THE CHARLES J. GREEN FAMILY
BY MARIANN GREEN MARTENS
My father, Charles Julius Green, was the sixth of nine children born to Heinrich August Green and Christine Wilhelmine Frohardt. All of the children were born on the Green Hill Farm in Mills County, Iowa. They were Gustave Adolph, born April 28, 1869; Christoph Ferdinand, born Dec. 25, 1871; Clara Mary and John Henry, twins, born April 23, 1875 and both died July 22, 1875; Wilhelmine Christine, born Oct. 3, 1876; Charles Julius, born Jan. 17, 1879; Louis Henry, born Sept. 22, 1881; Sarah Julia Theresa, born May 2, 1884; and William Detlef, born May 11, 1886. All of the children, except the twins, were baptized and confirmed at Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church.
My grandfather Heinrich Green was born Feb. 7, 1833 in Holstoff, Schleswig, Germany. He emigrated from Hamburg on March 15, 1858 on the SS Hammonia, arriving in New York on April 2, 1858. [Coincidentally, the Peter Hansen family, WGS members Jim Hansen’s and Audrey Carroll’s ancestors, was on the same ship on the same trip.]
He traveled to Davenport, Iowa, and lived there about 6 months. Then, Henry went to western Iowa, where his brother Charles had settled. Both of them lived with the Johann Plumer family in their log cabin in the Plumer Settlement.
Henry married Sophia Mathiesen on Nov. 22, 1863 in Mills County. They had been married for only one year when Henry was drafted into the Union Army. He served in Co. F 13th Iowa Infantry. They were divorced on April 22, 1866 and Sophia married Ludwig Lanz on April 28, 1866.
Heinrich was remarried on March 29, 1867 to Christine Wilhelmine Frohardt, who was born on April 22, 1849 at California, Moniteau County, Missouri. She was the daughter of John D. Frohardt and Wilhelmina Christena Kinning. Heinrich died Oct. 7, 1915 in Mills County and is buried in Plumer Cemetery. Christine died Sept. 21, 1933 at Logan, Iowa and is buried in Plumer Cemetery.
My great-grandparents were Jurgen Green and Dorothea Friederica Goldstedt. Jurgen Green, II, was the son of Jurgen Grehn, I, granary overseer, and Anna Leckbandts. He was born March 4, 1793 and raised by his father and step-mother, Catharina Margaretha Ischel. At the age of 30, in 1823, the farmhand Jurgen, II, was married to 21-year-old Dorothea Friederica born Goldstedt. She was the daughter of Johann Christian Jacob Goldstedt, a small landowner and farmer from Holstoff and a blacksmith and his wife, Maria Catharina born Green.
Jurgen, II, and Dorothea were the parents of eleven known children, four sons and seven daughters. They were Johanna Elisabeth, Friedrich Christian, Emilie Friederica, Heinrich August, Carl Jurgen, Diederica Catharina, Maria Dorothea, Adeline Dorothea, Catharine Wilhelmina, Gottlieb Christian, and Dorothea Katharina. I wrote a story about the Jurgen Green family home and farm called Bummelund for our January 2000 Antique City Roots.
MM