Lake County Ohio GenWeb

Alonzo H. Green 1834-1925

This biography was written by and photos submitted by Marcia Green. Copyrights remain with the submitter.

ALONZO H GREEN, son of Daniel Hopkins GREEN and Mary Ann LOCKWOOD, was born 23 Apr. 1834 in Lake County. His father and uncles Godfrey and Jeremiah F. all owned and captained vessels on the Lakes. Daniel and Godfrey ran freight and operated lime kilns at Richmond. Mary Ann Lockwood's uncles built ships at Fairport. Her father, Philip Lockwood, was the first Baptist minister in the Western Reserve. (Philip Lockwood married Anna OWEN, and they lived in Perry.)

Godfrey Green lived in a home built in the 1830's on Mentor Headlands. Eventually he sold it to Daniel, who enlarged it. Later this home belonged to Justin Titus, then to A.L. Jayne and then it passed to a Moodey family. Alonzo was born in this house and married one of the Titus girls, Sarah Janet (her parents were John Hall TITUS and Angeline MILLER), on 11 June 1856, there in Lake County. Alonzo had been a cabin boy on his father's ship, and eventually he was the managing owner or captain of three ships of his own, the Mountain Maid, C. Rich and a schooner Crenoline. He and Nettie had a daughter Jennie born in Mentor, before they moved to Iowa and had three more daughters: Mary Angeline, Georgeanna, and Ruth. John Hall TITUS, Alonzo's father-in-law ran a sawmill in Mentor. But he sold it and his timberland in Wisconsin in order to buy land in Iowa, where it was his dream to have his home surrounded by fields farmed by each of his children. By 1862, he had a good start on this dream. Alonzo, however, didn't like farming, so after a few years in Buchanan Co., Iowa, in the early 1870's he made plans to move to Clear Lake, Iowa--back to water. Here he and his brother Edwin E. Green started the first boat line. They also built sailboats and iceboats.

As a 70-year old widower, Alonzo built a houseboat which he sailed down the Mississippi, from McGregor, Iowa, to Belmont, Mo. This voyage was from the 12th of Oct. 1904 to Nov. 28th. A year later, he built another boat (the Tramp) and sailed with his brother Ed from McGregor all the way to New Orleans. They left on the 28th of Oct. and arrived on Jan. 12, 1906. The end of February, they sold the Tramp and traveled home to Iowa by train. Alonzo H Green died in Clear Lake on 6 July 1925, active and sailing the lake to the end.

Photographs of Alonzo H. Green:

• with Justin Jayne Mentor Headlands 1910-1912
• Lake activities in Iowa.
• More lake activities in Iowa