sessing a clear logical mind, great learning and ability, an exceptionally cultured diction, and an absolute honesty of purpose, Dr. Green's presence commanded the respect of those who opposed him. Those who knew him best held him in the highest esteem. Endowed with a keen vein of humor, he was a genial companion and his wit was often employed to the discomfiture of those who through wealth or influential standing imagined they had some special claim on his time and his ability. Professionally always kind and considerate, he manifested little patience with those who in any way showed neglect in caring for themselves. As an operator he was exceptionally skilful, possessing a steady hand and a clear anatomical knowledge of the tissues with which he dealt. It was a maxim with him to accomplish the result with as little injury as possible. As a practitioner he was wise and careful in the management of those who trusted themselves to him, his care being the same regardless of financial considerations. The result was that his waiting rooms were always crowded with the afflicted. He was broad minded, liberal and honest in opinion to which he adhered with unwavering fidelity.
Green, John Orne (1799–1885)
In the old parsonage at Lowell, Massachusetts, where his ancestors had lived since the early settlement of this country, John Orne first saw the light on May 14, 1799. His father, Aaron Green, was minister there and his mother, Eunice Orne, the daughter of John and Bridget Parker Orne, came from England probably in the fleet with Winthrop.
As a child John attended the district school of his native town and in September, 1813, received his "admittatur" to Harvard and joined the class of 1817 with which he graduated with honor.
Immediately after he accepted the position of teacher in a private Latin school in Castine, Maine, where he remained a year, and in September, 1818, he began to study medicine with Dr. Ephraim Buck of Malden and attended lectures in the Harvard Medical School, but in October, 1821, went to Boston to pass the remainder of his pupilage with Dr. Edward Reynolds (q. v.), at that time city physician and in charge of the alms house on Leverett Street where he found abundant opportunity for clinical study and practice, in February, 1822, receiving his M. D. from Harvard.
Learning that mills were about to be erected at East Chelmsford (now Lowell) and thinking the future estimated population of one thousand might afford a field for a young physician, he moved to that place in April, 1822, and began a practice which continued with scarcely any interruption for sixty-four years. He saw the field of his labors grow from a village of a few hundred to a city of more than seventy thousand and it may truly be said he grew with it. In 1868 he was senior physician to St. John's Hospital.
He married Jane, daughter of Dr. Calvin Thomas, of Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, who died June 28, 1828; then Minerva Bucklin, daughter of John Slater, of Smithfield, Rhode Island, who died December 31, 1834; and afterwards Jane, daughter of William McBurney, of Newtownards. Ireland. Two sons only survived birth and these were of the last marriage, John Orne, clinical professor of otology in Harvard University, and George Thomas.
He died at Lowell on December 23, 1885, after a short illness, probably from a maligant disease of the chest. Two excellent portraits by Lawson and an admirable bust are extant; one portrait in the Green School in Lowell, the other portrait and the bust in the possession of the writer, his son.
Among his writings were: "History of the Small-pox in Lowell," 1837; Annual Discourse before the Massachusetts Medical Society: "The Factory System in its Hygienic Relations," 1846.
Green, Samuel Abbott (1830–1918)
Samuel Abbott Green, army surgeon, historian, was born in Groton, Massachusetts, March 16, 1830, the son of Dr. Joshua Green and Eliza Lawrence Green. He prepared for college at Lawrence Academy, Groton, and graduated from Harvard University in 1851. Having decided on a medical career, he became a pupil in the office of Dr. J. Mason Warren (q. v.), in 1851 and 1852, attended a course of lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and then came back to Boston for study at the Harvard Medical School, from which he was graduated in 1854.
