Alexander Little Page Green

Alexander Little Page Green
Born June 26, 1806
Sevier County, Tennessee, U.S.
Died July 15, 1874
Davidson County, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting place Mount Olivet Cemetery
Nationality American
Occupation Preacher
Religion Methodist Episcopal Church, South
Spouse(s) Mary Ann Elliston
Children Frank Waters Green
William Martin Green
Mary Anna Green Hunter
Parent(s) George Green
Judith Spillman
Relatives Robert A. Young (son-in-law)

Alexander Little Page Green (a.k.a. "A.L.P. Green") (1806-1874) was an American Methodist preacher, slaveowner, and co-founder of Vanderbilt University.

Early life

Alexander Little Page Green was born on June 26, 1806 in Sevier County, Tennessee.[1][2][3] His father was George Green and his mother, Judith Spillman.[1] He grew up in Alabama.[1]

Career

Green joined the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in Tennessee in 1824, at the age of seventeen.[1] He became an ordained deacon in 1826 and an elder in 1828.[1] He was elected to the General conference in 1831 and re-elected until he died.[1] He was also one of the commissioners overseeing the lawsuit between the Southern and Northern Methodist Churches.[1] He served as the first minister of McKendree United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, until John Berry McFerrin (1807-1887) took over.[1] He also founded the Southern Methodist Publishing House.[1]

Green was also one of the founders of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.[2][4] Indeed, as early as 1859, he was the President of the Board of Trustees of the Central University, its precursor before it received a donation from Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877).[5] Later, from 1872 to 1875, he served as Treasurer of its Board of Trust.[2] He also sat on the Board of Trustees of the Tennessee Blind School.[3][6] Additionally, throughout his ministry, he carried medical pills and powders for sick patients, even though he did not have a doctor's license.[7]

Green was a slaveowner.[8] During the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865, he supported the Confederate States Army.[9]

Personal life

Green married Mary Ann Elliston (1817-1881), the sister of William Hiter Elliston (1819-1852), who served in the Mexican–American War of 1846-1848.[1][10] They had two sons and one daughter:

Death and legacy

Green died on July 15, 1874 in Davidson County, Tennessee.[1] He was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, where there is a monument in his honor.[1][14]

His portrait hangs in the Board of Trust lounge of Kirkland Hall, the administrative building of Vanderbilt University.[2] Moreover, the Alex Green Elementary School, located in Whites Creek, Tennessee North of Nashville, is named in his honor.[3][4] His granddaughter, Julia McClung Green (1873-1961), was an educator; the Julia Green Elementary School in Nashville is named in her honor.[4]

Secondary source

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 FindAGrave
  2. 1 2 3 4 Tennessee Portrait Project
  3. 1 2 3 Alex Green Elementary School
  4. 1 2 3 Julia Green Elementary School
  5. ↑ Nashville Monthly Record of Medical and Physical Science, 1859, p. 511
  6. ↑ Nashville Business Directory, 1860, p. 48
  7. ↑ Walter Brownlow Posey, The development of Methodism in the old Southwest, 1783-1824, Porcupine Press, 1933, p. 40
  8. ↑ Nashville City Cemetery
  9. ↑ Mississippi Quarterly, Starville, Mississippi: College of Arts and Sciences of Mississippi State University, Volume 24, Issues 1-4, p. 119
  10. ↑ Tennessee Portrait Project: William Hiter Elliston
  11. ↑ FindAGrave: Captain Frank Waters Green
  12. ↑ FindAGrave: William Martin Green
  13. ↑ FindAGrave: Mary Anna Green Hunter
  14. ↑ James A. Hoobler, Sarah Hunter Marks, Nashville:: From the Collection of Carl and Otto Giers, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2000, p. 90
  15. ↑ HathiTrust
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