Histories

Frederick Green was born on a farm not far from Adolphustown, Ontario, Canada, April 27, 1858. The name was originally spelled Grenney and has undergone many variations in its autography. John Cameron Green, the Father of Frederick Green, was the son of an English army officer, and his mother was the daughter of Edwin Mallory, a loyalist of the United Empire, who removed from Connecticut into Canada.

Frederick Green was reared and educated in Canada until he was 16 years of age. He came to Cleveland in 1874 and held a clerical position in the banking house of Everett Weddell and Company until 1876 when he became a deputy in the office of the Clerk of Supreme Court of Ohio.

Returning to Cleveland in 1878 he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1879. In 1884 he became Executive Clerk and in 1885 Private Secretary to the Governor of Ohio, George Hoadly.

In 1886 he returned to Cleveland, and in 1887 was appointed chief of the special Tax Division of the City Auditor's Ofice. He became active in getting Judge E. J. Blandin of the Water Works Commissino, ex-Sheriff John M. Wilcox, and other influential citizens interested in the Federal Plan of government for Cleveland, an idea he had conceived when in the Governor's office. He became Deputy City Auditor and because of his administrative ability held that position under several administrations, though "To the victors belong the spois" was then well established political axiom.

He proposed the depositary law for the city's money and was active in getting it passed. Always progressive and of an inventive turn of mind he brought its first Burroughs Adding Machine to Cleveland. He devised the loose leaf ledger in 1888 and used it for special tax assessment acounts. He completely revised the City's system of accounting and prepared the first budget ever used in an American city.

The Republican Party split into factions and in 1895 a political situation arose which forced Mayor Robert E. McKissen to reluctantly remove Mr. Green from office. Because of Mr. Green's eight years of unremitting strenuous work the City not only then had the best accounting system, but the best financial standing of any City in the country.

Mr. Green at once became statistician of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce but in 1896, partly because of the condition of his health and a love of the out-of-doors, he accepted the position of Secretary, Treasurer, and Manager of Lake View Cemetery, then in a bankrupt and dilapidated condition. He remained with Lake View Cemetery in this capacity until 1917.

-- This sketch, adapted from one written for his brother, probably was written during the 1920s.