BIOGRAPHY: E. Will GREENE, Cambria County, PA
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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 318-9
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E. WILL GREENE, editor of the Patton Courier, and an energetic and reliable
business man, is a son of Squire Joseph W. and Julia F. (Prindle) Greene, and
was born at Brockwayville, Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, June 28, 1869. His
great-grandfather, Greene, came from Scotland to Burlington, Vermont, where he
became a farmer. His son, Edward Allen Greene, was the father of Joseph W.
Greene.
Joseph W. Greene walked from Glen's Falls, New York, to Brockwayville, this
State, when but twenty years of age, and became an early settler at that place,
where he followed lumbering for a number of years. He then engaged in the real-
estate business, and late in life dealt in oil and coal lands. He conducted the
only temperance hotel of his town for many years. Like his father and
grandfather he was a strong whig, and took an active part in politics, serving
one term as county commissioner and as a justice of the peace for thirty-three
years. He was a man of integrity and reliability, well liked by all who knew him
and thoroughgoing in all business enterprises in which he was engaged. He was a
painter by trade, but gave his time largely to dealing in real estate in his
section of the State, where he met with the varying fortunes of the early
pioneer in those lines of business, but in success or under reverse his word was
never doubted or his honesty questioned. His active and useful life closed in
1887, when he died suddenly of asthma. He married Julia F. Prindle, July 4,
1848, who is a daughter of Bennett Prindle, now deceased, a resident of
Allegheny county, New York, and a member of an old New York family of Irish
origin.
Mrs. Julia F. Greene still resides at her old home, and is now in the
sixty-first year of her age. To Squire and Mrs. Greene were born seven sons and
a daughter: John A., of Washington city, District of Columbia; Rev. Charles F.,
now residing at Franklinville, Florida; Phoebe E., wife of J.C. Moorhead, of
Kittanning, this State; E. A., residing at Kane, this State; Joseph R.; B.P.,
and C.W., residing at Brockwayville, Pennsylvania, while E. Will resides at
Patton, Pennsylvania.
E. Will Greene attended the common schools until he was thirteen years of
age, and two years later entered a printing office in his native town, but
finished his trade at Du Bois, this State, with E.W. Gray & Co. publishers of
the Du Bois Morning Courier. He remained with this firm about five years, then
was foreman for a year on the Bradford Star, and after working about two years
for Stevenson and Foster, job printers of Pittsburg, when on the Reynoldsville
Volunteer, as foreman, which position he held up to January 2, 1894. He then
came to Patton, and was made manager and editor of the Patton Publishing
company, publishers of the Patton Courier. This company on November 23, 1893,
issued the initial number of the Patton Courier, which is an eight-page six
column weekly independent paper, devoted to local news and the interests of the
borough and county, while matters of State and national importance receive due
attention. Mr. Greene has acted as editor since January 2, 1894, and under his
charge the paper has constantly gained in interest, and now has a wide
circulation. He makes a bright and newsy paper, whose every page is interesting
and entertaining.
On September 17, 1890, Mr. Greene wedded Nellie Silena Robinson, a daughter
of Robert Robinson, of Du Bois, this State.
In politics E. Will Greene is a staunch republican of pronounced views. He
is clerk of the borough council, and secretary of the Patton board of trade,
which he helped to organize.
He is a member of Patton Lodge, No. 1089, I.O.O.F. In addition to being a
good editor and a skilled painter, Mr. Greene is an energetic businessman, and a
useful citizen. He has made his own way in life, and has done his best in every
position in which he has been placed since leaving home at fifteen years of age.
He is independent and fearless alike of public clamor or popular opinion when in
the discharge of duty. E. Will Greene may be classed among the self-made
business men of the county, and although young in years is already an example of
what properly directed ambition and a will to succeed may accomplish.