Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/342

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
GREEN.
GREENE.
337

womanliness, as much as her stronger qualities, won her cause. On account of its hospital advantages, the next year she entered the Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia, and for two years was an interne of the hospital. In 1868 she was graduated from that college with honor, her thesis being entitled "Medical jurisprudence." Two years before graduation Dr. Green became the wife of her cousin, Alonzo Green, then a practicing lawyer in New York, whither she went in 1868 and engaged in active practice. Outside of office hours Dr. Green's time was occupied with charitable work, as she was visiting physician to the Midnight Mission, the Five Points Mission, Dr. Blackwell's Infirmary and the Prison Home for Women. By personal effort she organized and built up a large dispensary for women and children in a neglected quarter of the city, which was so successful that, after the first year in which over two-thousand patients were cared for, it received State and city support. Dr. Green's consulting physicians and surgeons were the most eminent in the city. In 1870 she delivered part of a course of lectures on medical subjects in connection with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Dr. Willard Parker and others. The year after her graduation Dr. Green's name was presented for membership to the New York Medical Society, and after a stormy discussion she was admitted, being the first woman in America to win that opportunity for broader work. Soon after, she became a member of the Medico-Legal Society. Wishing to pursue a higher course in the study of chemistry, she applied for admission to Columbia College, but her request was not granted. She entered upon a course of evening lectures given by Professor Chandler in the College of Pharmacy, and, although she could not graduate, as she was a woman, the coveted knowledge was gained. During those years of constant mental and physical work Dr. Green became the mother of two children. She removed in 1873 to Charlotte, Mich., where she now resides. There three more little ones came into her family. Several years ago she took up wood-carving in Cincinnati. While in New York, she attended the Cooper Institute lectures regularly, and was otherwise interested in both literary and art work. Dr. Green has been twice elected health officer of the city in which she lives, and has three times been elected delegate to the American Medical Association by the State Medical Society.


GREENE, Mrs. Belle C., author, born in Pittsfield, Vt., 17th March, 1844. Her maiden name was Colton. and her descent is a mixture of American, English and Indian. One of her ancestors on her father's side married an Indian princess belonging to a Massachusetts tribe, and settled in that State. Her mother, Lucy Baker, came from Puritan stock. She died at the age of forty-seven, leaving her husband and a family of six girls. Isabel, who was next to the youngest, was but four years old at the time. She was taken into the family of a distant relative living in a New Hampshire country town, where she was reared and educated in strictest orthodox ways. BELLE C. GREENE. In 1868 she became the wife of M. B. V. Greene, of Nashua, N. H., where she has since made her home. It was not till the year 1881 that Mrs. Greene began her literary work in earnest. She sent a short story and a humorous sketch to her friend, Mrs. Phelps-Ward, then Miss Phelps, asking for advice and encouragement. Miss Phelps replied with characteristic honesty and kindness that Mrs. Greene's voice was doubtless her one great gift, and, as mortals were seldom blest with two, she advised her to stick to music, but added, since she must give an opinion, that she considered the humorous sketch better than the story. Upon this scanty encouragement Mrs. Greene offered the humorous sketch to "Godey's Lady's Book," and it was accepted. She continued to furnish sketches for a year or more, and concluded her work for the magazine by writing her first story proper, a novelette, afterward published in book form under the title "A New England Idyl." "Adventures of an Old Maid," a second book, was a collection of humorous sketches published first in the magazines, and has had a sale of over seventy-five-thousand copies. Her religious novel, "A New England Conscience," attracted wide comment. Though severely denounced by some of the critics, it was regarded by others as a masterpiece of condensed thought and realistic character drawing. In 1887-88 Mrs. Greene made an extended tour of southern California and the Pacific Coast, and during her stay of several months in Los Angeles and San Diego she contributed to the newspapers a series of humorous sketches founded upon the phases of the boom, which added greatly to her reputation as a humorous writer. These last-mentioned articles constitute her only newspaper work, with the exception of the "Mill Papers," regarding the operatives in the cotton-mills, written for the Boston " Transcript " in 1883 and 1884. Mrs. Greene's success thus far has been largely as a short-story writer. Her family consists of her husband and one son.


GREENE, Miss Frances Nimmo, educator, born in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the late sixties. She is known to the public as "Dixie." She is descended through her father from an old South Carolina family, and through her mother from the best Virginia stock. Her mother's family have been literary in taste for several generations. Miss Greene received her education in Tuscaloosa Female College, where she made an excellent record for earnestness and intelligence. Since leaving school she has made teaching her profession.