William Green
The father of the above-Joseph Green—was born in Massachusetts in 1790. In 1814 he married Rebecca A. Cottle, and the same year they moved to Ohio, and settled in Cincinnati, working for several years at the carpenter trade. Afterward he bought land in the western part of Hamilton County, on to which he moved and remained until 1824,when they removed to Warren County, Ohio, where they remained until 1832, then came to Shelby County, and located in Dinsmore Township, or what is now Dinsmore, as the township was not organized at that time. The first election held in the township was held at his house in the spring of 1833. At the time Mr. Green first came to the county, his family consisted of his wife and six children. That portion of the county was entirely unimproved; their cows had to run in the woods for pasture. It was not long before they discovered that the milk sickness was in the neighborhood. Their cattle and hogs died from the effects of it. Several persons also died of the same, among them were Mrs. Green and two of their daughters. Mr. Green became discouraged, and determined to leave the country. So he returned with the balance of his family to Hamilton County in 1833, where he died in 1834.
William Green, a son of the above, was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1820, consequently was twelve years of age at the time of their settlement in Shelby County. He returned with his father to Hamilton County, and remained there and in Cincinnati about one year. He then went to Warren County, where he worked by the day and month, getting work as best he could, part of the time getting only four dollars per month. In 1842 he married Miss Phebe Elwell, and immediately returned to Shelby County, where they landed in the fall of 1842, with just one dollar in cash left to commence life with. With this cash capital they made their start, he working by days’ work for provision to live on until they could raise some corn and potatoes. From this beginning Mr. Green has made for himself and family a comfortable home. Every dollar of it made by their own hands, except forty acres of wild land. They have raised a family of eleven children, viz., Joseph, Martha, John, William, Charley, Emerson, Albert, George, Dora, Clarence, and Justice. In 1874 Mr. Green sold his farm in Dinsmore, and bought one in Orange, where he now lives rather a retired life, in the enjoyment of the fruit of his past labor. Beside this home farm he owns one of one hundred and sixty acres in Franklin.
Malen Elwell and his wife Martha Bevins, the parents of Mrs. Green, came from Pennsylvania to Highland County, Ohio, in 1825. The Elwells are of German descent; the Bevins of Welsh and Swiss extraction. Mrs. Green was born in Pennsylvania in 1822.
History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883