Alexander Little Page Green

Alexander Little Page Green (a.k.a. "A.L.P. Green") (1806 or 1807 – July 15, 1874) was an American Methodist leader, slaveholder, and co-founder of Vanderbilt University. He was the founder of the Southern Methodist Publishing House. He was instrumental in moving the Methodist General Conference to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was the minister of McKendree United Methodist Church. He was an authority on fishing.

Alexander Little Page Green
Portrait of Green by Washington Bogart Cooper, c.1870
Born1806 or 1807
Sevier County, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedJuly 15, 1874
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting placeMount Olivet Cemetery
OccupationPreacher
Spouse(s)Mary Ann Elliston
ChildrenFrank Waters Green
William Martin Green
Mary Anna Green Hunter
Parent(s)George Green
Judith Spillman
RelativesRobert A. Young (son-in-law)

Early life and education

Alexander Little Page Green was born in 1806 or 1807 in Sevier County, Tennessee.[1][2] His father was George Green and his mother, Judith Spillman. He grew up in Alabama.[2]

Green earned a D.D. in 1836 and an LL.D. in 1857.[2]

Career

Green joined the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in Tennessee in 1824, at the age of seventeen.[2] He was ordained as a deacon in 1826 and an elder in 1828 by Bishop Joshua Soule.[2] He was elected to the Methodist General conference in 1831 and re-elected until he died.[2] He was also a member of the Louisville Convention.[2] He was in favor of lay representation in the church.[2]

Green was a Methodist preacher for 50 years and a presiding elder for 36 years.[2] He served as the first minister of the Nashville Station Church after it was renamed McKendree United Methodist Church in 1832 Nashville, Tennessee,[3] established in 1787. He was succeeded by Rev. John Berry McFerrin. During the course of his ministry, Green carried medical pills and powders for sick patients, even though he did not have a doctor's license.[4]

Green was one of the commissioners overseeing the lawsuit between the Southern and Northern Methodist Churches.[2] He was the founder of the Southern Methodist Publishing House, and the chairman of the Methodist Book Committee.[2][5] He was instrumental in establishing the Southern Methodist Publishing House at Nashville.[2]

Green owned at least one slave named Philis, who died in 1853.[6] During the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865, he supported the Confederate States of America.[7] In September 1861, the Nashville Daily Patriot published an article suggesting Green had been appointed as Brigadier General of the Confederate States Army, though they added, "We trust it is nothing more than a rumor."[8]

Green was one of the founders of Vanderbilt University in Nashville in 1873.[1] 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.[9] From 1872 to 1875, he served as treasurer of its board of trust.[1][2][5] He was also a trustee of the Nashville Female Academy (also known as the Old Academy),[10] and the Tennessee Blind School.[11]

Green was recognized as an "authority" on fishing,[12] and he gave a lecture about it at the Tulip Street Methodist Church in 1874.[13] He began writing a book about fishing before his death.[2]

Personal life, death and legacy

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.[14] They had two sons and two daughters:

  • Captain Frank Waters Green, who served in the CSA during the Civil War.[15]
  • William Martin Green, who became a Methodist minister.[16]
  • Laura Green, who married Confederate Colonel Thomas D. Fite.[17]
  • Mary Anna Green Hunter, who married Confederate Captain Robert P. Hunter, followed by Methodist minister Robert A. Young.[18]

Green suffered from tetter for many years.[2] He died on July 15, 1874, in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 76.[2][5] He was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, where there is a monument in his honor.[19]

His portrait hangs in the board of trust lounge of Kirkland Hall, the administrative building of Vanderbilt University.[1] Moreover, the Alex Green Elementary School, located in Whites Creek, Tennessee North of Nashville, is named in his honor. His granddaughter, Julia McClung Green (1873-1961), was an educator; the Julia Green Elementary School in Nashville is named in her honor.

Secondary source
  • Green, William M. (1877). Summers, Thomas O. (ed.). Life and papers of A.L.P. Green, D.D. Nashville, Tennessee: Southern Methodist Publishing House. OCLC 656900150.
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References
  1. "A.L.P. Green 1806 - 1874". Tennessee Portrait Project. National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Tennessee. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  2. "Gone to His Rest.The Venerable A.L.P. Green, D.D., After Great Afflictions, Sinks into the Sleep of Death. Biographical Sketch of One of the Most Eminent Ministers in the Southern Methodist Church". Clarksville Chronicle (reprinted from the Nashville Banner). Clarksville, Tennessee. July 25, 1874. p. 1. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Davis, Louise (August 14, 1983). "Early Silversmiths Left Marks on City. Names of Elliston, Calhoun Figure Big in Nashville History". The Tennessean. pp. 93–94. Retrieved April 14, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Walter Brownlow Posey, The development of Methodism in the old Southwest, 1783-1824, Porcupine Press, 1933, p. 40
  5. "Obituary. Death of Rev. Dr. Green at Nashville". Star Tribune. Minneapolis, Minnesota. July 17, 1874. p. 3. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "INDEX III SLAVES BURIED BETWEEN 1846-1865". Nashville City Cemetery. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
  7. Mississippi Quarterly, Starkville, Mississippi: College of Arts and Sciences of Mississippi State University, Volume 24, Issues 1-4, p. 119
  8. "By Telegraph from Virginia". Daily Nashville Patriot. September 24, 1861. p. 2. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. It was currently reported in this city yesterday that Rev. A.L.P. Green, D.D., has received the appointment of Brigadier General in the army of the Confederate States. We trust it is nothing more than a rumor. We hardly think the church could dispense with his eminent ability as a religious teacher. And if it could, we are persuaded that there are a great many persons in the South, and in this State who would be infinitely more efficient in the field that Dr. Green could hope to be.
  9. Nashville Monthly Record of Medical and Physical Science, 1859, p. 511
  10. "The Old Academy". Republican Banner. Nashville, Tennessee. January 9, 1874. p. 4. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Nashville Business Directory, 1860, p. 48
  12. ""What I Know About Fishing"". Republican Banner. Nashville, Tennessee. January 7, 1874. p. 4. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "What I Know About Fishing. Dr. Green's Lecture At Tulip Street Church Last Night". Republican Banner. Nashville, Tennessee. January 10, 1874. p. 4. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "William Hiter Elliston (1819-1852)". Tennessee Portrait Project. National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Tennessee. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  15. "Captain Frank W. Green. Highly Esteemed and Prominent Citizen Passes Away. Useful Career Is Ended. Descendant of Distinguished Tennessee Family--Served the Confederacy During Civil War, and Had Been Wholesale Merchant". The Nashville American. February 22, 1904. p. 5. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Soldier of Cross Passes". Nashville Tennessean. February 17, 1926. p. 4. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Summons Comes to Col. T. D. Green. One of Best Known Men in Nashville Is Dead. Factor in City's Growth". The Nashville American. June 5, 1907. p. 5. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Mrs Mary Kirkpatrick". The Nashville Tennessean. February 15, 1942. p. 40. Retrieved April 19, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. She was the daughter of Captain Robert P. Hunter of the Confederate army. Her foster father, R. A. Young, was the founder of the West End Methodist Church, of which Mrs Kirkpatrick had been a member since childhood.
  19. James A. Hoobler, Sarah Hunter Marks, Nashville:: From the Collection of Carl and Otto Giers, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2000, p. 90
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