Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-William Greenwood
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
WILLIAM GREENWOOD, of Sherman
township, Clay County, when coming to
the vicinity of where he now lives, could
discover only two houses on the main road to Clay
Center, and the present flourishing city of Clifton
was composed of three dwellings and a blacksmith
shop. This statement, perhaps, will best illustrate
the changes which have taken place within a period
of less than twenty years. The early settlers of
Clay County were men of hardy frames and dauntless
courage and among them Mr. Greenwood deserves
more than a passing notice. He did a large amount
of pioneer labor and is now in the enjoyment of
the fruits thereof, having a fine home and all the
comforts of modern life. He is a thorough and
skillful farmer, a man zealous in church work and
a citizen highly respected by all who know him.
A native of Jefferson County, Iowa, the subject
of this sketch was born July 14, 1844. When a
mere boy his parents, G. B. and Dartha (Clifton)
Greenwood removed to Mercer County, Ill., where
they lived until 1865. Then, recrossing the Father
of Waters, they established themselves on a farm in
Davis County, Mo., but later went back to Illinois,
staid there one year, then, in 1871, came to Clay
County, Kan., and located on land near Morganville.
The father operated on a rented farm about
three years, then purchased the farm in the vicinity
of Jamestown, this State, where he lived four years.
We next find him in Norton County, where he still
sojourns, and is spending his declining years, retired
from active labor.
To the parents of our subject there was born a
family of fourteen children. William being the
eldest. The parents belonged to the Christian
Church of which they are still members and reared
their offspring carefully in the ways of truth and
virtue. They were in Illinois at the outbreak of
the Civil War and on the 22d of December, 1862,
William enlisted as a Union soldier in the 11th
Illinois Cavalry and following his regiment to the
front, served until the close and was in many important
engagements. He was with the troops
who followed the rebel General Stoneman, from
Memphis, Tenn., to Mobile, Ala., and in the forty-one
days' siege thereafter, in which they captured
640 prisoners and two pieces of artillery, burning
seven miles of railroad and valuable trestle work.
Later followed the siege of Vicksburg, during
which time Mr. Greenwood was detached as an
Orderly for an Adjutaut General and acted in that
capacity until his honorable discharge in Springfield,
Ill., in 1865. He escaped comparatively
unharmed, only receiving a wound in the right
hand from a sabre at Egypt Station.
After leaving the army Mr. Greenwood made his
way to Illinois and lived there until coming to
Kansas. Prior to his marriage he homesteaded
160 acres of land in Clay County, which he sold,
he took unto himself a wife and helpmate in 1876,
the maiden of his choice being Miss Martha J.,
daughter of Thomas and Caroline (Seegar) Petch.
Mrs. Greenwood was born Feb. 25, 1852, in Indiana.
She is the mother of five children, the eldest of
whom, a daughter, Zuda, died when three years
old. The survivors are Bryant, Lucretia, Floyd,
and a babe, unnamed. The Greenwood homestead
is eighty acres in extent and embellished with a
substantial frame dwelling, a good barn, corn-cribs,
sheds, etc. It is all fenced and in a productive
condition and near the dwelling have been planted
fruit and shade trees which give it a homelike appearance.
Mr. Greenwood keeps a goodly assortment
of live stock but his land is mainly devoted
to general farming. He and his excellent wife are
members in good standing of the Christian Church,
in which our subject officiates as an Elder. He
belongs to the I. O. O. F., No. 115 at Clay Center,
and is prominently identified with the G. A. R.
Post at Clifton.
The paternal grandfather of our subject was
William Greenwood, who was born in Scotland, and
who emigrated to America in time to serve in the
War of 1812. He settled in Mercer County, Ill.,
during its pioneer days and there with his wife,
whose maiden name was Elizabeth Legg, spent his
last years. The Greenwood family has flourished
in America for several generations. The maternal
great-grandmother of our subject was born in
Germany and lived to be one hundred and two
years old; she died in Illinois.