Charles Dyer Greene Jr., 1838–1902

Charles Dyer Greene Jr. was born on 18 August 1838, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the son of Charles Dyer Greene and Elizabeth Wardwell Russell, raised in Providence. He married Gertrude Elizabeth Gray in Columbus, Ohio, on 18 January 1865. Gertrude was the daughter of Manlius Daniel Gray and Emily Jane Bynner, both living in Franklin County, Ohio. Charles and Gertrude had six surviving children: Charles Russell, born in 1865 in St. Louis, Missouri; Herbert Manlius, born 1867 in Columbus, Ohio; Arthur Dyer, born in 1868 in St. Louis; Henry Gair, born in 1875 in St. Louis; Gertrude Russell, born in 1877 in St. Louis; and William Russell, born in 1879 in St. Louis.

Charles Greene arrived in St. Louis during the Civil War, in 1862, to be the notary public and commissioner of deeds for the City of St. Louis. In Rhode Island, the Greene name was well-known and respected as one of the founding families of Providence, Warwick, and Quidnessett––of which he was a Warwick Greene. Charles Greene was brought to St. Louis because of his and his family’s support of the Union (Brigadier General George Sears Greene commanded the right flank at Gettysburg). An outside, ardent supporter of the Union was needed as the notary public and commissioner of deeds in St. Louis, to keep a watchful eye on legal documents and the transfer of money and property in a state deeply divided by the war.

Charles Greene worked at the Commonwealth Trust building and was prominent in musical circles, being an accomplished church organist. He played at the First Congregational Church, Plymouth Congregational Church, and the Lafayette Park Presbyterian Church at different times. He died at 6:30 p.m. on 9 October 1902, at his home, at 926 Maryville Avenue, of “neuralgia of the heart.” He had just finished work and admitted, for the first time, he had not been feeling well all week. His wife and six children survived him.

Written by Shawn Buchanan Greene
April 2020

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