The "Greens" of Maine pay a visit

I recently got a call from a woman in Exeter, Maine. Her name is Doris Neptune, and she said she and her adult son, Jonathan Davis-Smith, would like to visit Stoneham to find out more about their Green ancestors.

In the old days, Stoneham was thick with Greens, as you can tell by driving around town. For one, there’s Green Street. Then there are still standing at least four old houses where Greens lived, one on Green Street, two on Perkins Street and one on Bow Street. There were also Greens living on Spring Street.

Our 19th-century historian, William B. Stevens, wrote: “During the first century of the town, hardly any family exerted a wider influence or furnished the town with more leading citizens than the Greens.”

At least five generations of Greens, including four Jonathans, lived at the Green homestead on Perkins Street, which extended from the Melrose line to Pond Street. Forty-two Greens were interred in the Old Burying Ground on Pleasant Street.

Stephen Hosmer Green, Doris’s 2nd great-grandfather, was just 16 when he enlisted in the 2nd Company of the Massachusetts 22nd Regiment, soon after the start of the Civil War. He was a sharpshooter. Wounded in battle, he survived the war, and returned to Stoneham where he lived until 1901.

Stephen’s wife, Selina, was of Mohawk descent, Doris said. One of Doris’s grandmothers was Passamaquoddy, and Doris married a member of the same tribe. Carrying on the native art traditions, she weaves traditional Passamaquoddy baskets and also makes jewelry.

Doris remembers coming to Stoneham as a small child when her parents cleaned out their ancestors’ house. From the fireplace, her father removed a metal box containing a collection of tintypes, early photographs made on tin. “They were all of Native Americans,” Doris said. Sadly, those early photographs have not survived.

After I talked with Doris on the phone, I called Joan Quigley, the archivist at the Stoneham Historical Society, and we agreed to meet Doris and Jonathan at the Museum, which we did. After examining old records and artifacts, we walked down William Street to the intersection of Pleasant and crossed to the Old Burial Ground.

Here Doris and Jonathan, along with Joan, Becky and I, paid respects to their Green ancestors, examining the old stones of several generations.

The next phase of our tour was a drive to two old houses on Perkins Street. The oldest was at 63 Perkins. This is where Henry, his son Daniel, then four successions of Jonathans, farmed and lived. The other is the homestead of Jesse Green.

We also stopped at the old house on Green Street, built around 1700, and home to the Millard, Souther, and Green families. Heading back towards Spring Street, we turned onto Bow Street, where another early Stoneham house still stands. Built by Andrew Phillips, Jr., in 1709, it was purchased in 1823 by Henry Green.

I had told Doris and Jonathan that some of their Green ancestors in colonial times owned slaves, so I was happy to show them where Henry and Abigail Green held perhaps the first abolitionist meeting in Stoneham in the 1830s, attended by William Lloyd Garrison.

So hostile were some to the abolitionist cause, that ruffians threatened to destroy the Green house on Bow Street. During the meeting, according to stories passed down, Henry kept a rifle beside his chair.

While Doris and Jonathan were taking pictures, the family now living there saw us and graciously invited us to tour their three-century-old home, which they have preserved with loving care.

It was now time for lunch, and sitting on our back deck, we shared pizza, ice tea, stories and family photos with Doris and Jonathan. After lunch, we headed for Lindenwood, where Stephen and Selina—and other Greens who fought in the Civil War—are buried.

As we said our goodbyes to Doris and Jonathan, it felt like the beginning of a friendship that transcends time and history.

There are many more stories of the Greens in Stoneham to share. In the coming months, I’ll tell some of them, including more about Stephen and Selina Green.