakefield and 2) Pierce Butler Odell. In 1920, the federal census shows Paralee living at Blue Bayou in Howard County with Pierce B. and Agness Odell.
Elias J. Green was likely named in honor of a younger brother of his mother Mary Ann Clardy Green, Elias Clardy, who lived only a year.
d. Benjamin Calhoun Green was born 24 April 1847 in Union County, Arkansas. This date of birth appears on his tombstone in Green Grove cemetery at New London in Union County, his death certificate, and on an application his daughter Grace Green Kelly made on 9 July 1976 for a military marker for his grave.[14] Benjamin’s wife Alice Eudora Engles Green was the informant for the death certificate.
On 27 October 1869 in Union County, Benjamin married Alice Eudora Engles.[15] Reverend William H. Gathright of Spring Hill Baptist church at Oakland in Union Parish, Louisiana, officiated at the marriage. The marriage record gives Alice’s name as Thomas Alice Green. I have been unable to find the names of Alice’s parents. Descendants of Benjamin and Alice repeatedly give her maiden surname as Engles. However, Alice’s daughter Grace Green Kelly reported her mother’s maiden surname as Ingram on Alice’s death certificate, giving her father’s name as “Mr. Ingram” and her mother’s name as unknown.[16]
The 1860 federal census shows Alice living in Wilmington township of Union County in the household of an M.J. Green, female, who was born in Tennessee about 1825. The preceding census entry lists a B.B. Green, an overseer born in Tennessee in 1820. Though B.B. Green and M.J. Green are given separate dwelling numbers on this census, they are enumerated as a family with Alice Green, aged 4, in the household along with an elderly woman, Margaret Gallant, and a younger Eliza Gallant.
I think it’s likely that M.J. Green of this 1860 census entry is Alice’s mother. If Alice’s surname was Engles or Ingram, then it appears that M.J. Green may have previously been married to an Engles or Ingram, before she married B.B. Green. I’m also inclined to wonder if B.B. Green was named Benjamin Bartley Green, since Benjamin Calhoun Green and wife Alice gave this name to one of their sons. I can find no further information about this B.G. Green of the 1860 census, and have no idea if he was related or not related to the family of George Sidney Green.
As I noted previously, according to William O. Taylor, Benjamin C. Green went with his brothers John and Elias from Union to Howard County, Arkansas, as a young man, then returned to Union County, settling at Pigeon Hill near Hillsboro. A brief biography of Benjamin in George Lashier’s Baptist Ministerial Directory states that he was born in Hillsboro, Arkansas, 24 April 1847 and was living at Dilolo (Union County), Arkansas, in 1899.[17] The biography indicates that he was licensed to preach in May 1883 and ordained in June 1884 at Cane Creek Baptist church in Union County. He pastored Green Grove church in Union County, in whose cemetery he and Alice are buried, then Philadelphia, Cane Creek, Union, and Centerpoint Baptist churches.
Benjamin Calhoun Green died at Huttig in Union County on 24 March 1921 and, as already noted, is buried in Green Grove cemetery at New London in Union County. His tombstone marker is broken and illegible. The military marker his daughter Grace applied for in 1976 (this is mentioned above) records his dates of birth and death. Wife Alice is buried next to Benjamin, with a tombstone stating that she was born 1 October 1855 and died 27 April 1927. Alice’s dates of birth and death also appear on her death certificate for which her daughter Grace was informant.[18]
I think it’s likely that Benjamin Calhoun Green got the name Benjamin from George Sidney Green’s brother Benjamin S. Green. As the posting I’ve just linked states, in my view, John Green, George’s father, was the son of a Benjamin Green who arrived in the 1760s in the Long Cane region of what became Abbeville County, South Carolina. A Benjamin Green who tutored the children of John Ewing Colhoun at the same time in which John Green and Jane Kerr managed John E. Colhoun’s upcountry plantation Keowee Heights was, I’m fairly sure, a brother of John Green and another son of the older Benjamin Green. And the name Calhoun passes down in the Green family from Jane Kerr’s mother Mary Calhoun Kerr. George Sidney Green had a brother named Ezekiel Calhoun Green.
e. George Washington Green was born 4 December 1848 in Union County, Arkansas. This date of birth is inscribed on his tombstone in Cane Creek cemetery at Strong in Union County. I have no clue why, on the Find a Grave memorial page I’ve just linked, George is identified as the son of an unknown father and a mother named Mary Ann Quarles Whitt, when one document after another shows that his parents were George Sidney Green and Mary Ann Clardy. For that matter, and for the same reason, I’m mystified at family trees (e.g., this one at Ancestry) who’ve turned George into a son of Mary Ann Clardy’s sister Mary Elizabeth Clardy and her husband George West Murphy. Sigh….
A transcript of the family bible of George W. Green and wife Esther Mary Dugal, showing the birthdates of both George and Esther Mary and of their children, is found in the DAR application of Carol Lee Green Shellhouse, who entered DAR on the line of Samuel Kerr, father of Jane Kerr Green, who was the grandmother of George W. Green.[19] This DAR application has photos of the tombstones of George and Esther Mary Dugal Green.
On 10 February 1876, having given bond with Samuel Lavender, stepfather of his bride-to-be, George W. Green married Esther Mary Dugal in Union County, Arkansas.[20] Esther Mary was the daughter of Benjamin M. Dugal and Mychal Hicks. The marriage record states that both spouses lived at Hillsboro in Union County, and that they were married by Reverend J.E. Guinn at the bride’s home. Esther Mary’s surname appears as Dougal in the marriage record, and the Dougal spelling is used in other documents for this family.
As I’ve previously noted, according to William O. Taylor, George’s brothers John, Elias, and Benjamin objected to this marriage and moved to Howard County as a result.[21] As Taylor also indicates, George’s sister Sarah Elizabeth had married Esther Mary Dugal’s brother James Rufus Dugal three years before George and Esther Mary married.
George Washington Green died 3 August 1919 in New Orleans, Louisiana.[22] The date of death is recorded on his tombstone. Esther Mary Dugal Green is buried with her husband George in Cane Creek cemetery at Strong in Union County, with her tombstone (shared with George) stating that she was born 9 February 1857 (in Union County) and died 25 September 1913.
f. Agnes Jane Green was born about 1851 in Union County, Arkansas, and died between 1860 and 1870. The only information I have for her is her listing on the 1860 federal census in the household of her mother Mary Ann Clardy and Mary Ann’s second husband John J. Etheridge.
Agnes Jane Green was named for her grandmothers Agnes Keesee Clardy and Jane Kerr Green.
g. Sarah Elizabeth Green was born 14 April 1853 in Union County, Arkansas. This date of birth appears on her tombstone in Cane Creek cemetery at Strong in Union County, and is also stated on her death certificate, for which her son Garland A. Dugal was informant.[23]
On 31 December 1873 in Union County, Sarah Elizabeth married James Rufus Dugal, a brother of Esther Mary Dugal who married Sarah Elizabeth’s brother George Washington Green.[24] The marriage record spells James’s surname as Dugald.
Sarah Elizabeth Green Dugal died at Strong in Union County on 15 June 1924. Her date and place of death are stated on her death certificate,[25] and the date is inscribed on her tombstone in Cane Creek cemetery at Strong. The tombstone is a tombstone shared with her husband James Rufus Dugal (from whom her death certificate says she was divorced when she died), with his inscription stating that he was born 9 March 1855 (at Hillsboro in Union County) and died 10 June 1925 (in Union County).
[1] NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Arkansas, 1861-1865, RG 109, available digitally at Fold 3.
[2] Union County, Arkansas, Marriage Records Bk. B, p. 238.
[3] Yes: I now see that a researcher, Jamie Farrell Tomlinson, has left a comment on Elizabeth’s Find a Grave memorial page stating that she was Allen J. Woodall’s niece, and providing a link to the adoption papers from Union County, Arkansas, which are transcribed in Smith County, Texas, Probate Minutes Bk. B-1, pp. 474-5.
[4] William Oscar Taylor, “John Ewen Green 1843-1930 and Descendants,” typescript (1983), a copy of which was sent to me in February 2003 by William O. Taylor’s grandson Michael W. Taylor.
[5] Ibid., p. 3.
[6] Ibid., pp. 3-4.
[7] NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Louisiana, 1861-1865, RG 109, available digitally at Fold3.
[8] Taylor, “John Ewen Green 1843-1930 and Descendants,” p. 4.
[9] Ibid., pp. 4-5.
[10] Tom Dillard, “A mud-cat chimney primer,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (1 June 2014), online at ArkansasOnline site.
[11] Union County, Arkansas, Marriage Records Bk. B, p. 362.
[12] Arkansas Confederate Pensions, Howard County, file 18847, available digitally at Family Search.
[13] Arkansas Department of Health, Death Certificates, 1924, Howard County 031-046, no. 651, available digitally at Ancestry.
[14] Arkansas Department of Health, Death Certificates, 1921, Union County, 001-016, no. 1056, available digitally at Ancestry; Department of Veteran Affairs, Applications for Headstones and Markers, July 1, 1970–September 30, 1985: 1975-6, Graham, William Lewis — Greene, Isaac Jr., available digitally in Ancestry’s collection U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1861-1985.
[15] Union County, Arkansas, Marriage Records Bk. C, p. 124.
[16] Arkansas Department of Health, Death Certificates, 1927, Union County, 019-039, no. 1094.
[17] George Lashier, Baptist Ministerial Directory (Oxford, Ohio: Oxford News, 1899), p. 289.
[18] See supra, n. 16.
[19] National DAR # 846757, Joseph McDowell DAR chapter, Hendersonville, North Carolina, filed 13 July 2006.
[20] Union County, Arkansas, Marriage Records Bk. D, p. 105.
[21] Taylor, “John Ewen Green 1843-1930 and Descendants,” p. 4.
[22] Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Death Records and Certificates, vol. 176, no. 1126.
[23] Arkansas Department of Health, Death Certificates, 1924, Union County, 031-046, no. 1734.
[24] Union County, Arkansas, Marriage Records Bk. C, p. 392.
[25] See supra, n. 23.
Begats and Bequeathals 