Looking Back

ANN O'HARA
Posted 12/7/16

Giles Greene was born in 1823, one of 12 children and a descendant of General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary War fame. The children were put to work at an early age, and Giles only attended school …

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Looking Back

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Giles Greene was born in 1823, one of 12 children and a descendant of General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary War fame. The children were put to work at an early age, and Giles only attended school for two or three months a year. At 21, he went to work as a teamster for the D&H Gravity Railroad in Carbondale, PA. He soon found steady work on the construction of the Pennsylvania Coal Company Gravity Railroad from Hawley to Port Griffith, and when the railroad was completed in 1850 he was put in charge of Plane No. 19. In 1850, Giles Greene married Harriet Schenck, granddaughter of Revolutionary War hero Jacob Schenck. They had two children, Susan and Homer, a well-known attorney, author, poet and historian of Honesdale. 


After a long career serving the railroad and his community, Giles Greene died in 1892 and was buried in the Glen Dyberry Cemetery in Honesdale, where his grave is marked by an elaborate monument commissioned by Homer Greene and designed by Jennie Brownscombe.


From the collection of the Wayne County Historical Society, 810 Main St., Honesdale. The museum and research library are open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. 
 

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