Ole Henry Green

It's hard to believe that this man was such a charmer! Of course, we all looked better when we were younger. He had a rough start in life.  It is suspected that his mother died and so as a youngster before age two, he was adopted and raised by the John Reed family.  He was born in 1808 in Dutchess County, New York. His adopted family moved to New Hampshire then and later to Ohio. He married his first wife Louisa Spooner there and they had nine children. They joined the Mormons. His name was presented at a Mormon meeting and he was rejected. This was the beginning of an off and on again relationship with the Mormons.  

He is not related to me but one of his wives was. By 1840 he moved to Quincy, Illinois, then to Nauvoo and onward to Kaneville, Iowa where his first wife died.  He then married Harriet Knight who is a sister of my Alonzo Knight. They were pioneers who crossed the plains and settled in Utah. By this marriage, he had two more children. Harriet found that her step sons were extremely difficult along with her husband who was nine years her elder so in 1857, she divorced him. She became a school teacher in Utah.

He was excommunicated about the same time that he was divorced for "Unsaint Like Behavior". 

Henry was not one to stay single and I can't imagine what attracted women to him except that they might have needed a husband.  This newspaper article sounds more like a financial proposition than a marriage. His next wife was a widow, Fanny Porter McLean.

Henry and Fanny Green

Fanny's two daughters and Henry's two sons were living with them.  He was a miner and moved around a lot. He was 8 years her senior.  They did live together from 1860 through 1870. He was brought back into the Mormon church but by 1878 he and Fanny had divorced.  She died in 1887 and Henry was excommunicated again from which he also left the church voluntarily because he did not believe in polygamy.  

In 1879 he married a young woman 34 years younger; he was 73 and she was 39. He worked as a millwright at the Tintic mines. In December of 1883 she sued for divorce on grounds of non support and was granted a divorce in January of 1884. 

He died in 1887 and had lost a bit of charm since he could marry them but not keep a wife.